Should I be insuring these HOF photos from 1960s?

[Archive]

Posted By: T E

Back in the 1960s my dad produced three films for the baseball Hall of Fame. When showing the early t206-era players, of course, there wasn't that much good footage then known, so he resorted to using still photographs. What they did was make a print from the vintage print. I still have a few of the original vintage prints, which I posted some images of a few months ago on another thread.

My question now is, is there a market for the prints they made in the 1960s? Should these photos (I have about 50 or so) be insured? Some are marked up either for publication or for the film, as you can see from the small sample below.

This first one is of a photograph dated 1917 of Cobb. I do have the original print, dated 1917, I posted it on previous thread. This one is marked up, as you can see


Most of them look more like this:


Then there are a couple of prints of early photos made from the original photos used in the t206 series. I guess that makes them 3rd generation, at least.

[Archive]

Posted By: Steve f

I would insure the originals, perhaps. They're very nice. I just poached your Cy Young photo -Hope you don't mind.

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

As they were used in the making a HOF film, the 1960s ones are collectible probably aren't worth a lot individually. The entire collection-- originals, 1960s and any other related production material-- might have good value as a whole. Collector's don't see much production material from vintage baseball films, and the collection might be of interest to the general movie collecting hobby.

I should add that photos actually used in a film, or otherwise in the making of a fame, will be more valuable that comparable press or wire photos, as film production photos are much rarer.

[Archive]

Posted By: T E

And Steve, glad you could use it!

David, since he is still around (86 and cranky as hell) and I have the shooting script and film prints, for at least one, and possibly all three, plus notes, etc, I think I should sit down with him and review the materials. Perhaps best thing to do is to transfer the film (16mm, I think) to dvd.

We still have a bit of raw footage that is of interest. I know there is one sequence of Babe Ruth that may be quite rare. Of course, film was transfered, if it was combustible, from that explosive stock used early 20th Century to 1960s stock.

I remember him opening cans of film which were turning into goo. Today, they might be able to save some of it, back then, because it was highly combustible, it had to be tossed.