Reminiscing...Spring Garden, Willow Grove, Ocean City, Fort Washington, Reading Shows

[tedzan]

Bob Schmierer and Ted Taylor (show promoters) started the Philly Show BB card show on Sept 27, 1975 at Spring Garden College (Philadelphia suburb).
This one day show generated a lot of interest. Oct 1-2, 1976 they repeated it and their featured guest at this show was hobby pioneer George Moll. Who
was the major force behind all the Bowman Gum Company sports & non-sports cards (Play Ball's, Bowman BB & FB, and non-sports sets like the famous
1939 Horrors of War cards). In addition, Bob and Ted produced B/W 49-card series, which they referred to as the "1947 set". Examples shown here.......




The 1976 show was a great success, so they repeated it in the Fall of 1977. This time they expanded their 1947 BB card series by adding 64 more cards.

By 1978, Bob & Ted realized they needed a larger facility. They re-located the Philly Show to the George Washington Convention Center in Willow Grove.






I have an endless amount of stories I can share with everyone on this forum about my tremendous experiences at the Willow Grove Show (March 1981
to December 1992)....Fort Washington Show (1993 -2006)....Reading Show (2007 - 2008). But, for now I'll relate this story to you......

Circa 1986.....four of us were in my room at the GW Motor Lodge, prior to the show on Friday afternoon. Bill Mastro was shopping around a "sharp" (the
operative adjective) T206 Wagner. If I recall Bill wanted $25,000 for it. We all took a close look at it and told Bill "too expensive". That same card is now
the PSA 8 "Gretzky Wagner".
Why didn't the 4 of us pool our funds and purchase this Wagner from Bill ? ?
You explain it...I cannot not !



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Please feel free to share with us here your Philly Show memories dating back to the original Spring Garden College days....or, the Willow Grove shows
or, the Ocean City shows, or the Ft. Washington shows....or, the Reading shows.

Looking forward to reading your responses.


TED Z

T206 Reference
.