N150/N157/N692 Boxing

[G1911]

This forum doesn't have a ton of activity so I figure it's fine to post 2 things in a day as there's nothing else active to detract from right now. Having finished my T and E notes I am sorting and properly cataloguing all my N notes, pictures and research stuff this week so I have a number of possible gaps or things to share I've found again.

N150 first. This is a series of mostly actresses with over 1,000 photographs. The cards usually do not identify the depicted subject, which has made check listing it a complete pain in the rear as one has to gather hundreds upon hundreds of untitled images to compare. There are several different brands advertised on the fronts, as well as an enlarged projection version that shrinks the bottom border to the size of the other border and removes the ads. Relevant to sport collectors are the 4 poses of John L. Sullivan. 2 of these poses exist on a 3 card strip that indicates a tiny sheet size (I do not think it is from a normal production sheet but what it is is not certain), but I have not seen any Sullivan cards that come in any variation besides the most common one. Attached is a set of all 4 Sullivan's that was sold showing them all. I have never seen one with no ad, or with an ad other than the basic 1 line Honest Long Cut these examples have. I would be very interested to see one with a different advertisement, though I have come to doubt they exist.

Note - the "one ear shows" SGC used is a horrible descriptor as it also describes the card on the far right. I have catalogued them as 1 eye clearly shows and 2 eyes clearly show as the poses are so similar.

[G1911]

Closely related to this series is N157, a series of at least 19 images showing black people doing things - which seems to be the only criteria. It's a weird set of images, some humorous (like the women emptying a ladle over a mans head as he sleeps), some sporting, some seemingly random. Two of the cards are said to be boxing, with one featuring a white adult referee and two young boys boxing in front of him. The other is a solo boxing pose of one of the boys from the other photo. A third picture from this shoot is usually listed as a wrestling card, but as it features the same boys grappling I think it more likely it is a bare knuckle legal boxing clinch they are in.

It is not clear to me N157 is actually a different set than N150. Burdick segmented it based on subject matter, which seems to be more revisionist than based in the issuing. A couple of the cards bear a series caption added to the photo but most do not and are in the same format with a limited number of the possible advertisements. I have only seen these cards with the 1 line Honest Long Cut ad, no series name format version.

N692 is listed as a separate issue by Burdick, it's the same images on a smaller card size with the pictures cropped slightly different, and an ad for Old Fashion Fine Cut. I think this is a miscategorization. Just as AB T42's and T206's are a different size, T70's are different sizes and T219's are different sizes but still the same set, I think we have the same situation here. N692 should not exist as a separate catalog number as the rule by which it is created is not consistently applied and seems to not be related to how cards were actually produced and issued. All 3 of the boxing cards exist here.

I'd love to see any of these three cards with a different variation. Dan put together a great visual checklist of variations here for anyone interested in all of the cards, including the sole known variations of the boxing related cards, 8, 11 and 13: http://www.moviecard.com/gallery/duke/n157_xxx12.html

[Exhibitman]

FWIW, several of us put our heads together and finally ID'd the referee. It is Cal McCarthy.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

FWIW, several of us put our heads together and finally ID'd the referee. It is Cal McCarthy.

Good to know. If anything that makes the photos even stranger. McCarthy claimed a champion title when this 'set' of seemingly random photographs was likely done.

[Exhibitman]

It was commonplace for photographers to pay celebs to sit for them, so perhaps McCarthy was on a modeling gig?

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

It was commonplace for photographers to pay celebs to sit for them, so perhaps McCarthy was on a modeling gig?

I do not collect these myself, but this set is such an interesting mishmash of images. I like some of the humorous ones, like the woman emptying the ladle on the sleeping mans head, but they look to me like an extremely low budget affair, just some photographer working with random local people who would pose. I would have expected the white boy to be a random too.