1936 Bob Feller

[gonefishin]

I have been a member for a month or so now. After joining, I quickly realized there are a lot of members that know a lot more than I do when it comes to pre war baseball items and cards. I appreciate everyone's knowledge and opinion. I would really appreciate any one's thoughts on this item as I've never seen one before.

I recently purchased some items from Bob Feller's estate auction. One of the items I purchased was this 1936 copy of the Sporting News that Bob kept since 1936. It is a complete copy but is very fragile. Since receiving it, I have twice started to flip through the paper but stopped because I was/am afraid it would fall apart. It's separating where it was folded as you can see from the pictures.

Here is what I would like opinions on. I noticed that this paper is different as it clearly states "SAMPLE COPY" on the cover page. I have never seen that on any Sporting News. My thoughts were that maybe this was a pre-production copy that was provided to Bob for approval, or review, as he is featured on the front page.

I've also decided that I will be getting the paper restored, at least to a level that I can look through it.

Thanks in advance!

[nolemmings]

Nice catch. I know what you mean when you say the papers are fragile. I have a few and am reluctant to look at them very often, especially since the digital versions can be found if you need to read content. For those who don't know, the paper (and many from the era) was huge by modern standards, and alot was stuffed into those eight pages.

More to your post, the company gave out sample copies for years upon request, so yours is not a pre-production effort. I do not recall seeing one with the "Sample Copy" designation, but I am far from an expert or even staunch collector of periodicals, so take that for what it's worth.

Here you can see that TSN offered sample copies back in 1916:

[gonefishin]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

Nice catch. I know what you mean when you say the papers are fragile. I have a few and am reluctant to look at them very often, especially since the digital versions can be found if you need to read content. For those who don't know, the paper (and many from the era) was huge by modern standards, and alot was stuffed into those eight pages.

More to your post, the company gave out sample copies for years upon request, so yours is not a pre-production effort. I do not recall seeing one with the "Sample Copy" designation, but I am far from an expert or even staunch collector of periodicals, so take that for what it's worth.

Here you can see that TSN offered sample copies back in 1916:

Thanks Todd, I learned something already as I didn't know they offered free samples.

I would find it odd that Mr. Feller would request a free sample, but he collected a lot of newspaper clippings that he kept. Maybe someone gave it to him or he requested it - it's all conjecture at this point.

I personally have never seen a SAMPLE COPY issue and thought this one particularly was really out of the ordinary.

[steve B]

I don't know if they did the same, but when I wrote an article that was published in a hobby publication (Not sports stuff. ) They sent a few extra copies of the magazine so I could give them to friends or family.

Our editor is somewhat big time, so I think that may be standard practice now. I can see a big publication like Sporting News doing the same with their authors and article subjects, especially if they're already printing sample copies.

[timn1]

ignore, mistake

Originally Posted by gonefishin

Thanks Todd, I learned something already as I didn't know they offered free samples.

I would find it odd that Mr. Feller would request a free sample, but he collected a lot of newspaper clippings that he kept. Maybe someone gave it to him or he requested it - it's all conjecture at this point.

I personally have never seen a SAMPLE COPY issue and thought this one particularly was really out of the ordinary.

[timn1]

just fyi, the content of the paper marks it as 1941. (Reds are World Champs).

[nolemmings]

Good catch Tim. I noticed it too, although I focused on the World Series note/ad in the upper left suggests an October timeframe while the blurb about recognizing "I'm an American Day" described an event in May. Also, the story on Feller talks about teams that had good results against him "last year" when 1936 would have been his rookie season, with only 8 starts.

The other pages should have a date on the top, if the object is to pin that down more definitively.

[gonefishin]

Originally Posted by timn1

just fyi, the content of the paper marks it as 1941. (Reds are World Champs).

Tim and Todd - thank you guys so much! After reading your threads, I forced myself to unpack the paper and risk more damage because I had to find out for sure. It was issued May 1 1941. Great catch, and I just assumed it was 1936 because of the caption on page 1.

Since I had it out, I snapped some more pictures of it. I incurred some more paper loss but had to know the date for sure. Here are some pictures of the inside. I enjoyed the article where Hand Greenberg was going into the Army.

I apologize if some of the pictures are upside down, I haven't mastered the upload yet.