OK... Here's one that I find to be a head-scratcher. Perhaps Kyle and the other pennant guys will find it to be a mystery as well.

Check out this green Brooklyn Pennant with the Bum inside of Ebbets Field. Classic Trench design... right?

Well, not so fast!

Check out the second photo. We have the classic blue felt Trench "Bum in Ebbets Field" Pennant (complete with Trench Logo). But also note the infamous "Creepy Uncle" Bums Pennant from Ad Flag. The font stating "Da Bums" (right above his head) is identical to that on the green Trench Pennant.

So is it possible that Trench and Ad Flag shared some of the design work, or that some pennant artists of the era worked for both companies? Perhaps someone here has a better explanation. :confused:

The “creepy Uncle” is marked as Ad Flag?

My gut tells me artwork may have been stolen, more than shared.

Kyle will figure it out. ;)

Yep... Creepy Uncle is an Ad Flag creation :(

Mark, if I recall you posed the very same question months (years?) ago on this thread and referenced the very same green Ebbets Field/"Da Bums" pennant. Observations like this one inspired me to start looking at these companies further in search of some answers. That effort eventually led to my BLOG.

So, thank you. (I think I even used your photo of that pennant in my Trench post.)

Anyway, I'm working on an ADFLAG post that I think will answer all of our questions. With that said, I hinted at what I think the answer is in my last post: https://pennantfever.weebly.com/blog.../trench-mfg-co

There are plenty of examples of instances wherein it appears Trench's designs were copied by their competitors. The chief offender was ADFLAG, but also ASCO and to a lesser extent, Keezer, were all guilty. I don't suspect there was any type of partnership between these companies. The artwork was simply ripped off--plain and simple--because it was in high demand and it wasn't legally protected like it would be today.

There's a Cincinnati Reds stadium pennant comparison in my last post you may want to re-visit. It looks a lot like the aforementioned Ebbets Field hybrid you reference. The artwork of Crosley Field is identical between the two pennants ... but for one small difference: Only Trench placed their mark beside the image. That's significant. Since ADFLAG was then secreting their name within their artwork, we should ask why they omitted it on this particular design? The most logical answer is that this wasn't their artwork, and placing their name in it would have crossed the line.

Like signing your name on someone else's painting.

In sum, it looks like ADFLAG reproduced some of Trench's original artwork on their pennants. To make the designs their own, they then doctored the pennants up with their own text, using their own font. The end result are these Frankenstein-like pennants that represent an amalgamation of two companies' work.

And there have to be other Frankensteins out there! I suspect they will involve stadium pennants made in the mid-1950s. By the 1960s, it looks like ADFLAG began making their own stadium renderings; however, when compared together, they're still very similar to Trench's designs, like the two Chicago Cubs/Wrigley Field stadium pennants shown in my last post.

Much more to come.

I have many ADFLAG NY and SF Giants pennants (same design, different colors, ADFLAG under catcher's foot). These don't seem to have ripped anyone off. Interesting that the one with Candlestick is not marked ADFLAG. :confused:

Great pennants

One of my Giants collector frenemies thinks it stands for WinCraft. It could be. I was surprised to learn from their website that WinCraft has been around since 1961. And they do spell it with an upper case W and C.

It could be WinCraft. And you are correct that WinCraft's origins date back to 1961; however, I find it unlikely based upon my preliminary research into them that they were set-up to manufacture MLB pennants, and for an out of market team no less, within a year of opening.

I do plan to cover WinCraft and a related pennant maker from the same Minnesota town, ASCO, in a future post. But, since you bring WinCraft up, I found an article describing their beginnings as being rather humble. It began as a three person operation doing business above a bar in Winona, MN. What's more, they principally made pom poms and celluloid buttons for local high schools. No mention of pennants or other felt novelties.

Given these modest beginnings, I think it unlikely they made your pennant. As far as I know, WinCraft didn't start making felt pennants until the late 1970s after they merged with ASCO, another Winona-based company that had been making pennants since the late 1940s.

Again, my research is not complete so I could be wrong on all this. Still, I can offer no better answer as to what "WC" might have stood for. I'm curious if other pennants from the early 1960s bore that same mark, or it was limited to just Giant pennants....

And as to ADFLAG, you are correct as to the maker of those three Giants pennants you displayed. It looks like ADFLAG secreted their name in their original artwork throughout the 1950s, but stopped doing so by the mid-1960s. The "Chavez Ravine" stadium pennants below are very similar to your Candlestick one and were made around the same time by ADFLAG as their answer to Trench's Dodger Stadium pennants. One's even dated 1965. Like your Candlestick pennant, neither has a maker's mark. So, for some reason they just discarded this practice by mid-decade. Shortly thereafter it looks like they may have gotten out of the pennant business to focus on more profitable product lines.

Perhaps WC is a regional company located somewhere in No.Cal?

<a href="http://imgbox.com/W4DewPTl" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/ac/b9/W4DewPTl_o.jpg" alt="image host"/></a>

WC
 

Rob's version of this 1962 Giants team photo pennant has the WC. Mine does not. I actually have two of these pennants, and neither has the WC. It is hard to imagine that this pennant had a long shelf life. Long enough to have a variation or a knock off. Maybe WC was a specific vendor?