That being said, my next project is to complete a set of 1960 and 1961 team picture pennants. Many of the 1960s have felt graphics which is cool. Of course not every team has such pennants (no Cubs, Red Sox, Giants, Senators).

I love the team and photo pennants too. I'm not targeting a specific run but I'm getting them when I can. I guess I can look forward to being the underbidder to you Greg. :o I'm waiting for these two to arrive soon. Not the rarest items but I love the graphics.

Gary, those are great, the white Red Sox is especially rare. Both of them are ASCO/Button House.

Thanks Greg. I just read the history of ASCO (and Button House) at Pennant Fever - Great read! (https://pennantfever.weebly.com/blog/asco-inc-winona-mn)

It shows the Banks Cub Power (#1 in the attached photo) is made by Button House/ASCO. Are all the rest of the pennants in the photo also made by ASCO/Button House? The one I'm least certain about it #6.

Agree that those are great. The Conigliaro is less than full size, is it not? I noticed the team pennant has the same "M" we've seen before. I'm not sure if Kyle or anyone else ever nailed that down...

I'm wondering Gary if, being based in London, you are using the same avenues as your stateside brethren for finding and buying pennants...i.e. primarily eBay? Since I only search for Giants, I never see these other beauties!

Wow!!! Really love #3. Yes I think all of them are ASCO/BH including #6. Gifts love those Cubs floating head team pictures …

Actually, i dont think ive bought a single pennant on eBay. Ebay prices seem too high for my liking. I tend to look for the less well travelled parts of the internet for small auction houses and estate clearances, etc. I also frequent the more established auction houses that we all know well. 8 bought my first few pennants were from Fballguy.... That got me hooked. (Rob, I'm not sure if my wife would thank you though:D)

I takes me a while to get my deliveries. I use a stateside mailing service to consolidate my items so that i can get a number of purchases sent at a time for one price. That really reduces my cost of shipping to the UK. But the cost of shipping to the UK and import duties sucks. It's another reason why I'm after bargains.

I need to find those “less well travelled parts of the internet”! Let me know if you see any Giants you don’t want!

Madaras, Inc.
 

Glad you mention it ... the mysterious "M" mark. Well, mystery solved.

"M" stands for Madaras, Inc. Guess where they were based? Minnesota. St. Paul, to be more precise.

Like ASCO, Madaras was an acronym; although I don't believe they ever marketed themselves as anything but "Madaras," it technically stood for "Marketing and Design and Research and Sales." That's a lot of ands, isn't it? You see why they just went with "Madaras" now, right?

(ASCO technically stood for "All Sports Company"; however, they too never identified themselves externally by their full name. They used "ASCO" because it put them near the top of the telephone directory.)

As I mentioned in Pennant Fever, ASCO was founded by Lars Granberg. (By the way, thanks for the plug, Gary!) I learned recently that he had a co-founder: Lou Hough. Together, they ran ASCO through the late 1960s. Eventually they split up. Granberg took ASCO; and eventually sold it to Campbell-Mithune, a large advertising firm based in Minneapolis. Hough, on the other hand, maintained his grasp on a lucrative artificial snow making business they had built together as a side-business. (Me: why do you need to make artificial snow when you live in f---ing Minnesota!? I don't know ... but that's what happened.)

By 1973 ASCO was in the hands of Campbell-Mithune, who had by then fired Granberg and most of his cronies from the company's leadership. So, Hough started his own pennant making venture! And thus, Madaras, Inc. was formed. What's more, for 18 months, Madaras had a license to manufacture MLB pennants. The "M"-marked pennants we've been discussing were made by them.

But wait! Don't these Madaras pennants look a lot like ASCO's work?? Turns out Granberg and Hough remained the best of friends well after their business split. Moreover, Madaras' pennant making factory was located at--wait for it--Second and Chestnut streets ... in Winona. Yup. So, nobody should be too surprised that these 1973-74 Madaras pennants resemble those from the previous decade by ASCO/Button House/Idea Promotions. They were likely made by the same Winonans; using ASCO's old artwork.

Think of Madaras as, like, a short-lived re-incarnation of ASCO.

So, in 1973, there were in fact three pennant makers making pennants in Winona: (1) ASCO/BH/IP; (2) WinCraft; and (3) Madaras. I'm beginning to think Winona was the pennant capital of the world! :eek: