1953 Bowman Color Bob Feller #114
 

Can anyone tell me about the 1953 Bowman cards color photography? I only recently obtained 19 of these cards via a trade. Now I see what all the fuss is about with this set. These are absolutely beautiful cards. My question is specifically about #114, Bob Feller. I have a scrapbook of baseball "Colorfotos" and clippings that was put together between the years 1947 to 1952. That photo of Bob Feller is in the scrapbook. Were all the Bowman card photos made by photographers they hired?

Thanks, James
USN 1981-2007

James - I searched this forum back to 2009 and found no threads that specifically address your question. Maybe I missed one, but it appears that you are looking for some fairly obscure information. Browsing through my own collection of '53 Bowman cards, I notice that most - with a few exceptions - of the photos were shot in New York. That is, all of the Yankees are wearing home uniforms and most, if not all, players on other American League teams are wearing road uni's and the photos were shot in Yankee stadium. Many, if not all, photos of National League players likewise appear to have been shot in the Polo Grounds. This seems to mean that Bowman bought the images from a photo publisher based in New York City, not Philadelphia. There are a few cards in the set with photos that appear to have been taken during spring training: The Reese card, of course, but also your Feller card, along with several others in the tough high-number series. Perhaps that means that the NY-based photo supplier lacked useable images for those guys and Bowman had to find them elsewhere. Or, knowing some of the personal background of Feller, Reese, et al, maybe there were contractual issues involved with their images. Also, it is interesting that Braves players in the set all wear Boston caps, indicating that the photos are from 1952, the last year that the team played in Boston, while Topps, on the other hand, was on top of that franchise shift in their 1953 card set. On a somewhat related note, it is known that Bowman ran into financial problems with the Color set during the '53 season. That issue resulted in the final series of 64 cards being produced without the expensive Kodachrome color process as the Black & White set. A major contributor to that problem was no doubt the costly contract Bowman entered with Yankee star Joe DiMaggio to advertise its product on the Color set wrapper and elsewhere that year.

As a collector that enjoyed ripping open 1953 Bowman Color packs as a kid, I share your appreciation for the great production values that make this one of the finest card sets of that decade. Maybe some other board members with more detailed knowledge of Bowman photography will post additional information here.
Steve
USAF 1961-65

Steve, many thanks for the detailed info.

I don't have any full sets. I just focus on certain cards out of the sets I enjoy. I really didn't focus on these 1953 Bowmans because, honestly, I didn't know anything about them. It has only been relatively recent that I have acquired any 1950s cards, as I focused on the 1960s and 70s. I traded some very nice 1960-61-62 Topps cards for several 1952 Topps cards, and 19 Bowman color cards. I am overwhelmed with all the cards I picked up, they are just beautiful.

James

Here is the card, and Colorfoto from scrapbook dated 1946. Not exactly the same photos, I see now, but pretty close.

Agree with Steve that the Bowman 53 set is appreciated today more than in 53. They went all out after the success of the Topps 52 set but still came up a costly second in the market. But I love the set, and as a Cardinals fan it has my favorite Musial.

The Dean Hanley book, Bubble Gum War, The Great Bowman & Topps sets From 1948 to 1955, is a good read on the Topps/Bowman competition for the market, including the 53 sets

Bowman made some beautiful sets. Even the 55 is starting to grow on me, after not liking the "TV set" theme for a long time. I think I just have some lingering bitter feelings that we didn't get a Mantle in that beautiful 55 Topps style because of his exclusive rights to bowman that year :mad:

Another great last gasp effort to find a winning formula....players in a color TV. I like the set, except for all the umpires, but it too was a bust. In 1955 very few U.S. households had a color TV

Color...Shmolor...
 

Yeah, my penny-pinching old man kept the family watching a grainy black and white 20-inch Philco all through the 1950's. I recall my mother writing after I had joined the service that he finally splurged (maybe a hundred bucks) on a huge color set in 1962. But, I also recall completely losing interest in card collecting at about the time the '55 Bowman set hit the store shelves. The color TV angle was way too cheesy for my tastes even then.;)