E223 G and B Gum principals- scammers of yesteryear
 

In the recent net54 contest about guessing the names of the "G" and "B" in our E223 series, Jamie Hull uncovered some interesting information. Very little is ever spoken about G and B, and I think it's neat when ANY tidbit of information can come out. I would have thought that Jamie found the information hidden in the ACC, as I did, but that wasn't the case. He did a search, or searches, and came up with these 2 articles about the founders of G & B... It looks like they were trying to lure kids into a bit of a lottery situation (seemingly even illegal back then) and to make matters worse they were allegedly rigging the contests......and taken into custody!! As we know "G & B" stood for Green and Blackwell.

Too funny!
 

They were running a policy game. :eek:

What were the dates of the articles?

I have shown this before, but the non-baseball were apparently issued around the 1888 Presidential Election. I have the Allen G. Thurman (losing vice-presidential candidate) and I have seen the Grover Cleveland (the sitting President, but loser of the 1888 election.) I have never seen or heard of a Benjamin Harrison or Levi Morton but I assume they were at least initially produced, although since both examples that have surfaced are Democrats, maybe G&B were too partisan to include the Republicans in the series! Also, the set could have included other non-baseball players, but the aforementioned subjects are the only ones I have ever seen.

Scan 4X actual size (they are the same size as the ballplayers)
http://www.starsofthediamond.com/gbthurman.JPG

-Rhett

Rhett,

Both articles were from March 2, 1884.

Jamie, thanks for the info. The articles are very interesting.

The pair must have been scared into actually including premiums with their products by 1888.
-Rhett