What's with the Cleveland Photos in 1964 Philly Gum Set?
 

This may be commonly understood amongst Football card collectors, so enlighten me if it is...

Over the past year, I've been casually putting together a mid-grade set of the 1964 Philadelphia Gum NFL cards and have run across a peculiarity of the photos on the cards of the Cleveland Browns.

All of the player's photos look to have been taken somewhere else and then superimposed on the "parking lot" background. 11 of the 12 player photos have a background with a big convertible visible in a snowy parking area. Some players have odd shaped heads and necks and look like they are missing their borders. It's seems noticeable around the edges of the player outlines, as many have odd bright colors and shadows; Johnny Brewer looks like he's missing part of his head.

Am I crazy for thinking this? If it's true, why would the photographer or Philly Gum use this particular background as a substitute?

I remembered how prickly Paul Brown could be and thought maybe he made Philly Gum change the background for some reason (i.e. the photos inadvertently showed some "secret" of the Brown's game prep or training camps)- but 1964 was after Art Modell ran Brown out of Cleveland!

I'm at a loss on this one and hope someone out there can explain this.

It may only be a urban legend but I heard that that is Jim Brown's car in the background and it was his idea to take all of the pictures in front of his car.

Can someone valid / debunk this?

jeff

I've heard the same thing. I think it's the car that Brown won or was a gift for some NFL award.

I read years ago that it was a snowy day and they used the showroom of a local dealership that was close? I think that cam out of an early issue of Beckett's monthly price guide?