Interesting about full photographic backgrounds and Topps cards. The 1957 Topps
Baseball set was the first Topps sport card release with photo backgrounds. Then beginning in 1959 every Topps
Baseball card set had the full photo background.
But this was unique to Topps
Baseball issues. The Topps
Football and
Hockey sets all featured design art backgrounds. Some examples from my collection:
1959
1960
1963
1958-59
1959-60
1960-61
The first O-Pee-Chee/Topps Hockey cards featuring full photo backgrounds were the 1973-74 ones. And just like the 1973 Topps
Baseball, they were absolutely dreadful. The
Hockey cards actually continued to be dreadful for the next decade or so.
