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Uncle BobAbout 15 years ago my on (then about 13) and I attended a Natonal, one of about ten or so in a row that marked the highlight of our summers. At that special show we found a cigarette card depicting one "Dame Clara Butt," an apparently enormous soprano wno, according to at least one critic, was possessed of enough volume and mass that "on a clear day, she could [be heard] across the English Channel". But John and I bought the card, for fifty cents or so, because how many guys can say they have a Dame Clara Butt in their collections? Then it occured to one of us that this cigarette card must be part of history ... the first true cigarette Butt.
So in a light moment we walked up to the front of the show, where The Great Man was offering some guy in a straw hat almost fifty dollars for his near mint 52Topps Eddie Mathews. Waiting our turn, we at last got to reveal our wonderful joke, asking the Mint Man if he wanted to be in on this piece of history, the first and only True Butt.
The look we got in reply was worthy of WC Fields ... "Go away boy, you bother me." Actually what he said was "Get the hell out of my space."
Never bought anything from him before, and certanly won't ever sell anything to him now. Not even Dame Clara Butt, who could have beeen the cornerstone of his collection. I bet she's worth at least a buck now.