Right. So, who saw it being Epstein Novelty Co.? Raise your hand!
I have seen their pennants/labels for years; but, always assumed they were a small novelty
distributor serving the New York area that sold, among other products, felt pennants. But, they must've actually been a manufacturer of pennants.
Epstein Novelty Co. goes back to the 1910s, when they primarily made badges and buttons. You'll see WWI-themed buttons bearing their mark and address on the reverse. Did they make pennants back then, too? Unclear.
Seems to me they likely began making pennants in the 1930s. The earliest one I can date was from the 1941 Rose Bowl. Their hey day seems to be the late 1940s, early 1950s. As Mark mentioned, they were absolutely huge in terms of market share: pro baseball and football pennants; but also collegiate and high school pennants, too. Most impressively, their pennants were not limited to NYC teams by any stretch; they served the entire nation.
They were a lot like Trench in that respect.
They're quality, however, was
nothing like Trench's. By the late 1940s they ceased using labels, tassels; and, their designs were always monochrome. Their artwork, moreover, was super generic. Nothing team-specific. Just the same generic player used over and over again.
Case in point: our "sliding runner" and "the Heisman" series. I never realized these were made by the same maker until I saw these two Brooklyn Dodger pennants. Note the less than perfect lettering; especially the "O" in "DODGERS". It's a bit ... rough.
Kind of explains why they occasionally fused scraps of felt together to make a spine....
To really solve the mystery, however, we needed one of these pennants from either series to also have a label or maker's mark on them. Last month I came across the Columbia pennant mark highlighted earlier--with an Epstein tag. That sealed the deal for me. I'm only aware of one other from "the Heisman" series with an Epstein label; and it's this Cornell pennant, complete with tassels, just like the Columbia one.
Anyway, mystery solved.