Posted By:
Ted ZanidakisI am confident in that the "1949 Reprints" (as I am referring to them in order to differentiate them from the original
Round cornered issue) are not a 1947 issue for the following reasons......
1st....As a kid in 1947, I collected and still have my original Round cornered 44 BB cards; and, I can say with 100%
certainty that Walker Cooper was not in this issue. Furthermore, Price Guides and Checklists support this fact.
2nd.....The BaseBall "1949 Reprints" are a slightly larger in their dimensions than the Round cards; and, are consis-
tent with the size of the Movie Star issue.
This indicates to me that these cards were not produced with the original printing of the Round issue. Incidently,
the Rounded cards are amazingly consistent in their size and this is to be expected since they were inserted in a
tight location in the Bond bread loaves.
3rd.....The album collection (that I noted in an above post here) had many of the Movie Star cards and just a few
SQUARE BB cards (all NY Giants). Also, there were many other BB cards in this album from the early 1950's. There
were NO cards from the ROUND issue. And, no BB cards earlier than 1949 in this album.
Finally, I'd say that these B/W cards of the Movie Stars were already in production at this (unknown) printing firm.
And, Bond Bread was first to contract them to produce the original 48 cards.....specifically for them to be used as
premiums included with their bread.
Remember, these 1947 Bond Bread cards and the Tip Top Bread cards represent the 1st major BB card issues after
WWII; and, believe me when I tell you that there was "BaseBall fever" throughout our nation....as, many of our BB
heroes were returning to the ballparks after their service in the war and the 1947 World Series was one of the most
exciting ever.
TED Z