The 1915-1922 Black-and-White Sets: Many Distributors, One Producer?

[sreader3]

The recent Heritage auction of a blank-backed, black-and-white poster (uncut sheet) titled "Stars of Base Ball, 1921" depicting 80 E121-80 subjects got me wondering whether its creator sought copyright protection. As it turns out, he did. Max B. Sheffer registered this poster with the U.S. Copyright Office, as documented in the 1921 Catalogue of Copyright Entries, volume 16, at page 175. According to the registration record, Mr. Sheffer first published this poster on April 9, 1921 and deposited two copies with the Copyright Office on April 27, 1921. (These two copies may still reside somewhere in the vast annals of the Copyright Office!) So we can say definitively that, in April 1921, Max B. Sheffer created the 80 E121-80 subjects shown in the recently auctioned poster.

Mr. Sheffer was the principal of Max B. Sheffer Card Company (M.B.S.C. for short), which during the early 1920s produced not only baseball cards but also postcards of movie stars. M.B.S.C. was headquartered at 1733 Irving Park Boulevard in Chicago.

That M.B.S.C. produced the E121-80 subjects (and almost certainly the E121-120 subjects that followed in 1922) comes as little surprise. It has long been known that the M.B.S.C. name appears on albums manufactured specifically to display these cards. In fact, Mr. Sheffer was granted a utility patent (U.S. Patent 1,536,633) on these albums.

Perhaps more interesting, however, are the close parallels that have come to light between E121-80 production/distribution and that of M101-4/5 a few years earlier.

First, both were produced in Chicago. M101-4/5s were printed by the mysterious Felix Mendelssohn (presumably named after the famous German composer), whereas E121-80s were printed by M.B.S.C. a few years later.

Second, both were marketed as "complete set" posters and individual cards. In 2010, a poster (uncut sheet) entitled “Baseball’s Hall of Fame” depicting 200 M101-5 subjects went to auction. That M101-5 poster is somewhat reminiscent of the recently auctioned E121-80 "Stars of Base Ball, 1921" poster. (Note: The M101-5 poster appears to have the then-current address of Felix Mendelssohn in the lower left corner, but I can’t make it out).

Third, both were initially printed on sheets having blank backs after which the backs of some of the sheets were printed with the names of different licensed distributors.

Fourth, both were distributed by one major distributor and several minor distributors. In the case of M101-4, major distributor was The Sporting News. In the case of E121-80, the major distributor was American Caramel.

Fifth, both had some licensed distributors in common. In particular, Standard Biscuit and Herpolsheimer’s licensed and distributed both.

Finally, I believe the chronology of the major 1915-1922 black-and-white baseball issues (M101-4/5, E135, E121-80/120) is such that there is no overlap in production—M101-4/5 was first, then E135, then E121-80/120.

Which leads to the following question: Could one person, Chicago resident Max B. Sheffer, have been responsible for producing and marketing M101-4/5, E135 and E121-80/120?

Thoughts welcome.