Texas Tommys from Cardinet Candy Co. ??

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Posted By: fkw

Hi all, I received an eMail about a week ago from a lady named Melissa Cardinet. She asked me if I had any cards called Texas Tommys (E224) that were made for her grandfathers candy company named "Cardinet Candy Co." of Oakland CA. (later moving a few miles east to Concord CA.). I was surprised to here an actual candy company connected to the Texas Tommy cards. As far as I have even heard the Texas Tommy cards origin is unknown, with most examples surfacing here in Northern California. I asked Melissa where she got her info, and she told me from the set list on OBC (link below).
http://www.oldbaseball.com/refs/typecards.txt

Can anyone confirm the 1914 E224 Texas Tommy cards are from this candy company? And how did they figure this one out??

What I did find out from some research is "Texas Tommy" was the name of a swing dance of the times in the 1909-1910 era beginning in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco (5 miles from Oakland).
http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3tex1.htm

Frank

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Posted By: fkw

I received another email from Melissa Cardinet, she says her cousin says that there was a candy bar by the name "Texas Tommy" made by the Cardinet Candy Company, one of a large list of candy bar names the Cardinet Candy Co. used. She will try contacting more family members, and if she gets more info I will let you know. Frank

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Posted By: Mark Macrae

Frank... your information is correct. Cardinet Candy Company was based in Oakland & is DEFINITELY linked to Texas Tommy candy & cards. There is also a theory that Cardinet is responsible for two other issues which are native to Northern California, but this theory cannot YET be proved. As you pointed out, a San Francisco based swing / jazz dance called "The Texas Tommy" was popular during the 1910-1915 period. Cardinet named the candy after this dance. Earliest documented use of "Texas Tommy" , the candy product, was in 1912, where a half page ad was prominantly featured in the Oakland Oaks home programs at Freeman's Park. The Texas Tommy cards have turned up , virtually exclusively, in the Northern California area, stretching from just south of San Jose in the south to Santa Rosa in the north & Sacramento in the east. The central point of these cities is roughly Oakland, which is where the candy company was based. Like other sets marketed in Northern California during the pre World War Two era, interest in major league cards was secondary to the Pacific Coast League & were not as actively collected by the kids of the day . With the exception of pre & post season exhibition games,firsthand exposure to major leaguers was RARE. Cardinet lasted into the 70's / 80's timeframe & was bought out by another company. They were far more famous for their "Baffle Bar" & "UNO" than they were for Texas Tommy... Hope this helps

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Posted By: Paul

Do any of you know who David Harnish (the author of the checklist in the link above) is? Is he putting together a book to compete with the Standard Catalog? Or does he have something else in mind for his checklist?

[Leon]

I am sure a few of you have searched the forum and found some very interesting stuff. Here is a recent pick up of a Cardinet Candy box. As mentioned in the thread they were the distributors of Texas Tommy, E224 cards. If anyone has a Texas Tommy box I would love to see one. (sorry for the large scans)