1916 Everybody's origins uncovered-- thanks Jason!

[nolemmings]

I am more than pleased to report that I have located the source for the m101-4 cards with Everybody’s backs– it was a department store in El Paso, Texas. I also found the date of initial distribution–April 22, 1916. Here is an ad from the April 28, 1916 El Paso Herald:


Here's a card:

[sbfinley]

Great find. Was it previously known that these originated in the Southwest or was this a blind discovery?

[nolemmings]

Steve,

Collector Paul Kauf.man gave me info many years ago that showed a department store of the same name formed in Ft. Worth, but that could not have originated until 1918 at the earliest and more likely in the 1920's. I do not believe the El Paso store, which seems to have existed only in 1915 and 1916, had any affiliation with the brothers who formed the Ft. Worth establishment, but will continue to dig. I stumbled on it through various searches that somehow started with Calisher's, the name of the store that preceded Everybody's, and then the rest was just looking at breadcrumbs.

Edited to add that those familiar with El Paso may know that the store eventually became a Newberry's.

[MMarvelli]

Here is a scan of four font variations. Rather obscure differences. The obvious is two are thick and two are thin. The apostrophes in all four show additional differences.

H-Everybody's back variations.jpg

Hopefully more variations will be posted...

[Butch7999]

Great sleuthing! Kudos!

[Leon]

Another great discovery, Todd. Congrats. I love the M101-4/5 backs and have been collecting them for 15+ yrs. (before it was popular). As for the Everybody's back font variations I usually look at the way the first E in Everybody's is formed. The apostrophes' are all over the place on the way they were formed so I don't count them as variations. Pardon the other cards in this scan....Btw I think there is 1 Everybodys variation I am still looking for. I might go into more detail on the font variations later unless someone else wants to do it first?

[oaks1912]

Great work and discovery Todd. Not that you haven't thought of this already, but since it now appears that "sets" of 20 were distributed for ten weeks, are there enough examples from this series in circulation to determine which back variation match up with the fronts. I mean were there really four (or more) printings of this set ordered, or is it a case of a lazy typesetter using slightly different fonts figuring the customer (Everybody's) wouldn't notice or care.

[t206fix]

Where & how did you find the old newspaper? It seems it would be like looking for a needle in haystack!

[ethicsprof]

what an exciting find!!!
You are quite the researcher.
Seeing this area of baseball scholarship illuminated step by step is what draws me again and again to this hobby.
congrats and many thanks,
all the best to you, todd


barry

[sreader3]

Nice work Todd. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting that the ad highlights Eddie Collins #34 as the big draw in the second group of 20 when Cobb #38 would have presumably also been in that group.

[2dueces]

Wow. Great stuff. Well done.

[MMarvelli]

Originally Posted by Leon

The apostrophes' are all over the place on the way they were formed so I don't count them as variations.

While I agree that the font density and the 'E' are the main indicators of the Everybody's variation, I enjoy the minutia of the apostrophes. Sadly, I think apostrophes and similar punctuation marks do not get their just due in a world dominated by letters and numerals. Punctuation marks should unite and reverse this situation.

Knowing that they were distributed in groups of twenty is a great addition to the knowledge base on this. Seems strange that they might have been printed in that small of a grouping each week. However if they weren’t sure how the interest would follow over the weeks it makes sense that they printed often and only as many as they thought necessary. That could explain why there might be as many as 10 different apostrophe types.

[nolemmings]

Thanks guys. Oddly enough, I cannot seem to find an ad announcing the beginning of the promotion, even though Everybody's had plenty of half-page and full page ads in the days preceding the first giveaway.

MarkMac, almost all of the documented cards are from series 2, i.e., card #s 21-40. Therefore the various backs were all printed within the same series. My working theory is more in line with the lazy typesetter. The many examples that were auctioned together some few years ago were almost all from series 2, which led me to suspect that Everybody's was distributed in groups of 20 like Sporting News and others. Incidentally and curiously, I have never seen one player with two or more different backs.

MarkMarv, I tend to agree with Leon on this-- the "E's" are the giveaway. Your scans actually show two type 1's-- the most prevalent type- with an inking issue on one apostrophe, IMO. There should be only one "thick" lettered variation. I will post the four types separately. I have tracked 58 of the cards and the only ones with noticeable differences in apostrophe within type 1 are found on cards of Cheney and Cravath, and these are minor. I believe there are likely inking anomalies rather than typesetting differences. True there are other differences in apostrophe among the other types, and I use one as an identifier, but the location of the arms and bars on the letter "E" and their serifs are the main points of difference, or should I say, if you only had one card and you had to pin it down, I would rather focus on the E than the '.

[nolemmings]

From my notes:

[paul]

All very interesting. It sounds like it is very possible that the full set of 200 was never distributed, and perhaps never even printed.

[brianp-beme]

Thanks Todd for the detective work.

Does anyone have or know of an Everybody's of Eddie Collins, which is the only player mentioned in the ad?

Brian

[nolemmings]

Brian, there are four known examples of Eddie Collins. Strangely, despite multiples of all second series cards, there is only one confirmed Cobb and none of Max Carey.

Paul, I believe the entire set was distributed, as I have seen ads for five or six of the series, not counting the last one, and Zach Wheat exists from the last series. Strange that they didn't survive. I wonder if some brothers each were given a set of the second series and that explains why the mini-finds were all of the same series--they came from the same household--as there seems little reason for one kid to want 2-5 of the same card.

[sb1]

It appears the store went out of business in February of 1917. Perhaps they had extras of some laying around when they liquidated everything.

[h2oya311]

Great discovery! Thanks for sharing!! The double exclamation point is to show that punctuation marks are making a come-back! They are not quite as important as letters and numbers, but they are certainly gaining in popularity. Without them, how would I have made this beautiful emoticon?

[smtjoy]

Great stuff Todd, thanks for the research!

[nolemmings]

Thanks again guys. I now have seen ads for all ten series of 20 cards except the first. The “sets” of 20 were doled out on consecutive Saturdays from April 22 through June 24, 1916. The first three were given away free to kids who just showed up at the Fourth Floor Boy’s Clothing Department, which might explain in part why almost all of the known surviving examples are found in Series 2. A purchase of any kind in the Boys Department was required to obtain Series 4 and all series thereafter, with the “complete set of 200 photographs given with every $5 suit”. A sample card was shown in the ads for 7 of the 9 series I saw, as follows:

Series 1: ?
Series 2: Evers (although he’s a series 3 card)
Series 3: none
Series 4: Huggins
Series 5: WaJo
Series 6: none
Series 7: Paskert
Series 8: Schalk
Series 9: Tinker
Series 10: Wagner

Here's the store, which matches up with postcards depicting its predecessor and a successor, although I have not seen a postcard of the Everybody's store while it bore that name.

[Jaybird]

I did this same research a few years ago, see thread here.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...ght=everybodys

[nolemmings]

Huge tip of the hat Jason!!!! Boy do I feel like I wasted several hours for nothing. I read net54 a dozen times a day and somehow missed/forgot about your thread entirely (obviously). Must have been in trial for some time. Anyway, feel free to pm or post any additional info you discovered. An interesting store. Was only around for 2 years, sponsored a baseball team in the town's six-team commercial league, took out large ads and seemed to be a player, then going out of business ads start running and lease expires and "poof" by the beginning of 1917. Oh well, full credit where due. Now tell me if you did similar research on the other m101 sets, so I don't reinvent the wheel. BTW, I just learned that the Globe clothing store was not in Missouri as I once thought and was reported in 2008, or if it was, then there was another one. Will post that shortly unless someone gives me a head's up that it's already been done.

[Jaybird]

I did similar research on Holmes to Homes.