Bowman's exclusive Contract with Johnny Sain

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

For those who read my article on the 1949 LEAF Gum BB set in the current issue of Old Cardboard magazine,
I raised the question in it...."where was Johnny Sain ?". He and a number of players were not in the Leaf set.
I noted that they were missing due to players' conflicts with the Bowman Gum Co. I acquired this information
from my personal conversations with old employees of these two Gum Co. back in 1981.

Well recently, documented evidence of these "BB Gum card Wars" was discovered........

Here is the language of an actual contract, signing Johnny Sain for the exclusive rights to portray him in the 1949
Bowman BB set. This contract is dated Oct 1, 1948.....it is signed by Johnny Sain.....and is addressed as Braves
Field, Boston.


........"IN CONSIDERATION OF $1.00 TO ME IN HAND PAID, RECEIPT OF WHICH IS HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGED, AND
OTHER VALUABLE CONSIDERATIONS, I HEREBY GRANT PERMISSION TO BOWMAN GUM, INC. TO EXHIBIT, DISPLAY,
PRINT, AND PUBLISH MY NAME, AND/OR PHOTOGRAPH IN THE ADVERTISING OF ITS CHEWING GUM PRODUCTS
FOR A PERIOD OF ONE YEAR FROM ABOVE DATE. IT IS PART OF THIS AGREEMENT THAT DURING SAID PERIOD OF
ONE YEAR NO OTHER MANUFACTURER OF CHEWING GUM WILL BE GRANTED PERMISSION BY ME TO USE MY NAME
OR PICTURE IN ANY MANNER. AN ADDITIONAL $99.00 WILL BE PAID ON JANUARY 15, 1949. I FURTHER RELEASE
BOWMAN GUM, INC.,THEIR ASSIGNS, AGENTS OR LICENSEES FROM ANY LIABILITY FOR WHAT I MIGHT DEEM
MISREPRESENTATION OF ME BY VIRTUE OF ALTERATIONS, OPTICAL ILLUSIONS OR FAULTY MECHANICAL
REPRODUCTIONS."

Now that this contract has surfaced....what is the chance of discovering a similar type of contract which would
reveal the exclusive "rights" that American Caramel had regarding the portayal of Eddie Plank....thereby, stopping
the T206 guys from portraying him (as we speculated in the recent "Plank Theory" thread) ?

FRANK W

You were the one who suggested that it is possible to dig up such evidence.....regarding Plank ?
Well, this Johnny Sain contract certainly provides us a ray of hope that it can happen.

TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Did you get a chance to glance at this post ?

This is the kind of stuff you and I like. As it provides us actual insight as to why some of our
favorite BB players are not in some of the BB card sets that we enjoy collecting.

I, personally think, Johnny Sain was an unheralded star. A pretty good pitcher with a short
playing career. But, a tremendous behind the scenes influence as a valuable pitching Coach.....

He coached the Yankees to World Championships from 1961-63

He coached the Twins in 1965 to get them into the World Series

He coached the Tigers to a World Championship in 1968 (Denny McLain always credited Sain for
his 31 victories that year)

He finally coached the White Sox in the early '70s and Goose Gossage (in his book) credits Sain
for developing him into the effective pitcher that he was. Before Sain, Gossage admits he was
just a power thrower, and ineffective.

TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

Ted- I may be wrong but wasn't Neal Ball's contract found, which explained what rights the tobacco companies had to use his image on T206's? If so, the wording of that might shed some light on the 1910 era mindset regarding exclusivity.

[Archive]

Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Hey Ted,

Really great stuff... and I think it is about the money, not broken printing plates. Plank was educated, went to college, and would have had loyalty to the American Caramel folks there in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I think the folks that did the printing for the ATT printed cards, and when Plank and Wagner objected, that is when the printing plates might have been altered. I think Plank must have signed something for American Caramel, and was sufficiently educated so that he knew not to break that agreement to get a few dollars more from ATT.

Most of the really old law firms kept files forever. The call them "off docket" files. Most sytems would have a book that listed the names of the parties alphabetically, and then beside that would be a year and file . If the Ted vs Frank file was closed on Jan 2nd 2007, it might have an off docket number of 2007-001. The files would be stored chronologically and numerically, with an alpabetical index. Such a file may well exist for American Caramel copyright matters. I'd think American Caramel and its successors would have pitched the stuff long ago. But lawyers keep stuff. After all, aren't a disporportionate number of folks on this board attorneys?

[Archive]

Posted By: Paul

It's hit and miss as to whether lawyers keep old stuff. Most firms today have internal policies requiring them to return papers to their client or destroy the papers after a certain number of years (often 5 or 10). It's just a matter of having enough space to store all that stuff. On the other hand, I know that the law firm which represented Lucille Ball at the time of the I Love Lucy series has a nice collection of papers signed by her.

Another place to look would be in the courts. Examples of exclusive contracts must have been filed with the court that handled the Topps v. Bowman disputes. But some of that stuff may have been tossed too.

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

FRANK W

How many times over the years have you heard this feeble excuse for certain cards that are scarce ?
It's the "lazy man's" explanation for any card that is scarce in this hobby.

Not only for the T206 Plank, but the US Caramel Freddy Lindstrom, the 1934 Goudey Lajoie, the 1954
Bowman Ted Williams, and a few more such cards that no one really has (or had) the answer for why
so few exist.

Well, we figured out the Lajoie when a 25-card uncut 1934 Goudey Hi# sheet was discovered. And, I
personally dashed the 1954 Williams (broken plate) myth to oblivion when a former Bowman employee
showed me the printing plates (7 x 32 card images) of the entire 224 card 1954 Bowman set back in
1985. On the 3rd series of these 32 card plates was the clear image of good ole Ted Williams (#66).

But, you have me thinking....Frank....next time the Mrs and I are in Philly, I might just venture to the
library, where we have a friend who can access the city's old legal documents. And, perhaps I might
just discover something regarding Mr Plank and American Caramel. It's a long shot, but sometimes this
little Greek gets lucky.

TED Z