1962 JELL-O Baseball Card Distribution

[brian1961]

"JELL-O" Dan!

I am very thrilled you are researching and writing about the 1962 Jell-Os. Count me in as a buyer of your resulting work.

I spoke to Ken Marks some years ago when researching the Post and Jell-O for my book, NEVER CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN. He helped me tremendously, and if memory still serves, gave me a delicious bite of info from one of your books that you kindly allowed me to quote. Many thanks for that!!!!

Off the palabre, on to the "where were you in '62?"

I grew up in Skokie, Illinois which is a suburb of Chicago. I turned 8 during the summer of 1962. I have many rich memories of the Post Cereal baseball cards and commercials on TV. However, I also remember the JELL-Os from 1962, with the black script player names as opposed to the blue, and the differences in the cropping and coloring of the photos used for the JELL-O.

The only major info you may want that I have, though I shared this with Ken Marks years ago, and he may have then shared with you, which is perfectly fine is that Mickey Mantle was printed on an Apple flavor box (I know---duh---that's the photo used for the Krause Standard Catalog) and Roger Maris was printed on the new Blackberry flavor that debuted in the spring of '62, when Jell-O chopped down and discontinued their apple flavor. I am certain of the above because I own the boxes of which I mention. For what it's worth I prize and value them very highly as drop dead gorgeous box card art with the utmost eye appeal, display value, and as conversation pieces!

I have known for a long time, unless I've been wrong for that long time, that the '62 JELL-Os were actually a regional, test-marketed in the Chicagoland area, as well as Milwaukee. Beckett 3's entry mentions this. When I interviewed Larry Fritsch for my book, he confirmed that the set was a test issue. Larry was from Wisconsin, as we all know, but he worked at that time on the railroad, on a line that went back and forth from Wisconsin to Chicago. I mention this because when his train stopped at the end of its line in Chicago, he would make a quick stop to the area grocers and scour their shelves for any JELL-O baseball boxes he didn't have.

Wish I had more to give you, though I'm saving a "not so wonderful" childhood memory which I have included in my book.

Thanks again Dan for researching this set, and all you've done. I hope to some day purchase several of your books. I lost track of your contact info.

Take care. ---Brian Powell