Old Cardboard eNews #126 - Lections Write-Up

[nolemmings]

Interesting. Seems there is about a four-month window when these would have been printed, none of which were during the baseball season.

While some of the lore surrounding these cards makes sense on the surface, I'm not sure it is supportable by facts. I believe the prevailing theory is that they were distributed to kids during election season while adults received similar cards of candidates, presumably in New York. However, I believe most major elections occur in even-numbered years, and a quick Google search showed a wiki article stating that only one state race (for appeals judge) took place in New York at the State level in 1923, and that only one mayoral race (in LA) took place that year. Also, there would have been very little time to print these from October 23 before the election was held in November. Finally, the political card used by OC in its article shows the mayor who was elected in 1926, although I suppose he could have run unsuccessfully the prior term. So 1923 seems dubious as being election related, and issuing them in February 1924 or sooner for an election more than a half-year away seems unlikely as well.

One other theory is that these were handed out in Albany during a State or County Fair. This would explain why they are almost always found beat up,as kids had rides and other things to do while in possession of these cards for the day. Still, the fair in New York at least now is held in late Summer, and while ours here in AZ is currently winding up, I have to believe that the fairs in the North during 1923--State or County-- would have been concluded before late October when the weather turns colder. If they were part of the fair, any distribution date of Oct-Feb (when Chance card was printed) is very unlikely.

EDITED to add: Albany mayoral race was in 1922 and 1926, so a card of mayor Thacher would not have been part of any contemporaneous issue with Lections baseball cards.