Ruth Fein Babe Ruth photo

[EddieP]

I have a neighbor who was friends with Nat Fein. From what he told me, as soon as Mr Fein took the photo, he applied to have it copyrighted. He also told me that Mr Fein gave period originals ( Type I) to the Ruth family and the Yankees. I think the Yankees had 4 copies. The interesting thing about the Yankees was that when they were renovating the Old Yankee Stadium they placed their copies in a dumpster. From what my neighbor told me “ Babe Bows Out” was very popular and papers would publish it alot. So much so that the newspapers’ copies would wear out and be thrown away. So instead of buying a new copy from Mr Fein, the papers would use their own copy negatives ( aka period copies, aka Type 3). That’s why my neighbor told me that unlike other newsphotos, the stamps in back of a “ Babe Bows Out” photo is not a reliable way in determining if it’s a Type I. In the case of “ Babe Bows Out” provenance is really important. So if you could buy a copy from Nat Fein’s Private Collection or from the Ruth Family or if you know someone who salvaged one of the copies from the Yankees’ dumpster back in the 1970s then you know you have a Type 1. Based on what I was told I would put the number of Type I’s at less than 10.

Full disclosure: I have a Type 2 signed by Mr Fein.