Staging the Stars

[GeoPoto]

I managed to tear myself away from the riveting discussions regarding financial volatility and shipping peregrinations long enough to invent a reason to look at my cards. In the early days of card production, an "action shot" required staging. Players could be posed in various stages of throwing, swinging, preparing to receive, and so forth. The "art form" begins of course with the Old Judge days of dangling balls from strings and, for all I know, continues today. So, I decided to admire/critique the staging that lay behind the images on many of my pre-war cards. Here I show a couple of the highlights from my review.

The first card shown wins the prize for "Most Effort Committed to Staging"

The second card shown wins the prize for "Least Effort Committed to Staging"

The third card shown wins the "It's in the seats, Baby" prize for "Knowing Where to Look While Swinging"

And finally, the card shown wins the prize for "Forgetting What I Am Doing and Looking at the Camera"