What set sealed Bowman's fate?

[toppcat]

It was more of a 30 month decline than any one set killing off the cards I think. Bowman started selling a smaller number of non sports sets starting in 1954 and when the 1955 Football set could not compete against Topps, their Chairman, John Connelly, decided to sell out to Topps for $200K. He took the money and sank it into Crown Cork & Seal and became quite wealthy. I don't think Bowman could compete with the Topps distribution network or keep up with their legal fees in the course of two lawsuits and related appeals over baseball player contracts. I am reasonably certain one of the reasons Bowman made black and white cards in 1953 was to stop paying Joe DiMaggio (their hired spokesman for the color set) royalties on the sale of color baseball cards but I can't find the contract to prove it.

There is story out there too (unconfirmed I believe) that Topps had been promised the 1956 NFL license by Bert Bell. If true, that may have been the final straw but I think it's one of those Sy Berger "stories" so who knows?

FYI-John Connelly owned Connelly Containers, which made shipping cartons for Bowman and that company owned Bowman at the time of the sale after Connelly had wrangled control of the board away from the prior directors. Warren Bowman had been gone almost five years by the time Topps bought them out.