Anyone Collect 1959 Bazooka Football?

[brian1961]

Mike---

Thanks ever so much for taking the time and trouble of posting the photos of your fabulous 1959 Bazooka Alan Ameche box. A king-sized gem.

For the gentleman who asked, Bazooka marketed a box containing a large number of individual one-cent twin chews of their wonderful bubble gum. These fit the category of penny candy, which existed at that time and was sold at small grocery stores, drug stores, and dime stores.

Topps wanted a way for kids to purchase more than a few pennies' worth of gum at one time, so they developed this type of box with 20-25 individual twin chews. I do not know exactly when Bazooka first issued a box of this design, but I am rather certain they wanted to increase sales of their product, and since they were already offering the regular wax packs and cello packs of trading cards, come 1959 they decided upon the perfect incentive to goose those sales of Bazooka gum---with a free prize baseball and then football card.

They were by no means punched off the box. As the others have said, they were purely hand cut cards, which caused all sorts of condition degradation on top of the other condition problems that arose from their manner of sale.

This is a great set, in every way.

As an aside, I am so glad Bazooka got the much better pose and natural happy expression of all-time great Johnny Unitas, rather than the looney-looking appearance Johnny gave the photographer for the other shot, chosen for the 1960 Topps. ---Brian Powell

[TanksAndSpartans]

Mike - thanks for showing the box - a picture is worth a thousand words (Anyone catch that Jeff authored one of the articles in the GG issue the box is sitting on?)

Brian - great explanation - thanks.

[jtschantz]

Looking for the Groza

[quinnsryche]

That box is AWESOME! The Jim Brown is absolutely beautiful also. Thanks everyone for sharing your pics and info.

[jefferyepayne]

Mr. Tracy himself.



jeff

[quinnsryche]

Originally Posted by jtschantz

Looking for the Groza

There's a Groza up on ebay right now if you have a spare 2K lying around.
Seriously, what's it actually worth?

[Beansballcardblog]

Again, new to the forum. Thanks to all that posted their info on this set. Didn't know anything of it. Really loving the education that I'm getting here!

-Kin

[jefferyepayne]

Glad you like this thead! In my opinion, the '59 Bazooka set is one of the nicest looking football sets ever produced. Just a really nice, clean design and I love the large card size.

There's a lot of great sets out there and lots of knowledge about them so feel free to start threads on anything as somebody here is probably very knowledgeable about it.

jeff

[CowboysGuide]

Wow...really love that box! Thanks for posting those photos.

[CowboysGuide]

Originally Posted by brian1961

Mike---

Thanks ever so much for taking the time and trouble of posting the photos of your fabulous 1959 Bazooka Alan Ameche box. A king-sized gem.

For the gentleman who asked, Bazooka marketed a box containing a large number of individual one-cent twin chews of their wonderful bubble gum. These fit the category of penny candy, which existed at that time and was sold at small grocery stores, drug stores, and dime stores.

Topps wanted a way for kids to purchase more than a few pennies' worth of gum at one time, so they developed this type of box with 20-25 individual twin chews. I do not know exactly when Bazooka first issued a box of this design, but I am rather certain they wanted to increase sales of their product, and since they were already offering the regular wax packs and cello packs of trading cards, come 1959 they decided upon the perfect incentive to goose those sales of Bazooka gum---with a free prize baseball and then football card.

They were by no means punched off the box. As the others have said, they were purely hand cut cards, which caused all sorts of condition degradation on top of the other condition problems that arose from their manner of sale.

This is a great set, in every way.

As an aside, I am so glad Bazooka got the much better pose and natural happy expression of all-time great Johnny Unitas, rather than the looney-looking appearance Johnny gave the photographer for the other shot, chosen for the 1960 Topps. ---Brian Powell

So, Topps owns/owned Bazooka, or the other way around? I didn't realize and didn't even make the connection until reading the above post.

[brian1961]

Yes, the Bazooka brand was always part of Topps. Now, precisely what the parent company was named, I do not know off hand. However, I know for certain that Topps and Bazooka are from one and the same parent company.

As you look at many of the photos used on the run of Bazooka baseball issues, Topps either initiated the photo with a Bazooka card, or re-used a photo from one of their mainstream regular Topps set, or even a test issue.

For example, the 1965 Bazooka Mickey Mantle photo was later seen in the 1969 Topps Super Baseball test issue. Both great cards.

Back to football, you can really tell the similarity in the setting for the Johnny Unitas photo shoot, with the nicest portrait going to the 1959 Bazooka, and the obvious Johnny mugging a "half-crazed" pose selected for the 1960 Topps release. Wish I owned a '59 Bazooka Unitas.

All the best. ---Brian Powell

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by brian1961

Yes, the Bazooka brand was always part of Topps. Now, precisely what the parent company was named, I do not know off hand. However, I know for certain that Topps and Bazooka are from one and the same parent company.

As you look at many of the photos used on the run of Bazooka baseball issues, Topps either initiated the photo with a Bazooka card, or re-used a photo from one of their mainstream regular Topps set, or even a test issue.

For example, the 1965 Bazooka Mickey Mantle photo was later seen in the 1969 Topps Super Baseball test issue. Both great cards.

Back to football, you can really tell the similarity in the setting for the Johnny Unitas photo shoot, with the nicest portrait going to the 1959 Bazooka, and the obvious Johnny mugging a "half-crazed" pose selected for the 1960 Topps release. Wish I owned a '59 Bazooka Unitas.

All the best. ---Brian Powell

I don't believe there is any "parent company". Topps IS the company and Bazooka is one of their bubble gum brands.

jeff

[jefferyepayne]

Anybody know how to get tape residue off a card without damaging it?

Mr. Unitas could use it.



jeff

[brian1961]

jefferypayne---

Thanks for clarifying the fact that Topps is the company. I knew Bazooka was technically one of Topps's brands, but I simply did not word that very well. I did not have time to research the matter thoroughly. I do wish to say when I have read the small print on some of the Topps products of the 50s-60s, there were other trade names used as well.

I hope you get some help on removing the tape stain from your gorgeous Johnny U. You would not be removing anything that was not originally there, nor obviously adding anything to the card. I know there's a gentleman by the name of Dick Towle (spelling may be wrong) that specializes in that sort of restoration. Wishing you the very best, bro.

For what it's worth, thanks for showing us your '59 Bazooka Unitas. I for one love it. What a great picture. In the interest of history, the Bazooka issue was released when the Colts were coming off one of the greatest games in NFL anals--their sudden death triumph over the Giants, and then they repeated as NFL champions in 1959. No doubt you more than well knew this, but I offer the historical perspective for the enlightenment of our fellow board members.

---Brian Powell

[S_GERACE]

Hi Jeff,
Here's an old article in SCD about the guy that Brian mentioned, Dick Towle. His contact info is at the bottom (don't know if it's still valid but worth a try). Good luck with Johnny U!
Scott

http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.co...res/nerattowle