Early bowman baseball: Artist

[tedzan]

Jodi

The Charles Steinbacher (art Director) of the George Moll Advertising Agency that I have noted in my prior post here met with an untimely death in 1966.
He was the lead artist who designed many of the 1938 "Horrors of War" cards issued by GUM, Inc. (Blony bubble gum....the former Trademark of Bowman
Gum). This very dramatic and exceptionally artistic set of 240 Non-Sports cards depict the eventual horrors of WWII. This set of bubble gum cards was
the predecessor to the 1939-1941 Play Ball BB issues.

Another Bowman card artist was Tom King. My long-time hobby friend, Jack Weaver (professional artist), and I met with Tom back in the early 1990's at
his home. Tom and his wife (also a former Moll Agency employee) were a wealth of knowledge regarding the "good ole days" working for George Moll and
J. Warren Bowman.

With some amount of research, I can probably find more of the 12 artists that created a lot of the Bowman Sports and Non-Sports cards....no guaratees,
though.


Jodi
If you are interested, I have a newspaper article on Charles Steinbacher from The Philadelphia Inquirer (dated Sept 23, 1993) which I can send you.


TED Z

[Chris-Counts]

So are the four cards pictured '49 Bowman proofs? They seem like crude prototypes for the '50 Bowman set ...

[tedzan]

The upper pix is that of Dave Philley. This is not the example used to create his 1949 card.

The 2nd pix is that of Ned Garver. This is the example used to create his 1949 and 1950 cards.

I'm not certain about the FB pix.


TED Z

[enoch47]

the top card is actually nelson fox, the second is garver, the third is leon clarke with a usc jersey, and the fourth is Ron Kramer from michigan. These are a few of the proofs I own from era 50-56 bowman football and baseball. I am just trying to figure out were these came from, they have bowman all over them as far as look and feel, I have been down tons of roads looking for information, Im now looking at artist to find out time frame and to compare....since these are 90 -95 percent painted, it is just another chance to find out more about these....

[Chris-Counts]

Jodi, not only did Hires use one of the three 1956 Bowman prototypes for its 1958 design, but many of the photos appear to be outtakes from the 1955 Bowman set, which unlike almost any other set, primarily used photos taken in Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium, presumably in 1954 ...

[enoch47]

The cards I have, I believe were some some proofs made by bowman in 56. I will show a pic with a 55 bowman and the proof I have, I think the baseball pics that I added are cards from 56 as well......I think bowman was warming up to a college football issue sometimes before they sold out.....take a look...its also why the scan was of fox since these are were probably from 56

[enoch47]

reverse

[tedzan]

Bowman was already including College FB players in their early 1950's sets (as they became NFL rookies). Shown here are several examples of this
on this 1952 (Large card issue) uncut sheet........





TED Z

[enoch47]

Sweet pic! I agree, I am just trying to figure out what all these are. I have found that of the over 100 cards of these I have.....every single guy is an all american..from pre 1950 up to all americans in 1956. It dates me right before the sale of bowman....I am just wondering if Bowman had thought of or put in motion an answer to the 1955 topps All american set that really took off for topps...................what do you think?

[tedzan]

I'm not sure; but, I would not be surprised that Bowman's artists were planning to emulate the Topps All-American FB set of 1955.

My uncut 1952 FB sheet is a perfect example of how Bowman immediately responded to the very popular larger card format of the
1952 Topps BB cards. Very late in the 1952 season, Bowman experimented with their printer's 38-inch track press to produce their
larger card version of their 1952 FB smaller size cards.

In 1953 Bowman's printer employed a larger 43-inch track press to print their larger card 1953-1955 BB, FB and Non-Sports issues.


TED Z