Newsletter - 2024-10-12

Topps [trade : bubble gum : O/S - USA] Hockey (1971-2) 100/132

Lets start with your Canadian Centenary,  which is the founding of the Boston Bruins, today in 1924. This makes them the third oldest team in the N.H.L. which is the National Hockey League, but that is actually ice hockey, played on a rink. And, as I am sure you are wondering, the two older teams are the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs, both founded in 1917. However there is something else special about the Boston Bruins, and that is that they are not Canadian, which technically makes them the oldest American team in the N.H.L.

They started out playing at the Boston Arena, which was built much earlier, in 1909. Then in 1928, they moved, to the Boston Garden, where they stayed for many seasons. Oddly, this was right above a train station. Our man would have also played there, for they did not leave until 1995. They did not want to move, but the stadium was being demolished, and also they had the offer of a purpose built facility, which is now known as T.G. Garden. Not sure what the initials stand for, but if you do please tell us.  

Now a bit more about that founding, because it was rather a spur of the moment thing. What happened was that the Canadian National Hockey League wanted to get a bigger audience and so they offered start up franchises to American teams. There were three available, and one was bought by Charles Adams, who is sometimes called the owner of a grocery store, but it was a huge chain of stores, called First National. He did not even have a team, but he loved ice hockey and would travel to Canada to watch it. He had great ideas and money, and he used it to hire players and staff. He also named the team, after the colour of their team strip which was brown and yellow - they were actually the colours of his store uniforms as well. He probably cut a deal on both. Anyway the brown reminded him of a bear so they became the Boston Bruins. 

He also arranged to host the first ever N.H.L. game to cross the border into America, and the Bruins won, against the Montreal Maroons. You won`t remember them, for they ceased to be a team in 1938. 

Now as for Robert Gordon "Bobby" Orr, shown on this card, he was born in March 1948, and he is still reckoned to be one of the best players of all time. He was fast across the ice, accurate with his shooting and passing, and great back up for the other players. He was with the Boston Bruins for ten seasons, and then left, for the Chicago Blackhawks, where he only spent two seasons. And he was, at the time, the youngest player ever to join the Hockey Hall of Fame. 

His "Rookie" card is universally agreed to be Topps "Hockey" which was issued in 1966. Now I have seen one of them I know where to go next time I need a television card as the border is very reminiscent of the vintage sets! Anyway, according to the Trading Card Database/BobbyOrr  he appears on the quite amazing total of 3,889 cards, starting, again, with Topps "Hockey" (1966-7)

This card was issued several times. It started out as part of a set of thirty-six cards issued with "Bazooka" Gum but that version is plain backed, and it was a package issue, which ought to have a dotted line all around it. You can also get trios which must have come from larger packaging. Then it was issued as a card by O-Pee-Chee, and that looks much the same as this except, being Canadian, the back text is in French - and there are two hundred and sixty four cards in that series. I have no idea why. Again, if you know, do tell. I have a feeling it might have something to do with the fact that O-Pee-Chee is Canadian, so maybe they delved into all the teams, whereas Topps only concentrated on the majors.

We do know that the O-Pee-Chee set is minus the first six subjects which show top players and their statistics, namely goals, assists, scoring, goalies wingers, shutouts, and goals against the average. Some collectors think that this was a way of introducing these players more speedily to the American market, so the audience knew which ones were the ones to watch in any games - whereas they were already well known in Canada.

Guerin Boutron [trade : chocolate : O/S - Paris France] "Le Tour du Monde en 84 Etapes" / "A Tour of the World in 84 Stages" (1900) Un/84 ? 

Now lets have a chat about some Capitol Construction, for today in 1792 the first stone was laid on what would come to be known as The White House. The site was chosen in 1791 by George Washington, and it took nine years to build. Unfortunately President Washington died before that, on the 14th of December 1799. That meant that the first President to live in the house was John Adams, and he moved in on November the 1st, 1800.

The house stood for almost fourteen years, and then it was set on fire by the British, in August 1814. This was during what has become known as the War of 1812, when Major General Robert Ross defeated the American troops at the Battle of Bladensberg, then marched to the Capitol, where his men set fire to many buildings with flaming torches, fuelling the flames with the furniture and contents from their interiors. The fire was only stopped by the rain, but the Capitol was in ruins, and grey smoke hung over all. 

James Hoban was the architect charged with rebuilding the White House, pretty much as it had been, and he completed it in about three years. By that time President James Monroe was in office, and he wanted changes, a portico to the south. This was done in the 1820s. As far as the matching north portico, that was added a few years later, for President Andrew Jackson.

Cigarette cards shine a light on a few other facts though. According to American Tobacco Company`s "Historic Homes" series 1-50, issued with Helmar Turkish Cigarettes, there were two earlier White Houses. The first was on the Pamunkey River, and it was owned by Martha Custis, who became Martha Washington, and the first ever First Lady.  Not only that, but they both lived there together for a few months after they were wed. The other one was The White House of the Confederacy  which was where Jefferson Davis and his wife lived in Richmond, Virginia. You can immediately see the similarity, the pillars to the front, and the colour, of course, and some of the features described on the card, high ceilings, curved stairs, and a terraced garden. .

As for our card, this shows two children , watching a parade, and hopefully a friendly one. The boy is in green and the girl in a red dress, and this duo, or at least a girl in a red dress, appears on all the cards seen so far.

There is some confusion over the date of issue, and a lot of collectors think it was done in 1880, however the reverse of our card proves this wrong as it states that Guerin Boutron won Gold Medals at the 1889 and 1900 Exhibitions, both of these being in Paris.

There also seems to be no real connection between this set and Jules Verne`s "Around the World in 80 Days", which was published in 1872. 

A & B. C. Gum [trade : gum : UK] "Kung Fu" (1974) 22/60 - AAB-460 : ABF-55

So to our Martial Memories. Slightly more up to date ones though, marking the premiere, on the American Broadcasting Corporation, or ABC, of "Kung Fu", today, in 1972.

On the surface this was purely an action-adventure series, almost a Western, and maybe a slight bit of a detective story, as the premise for his wandering was to locate his half brother. However it was very well researched, and also made good use of many actual Taoist beliefs, something that probably passed over the heads of the mainly juvenile audience. It did heavily influence the star of the show though, and he not only trained in Shaolin martial arts, doing many of the fight scenes without a stunt double, he also became involved in the religion and belief system, and regularly practised the quieter martial arts of tai chi and Qigong. 

The star was John Arthur Carradine Junior, who called himself David Carradine as a stage name. He had been born on December the 8th, 1936, the son of another, very famous actor, John Carradine, and had been a stage and film actor before being cast as Kwai Chang Caine. Choosing him for the part was not an entirely popular decision, for it was widely felt that it ought to have gone to a Asian actor. 

After three seasons, the show ended. David Carradine was tired of the part, and also he had sustained several injuries which were proving reluctant to heal due to the heavy work load of a weekly show. However he retained a fondness for the idea of the show, and played his role again in 1986 for a television film, which he also produced. Then, in 1992, he produced and acted in another film, "Kung Fu - The Legend Continues", and that was turned into a television series which ran for five years.

Despite his success, he flouted legality in almost every way he could, building up a catalogue of arrests, prosecutions and lawsuits. He was married several times. And he died, in Thailand, aged just seventy-two, leaving behind a further mystery as to whether it was suicide, or not. 

This set is another "ABC", or, one of the versions, for it was issued a few times.

It started in America, issued by Topps, with blue borders, as a test run, which some say was circulated in 1972. The blue was not popular, because when the proper set came out, in 1973, it had red borders.

This set was then reissued in England under the A. & B.C. name, and it also says "Printed in England". Now do note that some of these cards are different.

Then, in 1975, it was issued in Australia by Scanlens. We know that the Scanlens version was reprinted, and possibly in Australia, because it was on better quality card, and had white backs whereas the Topps and A. & B.C. backs were both rather grainy.

We do know that all of these issuers must have used the Topps` artwork, as they all repeated the same error on card 48 where the word "Kung Fu" does not appear on the reverse side at the top of the yellow text box. If you only have this one card, you would not know it was missing.

It first appears in our original British Trade Index part III, as : 

KUNG FU. 81 x 55. Nd. (60). No.48 found with or without "Kung Fu" at top/L of back. Issued 1974. See set ZG10-6-6 in RB.30 for Australian issue.  ... ABF-55

In the updated British Trade Index it appears as :

KUNG FU. 1974. 81 x 55. Nd. (60). No.48 issued a) with or b) without "Kung Fu" at top left of back. Also issued in Australia.  ... AAB-460

In RB.30 the Australian version of this set is listed, with a few extra details of our version, as follows:

Set ZG10-6. Topps Series 
-6. Titled "Kung Fu" on front. 88 x 64. Nd. (60). Back with sectional picture (44 numbers) or with textand illustration of a chinaman`s head, or an exercise (16 numbers). Based on Topps issue in U.S.A. Inscribed below text "T.C.G. - Prtd in U.S.A." The edition in U.K. is size 81 x 56 and inscribed below text "A. & B.C. - Prtd in U.K.

Those will have to wait until tomorrow too. But I am intrigued that the above makes it sound like a corrected card was issued, at least in England, for number 48. And if anyone has a number 48, of either version, I will happily change this picture for that ! 

Stollwerck [trade : chocolate : O/S - Germany] "Heroes" (1909) Gruppe 418 No.1 

Our Roman Writer goes way, way back to today in 70 B.C. and the birth of Publius Vergilius Maro - who is now known as simply Virgil. He was a poet and author, who wrote many works but is chiefly remembered today for the Aenid, 

This work was heavily influenced by The Iliad and The Odyssey, written by the Greek poet, Homer, many hundreds of years before Virgil was born. The Aenid tells the tale of a man called Aenas, who, after the Trojan War, tries to find a purpose for his life being spared. In the end it is not his life which turns out to be the important one, but his sons, Romulus and Remus, who go in to found the City of Rome.

Unfortunately, before finishing the work, Virgil died. He had gone to Greece in order to find inspiration, perhaps even for another part of the story. However he caught a fever, and died, on board a ship, in harbour. Now when he realised he was sickening, he left instructions that his work was, on no account, to be published; it was to be burned, unread. When these wishes were spoken of to the Emperor, he countermanded them, stating that the book was to be published, as it was. Though there were minor changes. So what we read today is probably a very different book, in many ways, to the one which Virgil intended to leave us. 

This is a set of six cards, comprising : 

• I - Cicero
• II - Tacitus
• III - Seneca
• IV - Ovid
• V - Virgil
• VI - Horaz

Now it seems to have many titles, some call it "Heroes", others "Orators", and the Trading Card Database (which shows all the cards) calls it "Romische Geisteshelden", which translates to Roman Spiritual Heroes - and I do not think this is a title they made up, so perhaps this came from the album ? So if anyone has one of those albums and can confirm or deny this, please do let us know. 

Carreras Ltd [tobacco : UK - London] "Famous Women" C151-465 ; C18-22

This card marks the publishing of a book, today, in 1847, by an author called Currer Bell. It was called Jane Eyre, and it was an immediate success, with the general public and other authors. However Currer Bell did not exist, for it was a pseudonym for a literary lady, as seen on our card, called Charlotte Bronte. 

She was the oldest of three sisters, who liked nothing better than sitting and writing, every day, in their father`s vicarage in Yorkshire. They wrote prose, and poetry, and had paid for a collection of their poems to be published, only to meet with heartache when it sold very few copies. This too was published beneath psudonyms, Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.

The publishing of our novel Jane Eyre was rather an accident, and a surprise. Charlotte had written another, called The Professor, almost certainly about a crush she had for one of her teachers, and sent it out for perusal by many publishing houses, none of whom were interested. Then a reader for one of these houses, whilst rejecting it, did add a few gentle words of praise. Now she could have quit whilst she was winning, but instead she packaged up a copy of her latest work, and sent him that. He loved it and told the publishers to read it too, after which an offer was made. 

Jane Eyre is an odd novel, it has moments of grand romance, but drags a bit in between. It starts, as all stories, with her childhood, spent with an uncaring aunt and cousins, until she goes to school. Then she is sent as a governess to a strange place called Thornfield Hall where she falls in love with her employer Edward Fairfax Rochester, despite some very strange goings on, and much mystery. Just as they are growing close he leaves, then comes back with a party of people including a girl who she takes for his intended. So Jane goes back to help her aunt, who has suffered a stroke. After the aunt dies, Jane returns to the Hall, Mr. Rochester admits that he loves her, and asks her to marry him. This is all well underway when it is discovered that there is already a Mrs. Rochester, who lives at the Hall but is hidden away, though sometimes she escapes and causes all manner of chaos and damage. This makes it impossible for him to marry Jane, but he does ask her to run away with him to the South of France, and make out she is his wife. For some reason she says no, and runs away all on her ownsome. Then there is a very odd bit where her cousin, a clergyman, asks her to marry him instead, but at the end it all works out and she meets up with Mr. Rochester again, though he has lost his sight and one of his hands in a fire, caused by his wife, which destroyed the Hall and led to her death. Of course, back come the feelings, and the two are wed, ending up with a baby, which, by some miracle, he is able to see at least with one eye. 

Sadly her own life was not so romantic. In 1853, she was thirty-seven years old, and, with both  her surviving literary sisters and her brother dead, all through tuberculosis, she was stuck at home with her elderly father and a couple of servants. However, her father`s assistant in the church had taken a bit of a shine to her, and they used to walk the family dogs together. He was three years younger than her, and she was rather aghast when he asked for her hand, so he left, supposedly to emigrate to Australia, but actually only going to another church, from where he continued to petition her to agree. In the end she did, and the two were wed in 1854, though her father did not attend, he said he felt ill. 

Once they were wed, she admitted that she did start to fall in love with him, and soon she was pregnant. However she was never to see her child. She died, apparently of morning sickness, in March 1855. Her husband then took over the job of caring for her father, until his death, perhaps hoping to stay on as the minister of the church. This was not to be, for the trustees of the church voted against it, and he resigned in a fit of anger, putting the goods and chattels of the parsonage up for auction in 1861, though he kept the letters, manuscripts, and personal effects, and took them back to Ireland. He married again in 1864, and died, of bronchitis, in December 1906.

This set is catalogued in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes quite simply as : 

FAMOUS WOMEN. Sm. Nd. (27) 

However it is under section 2.D, which covers "General Export Issues. All black and white glossy photos, unless stated".

The cards do say "A Series of 27 Real Photos", but some of them are photos of paintings, due to the subject on that card being long departed. Only cards 14 (Rosa Bonheur), 22 (Lily Langtry), and 23 (Ellen Terry) are actual photographs of the person.

Our image is from a painting, in chalk, by George Richmond, and it was done on the 13th of June, 1850. It is currently held by the National Portrait Gallery, who was given it by her widower, either just before he died, or as a bequest thereafter. That fact is not recorded.

It appears that this image, reversed, is also on a Guinea Gold card. The same image, but colourised, was used on another Carreras set, "Celebrities of British History" (1935 - card 49), and as card 40 of their later "Turf" set of the same name. 

Gallaher Ltd [tobacco : UK - Belfast & London] "British Naval Series" (1914) 22/50 - G075-140 : G12-16

 This, the most curious tale of a Freak Flood, is also the tale of this man. But let us start with the flood, which started today in 1814. Freakier still, it was not water, but beer. 

Today it is known as either the London Beer Flood or the Meux Beer Flood, for it started at Meux & Co's Horse-Shoe Brewery, by accident, when one of the vats of porter burst. Now this vat was twenty-two feet tall and full of fermenting, frothing, angry liquid, and the stream, as it issued forth, managed to knock out the valve of another vat. In all several of the vats were damaged, and it is estimated that almost six hundred gallons of liquid were suddenly released. This tidal wave was so forceful that it demolished the back wall of the brewery, and into the dwellings behind, killing eight people, three of them under the age of five.

There was a coroners inquest, but this ruled that the event had been accidental, and no claim could be laid nor compensation awarded. However the brewery did suffer, a bit, with the loss of the beer, and its future income, though they were awarded a rebate from the Tax Office on the value of the beer.

The incident did start a trend throughout the brewing industry though, and slowly moved them away from using the large wooden vats which were pretty universal at the time. 

So to our man, Admiral Hon. Sir Hedworth Meux, who would rise to be Admiral of the Fleet, The Honourable Sir Hedworth Meux, Knight Grand Cross Order of the Bath, Knights Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. He was born in 1856, but as Hedworth Lambton, the son of the 2nd Earl of Durham. He joined the Royal Navy young, as a cadet in the training ship H.M.S. Britannia, aged just fourteen. The following year he was aboard HMS Endymion, as part of the squadron which patrolled the English Channel, and was soon promoted to Midshipman, moving to the flagship of the squad HMS Agincourt. 

After this he moved to the Mediterranean Fleet, just in time for the Anglo-Egyptian War. By that time he was on HMS Invincible. In 1883 he was made Commander, but also sent to the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. This honed his already considerable sea-skills, and almost certainly led him to becoming the Commanding Officer of the Royal Yacht HMY Osborne in 1888. It was also where he met Earl Spencer, who took him on initially as aide de camp, and then, when the Earl was made First Lord of the Admiralty in 1894, made him his Private Naval Secretary, a role he continued even after a new man, Viscount Goschen, took over at the helm. 

This did not work out too well, and our man found a new role, as Commanding Officer of HMS Powerful, which was, at that time, based in China. On the ship`s way back to England, in 1899, it was ordered to South Africa, to aid in the Second Boer War. On the way it picked up some naval cannons which were eventually used at the Relief of Ladysmith, as well as some of the crew from his ship. This action led him to being awarded as a Companion of the Order of the Bath, but, more importantly than that, at least to our story, to his meeting Valerie, Lady Meux. She had been inspired by our man`s action to pay for some more guns to be made and transported to South Africa. She also asked to meet the man responsible. When they met, he seemed to think little of it, but when she died, in December 1910, he discovered that she had left him not only her mansion, but all her money, and the remaining money of her husband, which were considerable and most of which resulted from his family brewery, Meux`s of London (and of flood infamy). The reason for this was that her and her husband had no heirs. The only condition was that he change his name, immediately, from Lambton to Meux, which he did, by Royal Warrant, therefore inheriting the Hertfordshire Estate known as Theobalds, and a large portion of the ownership of the brewery.

The important card to this mystery is Carreras` "Famous Naval Men", card 15/24, where the first few lines say "Served at the Bombardment of Alexandria, and was in command of the Naval Brigade at the Relief of Ladysmith. Changed his name from Lambton on inheriting a fortune from Lady Meux".  It also tells you that after this he "...Became Admiral of the Fleet in 1915, but retired and entered Parliament as member for Portsmouth in 1916. Retired from political life in 1918." There are five cards of him in total in the Jefferson Burdick collection at the New York Public Library.

I have not been able to find any cards of him as Hedworth Lambton, but looking at his war record I am certain that they are out there, just that nobody has tied this tale together before. So if you have one, please let us know. 

Now this card first appears in our original Gallaher reference book, RB.4, published in 1944. In there it is listed as : 

1914. 50 BRITISH NAVAL SERIES (titled series). Size 2-1/2" x 1-1/2" approx. Numbered 1-50. Fronts, printed two colours - brown and grey, by letterpress, from screen blocks. Brown marginal lines, and grey margins. Titles inset in white panels. Backs, printed in brown, with descriptions, and "Issued by Gallaher Ltd,., Belfast & London". Printed by Tillotsons Ltd., Bolton

The Gallaher book never had reference numbers to each set, that system being only added with the later volumes.

By the time of our original World Tobacco Issues Index, it has been reduced, to simply : 

BRITISH NAVAL SERIES. Sm. Mauve. Nd. (50.) ... G12-16

This exact text appears in the updated volume, but with a new code, of G075-140

The Nestle Company [trade : confectionery : O/S - Australia] "The Olympic Games 1948-1972" (1972) 1/24 - NE4-8

And to close, our Leaping Legend, Robert "Bob" Beamon. He was born on August the 29th, 1946, and remains best remembered for his massive leap of twenty-nine feet and 2-1/4 inches (that is almost nine metres). This was accomplished at the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968. It was only beaten by Mike Powell, a fellow American, who jumped just two inches further, and beat the world record, though, as this was not at the Olympics, Mr. Beamon retains the Olympic record to this day. Strangely Mr. Powell`s jump was just one day after "Bob" Beamon`s birthday - on August the 30th, 1991. And that remains the longest jump ever - by a human being, for the flea beats this hands down, being able to  jump over eight inches, which is two hundred times their own length.  

It has sometimes been quoted that Mr. Beamon was born in South Jamaica. This is true, but South Jamaica is a district in Queens, New York. His mother died when he was only eight months old and he went to live with her mother. His talent for running was picked up at school, and he may have gone straight to a sports college, if it were not for the fact that he chose to stay with his sick grandmother. However, once she died, he was able to change colleges and accept a track and field scholarship at the University of Texas. 

I write a lot about people going off to college. Sorry. It was something I always wanted to do and never could. I would probably not have been bright enough, and they would have laughed me out after the first day. I am no more intelligent now, and too old to consider it, but the idea remains inside of me, and is awakened, often, as I write these newsletters. 

He was a man of principle, too, losing his place on that college team for standing true to his feelings, and boycotting a contest because of them. Ten other men stood tall too. Therefore at the time he entered the 1968 Summer Olympics he was pretty much solo. However he had won all but one event in the year prior, including a massive jump of twenty-seven and a half feet, which was disallowed, supposedly through wind assistance.

At the Olympics, he took the World Record with his first jump. Afterwards he was picked up to play basketball, for the Phoenix Suns, but he never played in a league game. He also seems to have gone to Adelphi University, for he graduated with a sociology degree. Later, in 1977,  he became a coach in San Diego. 

The Trading Card Database/Beamon has him on 103 cards, starting in 1969. However this set  is not amongst them. I imagine there are others, too, which are not. And that total also includes several of those large thin cards which were intended to go in a filing box, which some of us do not really consider cartophilic. 

Anyway, this is a slightly different code to the usual, because it comes from our original Australian and New Zealand Index, published in 1983. It seems odd that this set was only issued in the Antipodes, especially with the Hamlyn connection, but I can find no other trace of it.

The entry in that book reads : 

The Olympic Games 1948-1972. 61 x 58. Nd. (24). Issued 1972. Book "The Olympic Games 1948-1972", 96 pages, available for $1.15. Issued in conjunction with Set NE4-5 ... NE4-8

A quick look up the page finds NE4-5, listed as :

Milo Cards. 57 x 30, on thick paper. Issued in strips. Nd. (24).Book "The Olympic Games 1948-1972". Issued 1972 with set NE4-8 ... NE4-5