Newsletter - 2024-11-16

Panini [trade/commercial: cards : O/S - Italy] "Olympia" (1971) 149/287

Centenaries have been a bit thin on the ground lately, but here we have one, the birth of Melvin Emery Patton, on November the 16th, 2024. 

He was born in Los Angeles, California, and he was just seven when the Summer Olympics came to town. I imagine that like many other children of that time, he must have been inspired by the various sports and headlines. Perhaps he remembered them when he went to University, or maybe it was just chance that he signed up for the track and field team, and only vaguely remembered them after. 

He was always a hesitant runner, almost certainly because he had fractured his hip as a child - and he was therefore nursing both the actual injury and the worry over what he would do if he suffered the same fate again. He also served in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War, which occupied several years of what would have been prime competing time, and meant that he really only had three good competing seasons. However, by a stroke of luck, at just this time the 1948 Olympics came along, and he was also currently number one in the World Rankings. 

The 1948 Olympics were held in a Great Britain which had not yet recovered from the War. Many of the competitors who might have been there were also missing - and not a single one of the six finalists from the 1936 Games were able to attend. War damage and logistics meant that though it was called the London Olympics not all of the events were in the Capital City - in fact they took place at twenty-five different venues, with the sailing taking place off Torbay in Devon, and the football heats being as far away as Brighton and Portsmouth, though some also took place at White Hart Lane, the home of Tottenham Hotspur. However, the track and field events were based just outside London and were staged in the Empire Stadium at Wembley. 

The American team won more medals in the athletics than any other team, twelve gold, five silver and ten bronze. Runners up were Sweden, with five gold, three silver, and five bronze. The success of the Americans had been predicted, but with a twist, as the 1946 and 1947 champion Barney Ewell was expected to sweep the board and he did not - only winning one gold in the 4 x 100 metres relay and two silvers, for the 100 and 200 metres.

Mel Patton was not a household name, and his first race, the 100 metres, had seen him come home in fifth. His next event, the 200 metres, was not his length at all, he had never won a single event at that length, much preferring the shorter, faster, sprint races. However, on this day, he came home first. And he also shared a team gold for the 4 x 100 metres relay. 

After this he spent some time in Australia, but returned to teach in America, and then became involved with the aerospace industry. He had dallied with joining the Air Force instead of the Navy in the Second World War, so perhaps that was a way of settling old regrets. Then he went to Saudi Arabia. e National Sports Programme of Saudi Arabia in the 1970s. However he did return to America, where he died in May 2014. 

Now you may be asking why this set is dated 1971 when there was no Olympics in that year - the last one had been in Mexico City in 1968, and the next one would not be until 1972 in Munich. Sadly we remember that 1972 Olympics not for sporting prowess but for an act of terror, and perhaps this is why these cards are so seldom seen, even though there are some very sought after people in it, including Cassius Clay at number 208.

You can see a full checklist at the Trading Card Database/PO71 - where it is immediately striking just how few of the cards have been sent in to be shown against the names.  

Berliner Morgenpost [trade : newspapers : O/S - Berlin, Germany] "Amerikanische Bilder" (1904) Serie 39, Bild 5

This day was one I struggled with for it started out as another centenary, of the release of the film "A Sainted Devil" with Rudolph Valentino - however I was unable to find any cards that showed that film and even hunting for co-star Nita Naldi proved fruitless.

So instead we are off to Washington, for a curious tale of the first time that the Capitol held the first ever session of the U.S. Congress. This happened in 1800, and the building was not actually finished yet and they had to use the North Wing. In fact it would not be entirely finished for another twenty-six years. However it was successful enough that it was decided that this would be the permanent site of all future meetings, replacing Philadelphia, where they had been based since 1790.

It seems that the earliest card to feature the Capitol was not until 1889, as part of Allen & Ginter`s unnumbered set of "General Government and State Capitol Buildings of the United States" (N14) - and the second not until 1911, in American Tobacco Company`s "Sights & Scenes of the World" (T99). The first card is backlisted, only telling the titles of the cards in the set so that the smoker could be sure to collect them all. However the second does have a descriptive back, where we are told that : "..the great dome of the Capitol [is] 288 feet high, [and is the] central feature of a structure which stretches along the brow of a hill for 751 ft. The main structure is of sandstone painted white, while the two wings, occupied by the Senate and the House of Representatives, are built of marble. In general, the style is classic, with Corinthian details. Beneath the dome is the Rotunda, 96 ft. in diameter and 180 ft, high, adorned with historical paintings."

I am not really sure when our card was issued, but I saw an earlier set listed as 1903. However it is not an American card, it comes from Germany, and is very different in style from the monochrome Berliner Morgenpost card of Alan Ladd that we featured in our newsletter of the 31st of August, 2024 as the diary card for Tuesday, 3rd September. Our set is much more striking and artistic, and there are, I now realise, lots of these sort of cards. They are not very easy to find out about though, so I do not know how many were in the set, I have only come up with these, repeatedly, so perhaps it was a set of six cards?

1. Freheits Statue in New Yorker Hafen [Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour]
2. Das Weiss-Haus, Washington [The White House, Washington]
3. Brooklyn Brucke [Brooklyn Bridge]
4. Tempel & Tabernakel in Salt Lake City [Temple and Tabernacle in Salt Lake City] 
5. Capitol im Washington [The Capitol in Washington]
6.  

And if anyone either knows the missing card six, or can supply any later numbers, do tell us please. 

John Player & Sons [tobacco : UK - Nottingham] "Gilbert & Sullivan" - 2nd Series, large size (1927) 23/25 - P644-216.2.B : P72-104.2.B : P/108.B [RB.17/108.B] 

Today, not so bad. I wrote on my paper for this date "W S Gilbert b 1836" and that is what we ended up with. The only problem was that I somehow put the wrong picture in here, but that has been altered now! 

There is something very curious about William Schwenk Gilbert though, cartophilically, because everywhere I looked told me that the card we show here was his "rookie card" - and yet his partner, Arthur Seymour Sullivan had appeared twice before, in Ogden`s General Interest Series B, issued in 1901, and in W.D. & H.O. Wills` "Musical Celebrities", issued in 1912. 

So if anyone can track down any earlier appearances of William Schwenk Gilbert, please tell. 

Today, we still remember him, as a dramatist, but also as a poet, artist, and writer of the words for seventy five plays and fourteen comic operas, the last of which were written in association with Mr. Sullivan, the composer of the music. Our man was also a third of the triumvirate which ran the D`Oyly Carte Opera Company, named after the third man, Richard D`Oyly Carte. 

It may have been very different if he had been allowed to go to war. For his childhood was rather chaotic, and he travelled widely. He did write, even then, but missed the excitement of travel once ensconced in schools and at King`s College, London, so he applied, on the strength of recent newspaper reports from the Crimean War, to the Royal Artillery. However, by the time he had done this, the war was over and they were, shall we say, no longer hiring. He did more research and discovered that he could travel the world with the Civil Service, so he got a job there, only to find that he was stationed as an assistant clerk in London, which he hated. He supplemented his income, and amused himself, by picking up his writing again. And he also got married, to Lucy Agnes Turner, eleven years his junior. 

Then in 1863 he was left some money, and immediately resigned. He thought he might become a barrister, but that did not suit him either. By this time he was making quite a name for himself, albeit pseudonymously, and so he decided to become a writer, both fiction, and non fiction, and somehow in 1870 he found himself being asked if he would like to go to France as a war correspondent.

This cannot have lasted too long because in 1871 he was back in England, writing, and he was asked if he would like to write a play for Christmas. The only catch was that there was a partner. This was Arthur Sullivan. They worked well together but did not meet again for four years. After which they wrote frequently, and became good friends, until Arthur Sullivan died in 1900. 

William Schwenk Gilbert was knighted in July 1907, for his great contributions to drama (Arthur Sullivan having been knighted some time earlier, in 1883). He lived a quiet life, having retired to a large house in Harrow Weald, until one fateful day in May 1911, when he offered to teach two young lady visitors to swim. One of these started to struggle in the water, and he leaped in, heedlessly, only to be struck down with a fatal heart attack before he could again reach the edge. 

This set is none of the men involved in this story, but it is characters from their operettas and we have chosen this one because, as the card tells us, "this was the first of the Gilbert and Sullivan Operas, and was produced at the Royalty Theatre, Dean Street, on 25th March, 1875. 

Our set appears in our original reference book to the issues of John Player, RB.17, issued in 1950, where it is catalogued as : 

GILBERT & SULLIVAN. From originals by H.M. Brock, R.I. Fronts in colour. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issues.

107. 1st Series
A. 50 small cards. Issued December, 1925
B. 25 extra large cards. Issued April, 1926

108. 2nd Series
A. 50 small cards. Issued December, 1927
B. 25 extra large cards. Issued January, 1928

This is very much shortened for our World Tobacco Issues Index, where the listing reads just 

GILBERT & SULLIVAN. Nd.
1 "A Series of .... " (A). Small (50)     (B). Extra large (25)
2. "2nd Series of ..." (A) Small (50)   (B) Large (25)

It is the same listing in our updated volume, but the sizes are abbreviated to "Sm" "Ex.Lg" and "Lg"

Now the odd thing is that despite the large cards being issued later, they have a very different and more artistic reverse, which makes them appear to be much earlier.

As for our card  of the Usher, showing here, he also appears in the smaller sized cards. as card 46. And on that card the quote about this opera being their first does not appear.

Another difference between the two cards (and one which I will show, some time) is the size, for the larger card extends out to the side, showing a further section of the stairs to the left, and another section of panelling to the right. This means, too, that the character name has been moved over by some way. But you will see all this, some time!

Nicolas Sarony & Co [tobacco - UK - London] "Celebrities and Their Autographs" - fourth series small size (1923) card 72 - 

More literature now, for today in 1850 Alfred, 1st Baron Tennyson became Poet Laureate, succeeding William Wordsworth, who had been in office only from 1843; he died, unexpectedly, of pleurisy. 

Alfred Tennyson had been born on the 6th of August 1809, and he was to remain Poet Laureate for most of Queen Victoria`s reign, though it had been her husband, Albert, who had put his name forward for the post. It is thought that Queen Victoria only grudgingly allowed it, having much preferred the suggestion of Elizabeth Barratt Browning - though she softened after Tennyson wrote a memoriam piece for her husband. However the two never met until a year after this, in 1862, and then not again until 1883.

Strangely, his writing had not been seen as very serious at all until he entered a poetry contest at Trinity College, Cambridge. Even then, the poem was not a new one, it was something he had been tinkering with for a while, trying, without success, to make it fit together. It was actually nothing to do with the stated subject for the piece either, of "Timbuctoo" - though many think that this contributed to its success, for everyone else who entered stuck to descriptions and his was rather more mystical and dreamlike, with Timbuctoo almost an afterthought.

He was most surprised to win. But when he did, it set him fast towards writing as a career, and he wrote almost every day until he died on 6 October 1892 at Aldworth, aged 83. 

Our original World Tobacco Issues Index tells us that this is a set of many permutations, the listing of just our section being : 

4. Nos. 76-100 (25)
Size (A) small (B) large

You can see the large size of this set as our Card of the Day for the 3rd of April, 2023 - and the entire listing of all the cards will be found as the Card of the Day for 26th June 2023,  which is when we featured the first part of the set, numbers one to twenty five cards. 

Topps [trade/commercial : cards : O/S - USA] "The X Files Showcase" (January 1997) card 1x01-12

This was the day that caused the most trouble, I had almost written something when I stumbled on the fact that I had not only used the same subject but the same card. Never mind the two have been combined there now. Then I spent an age looking for cards of Edwin Hubble, only finding one from a set which I had used before - and well remembering what a job it had been to find that card for the Channel Tunnel...

So you get this...

This marks the birth of Jerry Hardin, today in 1929, who is shown here as the character called "Deep Throat" from the X-Files, but who also appeared in many other very popular television shows, starting in the 1950s, as well as in both Star Trek The Next Generation and Star Trek Voyager.

His role in the X Files was actually sold to him as a one off appearance, in the second episode of the first series. However he continued to appear, even after his character was killed off in the finale of that first series - and in later series he would appear in flashbacks and visions, as well as in a very complex scene in the third series finale where several characters from the past morph into each other. 

His character may be fictional, but there is a knowing reference to the true "Deep Throat" who leaked information during the Watergate scandal. Here too, our "Deep Throat" is an informer, slowly feeding information to the hungry Fox Mulder, so desperate to find the truth about aliens and their invasion of the planet. The subplot is that we are never really sure if "Deep Throat" is acting out of generosity or if the feeds are really false trails to throw our hero off the scent. Even at the end, when he is shot, we do not know if it is to stop him leaking the true truth, or to leave Fox Mulder even more vulnerable, and alone, and even more willing to accept other untruths being fed him by those who come to fill his empty void.

There is another cunning connection that may escape all but the most diehard conspiracy theorists, because the replacement ally that does turn up is called "X", and that was the code name of Donald Sutherland`s character in the film "JFK", which aimed to uncover the truth behind the killing of President Kennedy. 

This is a very unusual set, being much longer than the standard cards, and it also contains more than one picture, being a main one flanked by two small vignettes. There were seventy two cards in the base set, but advertising for this mentions "three hundred images", which was rather contentious as it included all the vignettes front and back. 

It is also unusual because it does not contain images from all the episodes, only six of them. There was a rumour that the other episodes might form a series two but this never turned up. What we did get were two promotional cards, one from the pilot episode (and you can tell that because instead of a number after the dash on the card code there is "P1") and one which is black and white and advertises the fan club with an American address. Then there were also two special insert sets, each of six cards, one being "Laser Cards" (where on each card there is a large letter "X" with strips cut out of it by laser), and the other being "X-Effect Cards", which look odd, being a frame with stills and a large blank space, until the card is held to light, when an image is revealed. 

You can see checklists of all these at the Trading Card Database/XFilesShowcase.

And I am a few Laser cards short if anyone has any duplicates....

Allen & Ginter (tobacco : O/S - America) "United States Flags of the States and Territories" (1888) Bk/50

And so to North Carolina. At which point nipper ran off with my cheat sheet and tore it to tiny pieces, so I had to look up why I had written this, as well as find out what on earth I was doing for Friday. So these two will be shorter until tomorrow when I look at the books again. And this back came out well yellow, so I will have another go at that too.

The why was that today in 1789 North Carolina became the twelfth state in the Union, some two hundred years after the land was first settled by people from our shores. Between these two dates there had been many changes, not least the fact that at the time of settlement this area was called the Carolina Territory and encompassed the area of what is now South Carolina and Tennessee. In fact Carolina was named in honour of King Charles I - for Carolus is his Latin name. 

North Carolina broke off in 1712, setting up its own rules and becoming a colony all its own. It then became a Royal English Colony in 1729. However South Carolina had also set up on its own in 1712, but became a Royal English Colony much earlier, in 1719. It was also the eighth state to join the Union. 

Now for a cartophilist North Carolina is known as a huge centre of tobacco production - even before Sir Walter Raleigh took some back to his home shores. Perhaps natural then that Washington Duke would base his business there in the 1880s, and make tobacco production the highest employer and also the most profitable industry in the state.

J. A Pattreiouex [tobacco : UK - Manchester] "Cricketers Series" (1926) 

To close, let us look at this man, John Thomas Tyldesley. He was born today in 1873, in Worsley, Lancashire, and he played cricket for that county all his life. His preferred stance was as a batsman, though he could bowl and also field, he just chose not to. 

His first Lancashire match took place in 1895, and our card tells us not just that it was against Warwickshire, but that he was 152 not out. 

He played more or less continuously until the outbreak of the First World War. And as to his cartophilic career, this begins with Ogden's "Tabs" General Interest Series A, in 1901, where it gives his birthplace of Worsley, and also tells us his "1st class batting average 1900, 37-92; total runs, 1,593. Made 200 v Derbyshire, at Old Trafford, 1898".

What is most noticeable is that most of these cards come from before the First World War, the last one being in 1912.  It appears that he signed up, but I cannot trace a regiment, only that it was in the Army, and he rose in the ranks to become a corporal. If he did sign up it is probable that he was in the British Expeditionary Force, which went to France first in 1914, and there were only three Lancashire Regiments - 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment – the 2nd Battalion South Lancashire Regiment – and the 1st Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. More research will be done. 

He was released from his army service in 1919. And though he did play for a while

he was never the same, so much so that he decided to retire at the end of the 1919 season and set up a sports goods shop in Manchester. 

Now our card was issued much later than this, in 1926, and it curiously says "late Lancashire" on the front. This seems to suggest that it was actually produced after he had gone to war, or after his retirement in 1920, and did not get issued immediately. For in the whole of the 1920s he only played one match with the top team, in 1923, when he became the first professional Captain of the Lancashire team.

The sad truth is that he never did regain his health, or vigour, or the joy for life that he had felt before he off went to war.

And he died just a couple of years later in 1930, aged just 57.

Now before I close I must tell you that this set was reprinted in 1997 by Card Promotions, but full kudos to them, as there is no simple trimming off of the bottom to remove the reprint wording here. Instead they have made it almost impossible not to spot the fact that it is a reprint, for in the section where our card says "Smoke Trawler Critic, Club Member Cigarettes" their have printed "Reproduction by Card Promotions (c) 1997. First issued in 1928".