From Bowman to Hires
 

What is the story about how one of the 1956 Bowman prototypes became 1958 Hires Root Beer (not the test set)? I could guess, but that's just guessing.

There was an article in Baseball Cards Magazine about that very issue back in the late 1980's, I believe. I will fish through my collection up in the attic and try to find it to post here. If I don't have it, I imagine Bob Lemke might if he has those on file.

Thanks, Steve. I was thumbing through my Standard Catalog (2007) when I noticed the picture on the prototype listing. That's when I thought, hold it a second, and went to the Hires (I have a Hires Aaron, no tab). There is no cross reference twixt the two.
Don't hurt yourself in that attic!

I've often wondered this same thing and would be happy to hear an explanation. Hopefully you can find the article in your attic and post it here.


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Blame it on Topps?
 

It's very likely that Topps had a contract to create, print and distribute the Hires cards. When Topps bought all of Bowman's assets in 1955, they would have had these designs on hand and probably put them to use for Hires.

Topps designed many sets for the food industry over the years (1980s Drake's, 1961 and 1980 Pepsi, etc) and they often used common elements from existing designs in these sets.

That's my hunch anyway.

It's a good hunch-I am pretty sure that's what happened as well; I have a long run of the old Baseball Cards Magazine-if anyone knows the issue # with the Hires article I can pull it out. Topps used another proposed '56 Bowman design for the 1957 Football set.

On a related note, does anyone have the scan of the Shuba prototypes from the 56 Bowman's? I lost my copies in a hard drive crash years ago and haven't been able to find any other examples. I have the Koshorek scans just not ol' Shotgun's.

I did a blog post a while back on the prototypes if anyone wants little more info: http://toppsarchives.blogspot.com/se...n%20Prototypes

Many of the 1958 Hires card images look like outtakes from the same photo sessions used for the 1955 Bowman set. Both sets are filled with shots of Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium ...

Very interesting and makes perfect sense. Thanks for the input guys.


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