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Originally Posted by matty39
On the Ferguson blotter shown below it states that the bakery was giving away as premiums both large movie actor and baseball star pennants. Those pennants were produced by Bradford and company of St. Joseph, Michigan. Several years ago I picked up one of the large movie actor pennants which fortunately had it's ad on the back. Both are shown below. On your list you should probably cross out Ferguson and add Bradford and Co.
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Matty, great find! Always wondered who made those Ferguson promo minis!
I'm definitely familiar with this company. They made some Notre Dame championship banners from the 1929-30 seasons featuring a sewn label of theirs. According to some research I once did on them, they were founded by a guy named Fredrick LeRoy Bradford. He started the company in 1897 to produce advertising novelties and souvenir items in the resort town of St. Joseph, MI. In 1907 he began making felt pennants; and, he was one of the early pioneers to screen print his pennants. At one point Bradford was considered "the largest maker of felt pennants"; but, it's unclear
when that may have been true (or
if that was ever an accurate claim). The company was still in business by 1960, well after Bradford's death; and, they still listed felt pennants as something they manufactured, at that point. By then, however, they were well invested in a variety of other advertising-related products, so who knows how much felt pennants played into things.
But, other than the Ferguson Bakery series, did they ever make any pro baseball pennants in any significant quantities? If they did, they likely stopped labeling their pennants sometime after 1930. Who knows? They
could be our mystery maker responsible for the sliding runner and stiff arming footballer pennants.... (I promise no clear answers on this mystery in 2022, regrettably.)
Or, perhaps they only focused on souvenir, promo, and advertising pennants?
I feel like if they were as big as was once claimed, we'd all know more about them by now.