Jackie Robinson older brother Mack ~ 1936 Olympic sprinter in German set

[HR JR]

Originally Posted by Michael B

The card you show is from the Mühlen Franck set. Mühlen Franck Kaffee issued these cards. These were a more standard card size and printed on regular cardstock unlike the Reemstma aka Sammelwerk set which was printed on thin paper. The Franck's were probably the first true Olympic only card set and they covered the Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Summer Olympics in Berlin. The set was purportedly 200 cards though no official checklist was issued. The first Olympic basketball card was in this set. It shows an American player (William Wheatley?) making a layup. There are three Jesse Owens' cards in the set - 100m, long jump and the card you have for the 200m. There is also a card of the silver medal winning Canadian Ice Hockey team and at least two cards showing Adolph Hitler.

I was checking through the threads looking for some help with this set. I purchased a Lot of the Reemtsma (Band II) cards and was surprised to find that they were printed on such thin paper. The other question I had, and I was hoping you could help me with, is are there different sizes for these cards?

I find online that the cards measure about 5" x 7" but the ones I purchased measure about 4 3/4" x 3 1/8"

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by HR JR

I was checking through the threads looking for some help with this set. I purchased a Lot of the Reemtsma (Band II) cards and was surprised to find that they were printed on such thin paper. The other question I had, and I was hoping you could help me with, is are there different sizes for these cards?

I find online that the cards measure about 5" x 7" but the ones I purchased measure about 4 3/4" x 3 1/8"

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hi,

There were two sizes of inserts for the Olympia books. I do not want to call them cards or photos. They are not cards and I would not equate them with true photographs any more than one I would cut out of a magazine. They were 8 cm x 12 cm and 12 cm x 17 cm and were issued solely to be glued into the books. Remember that these are sized in metric. There were both color and black and white inserts. I do not know how they decided which would be color and which would be black and white and which would be smaller versus larger. I have the 1932 book handy. Babe Didrikson was on 3 small inserts and one large all black and white. Ellen Braumüller, German gold medalist in javelin is large and in color as is Lillian Copeland, American gold medalist in discus. All of the medalists is decathlon have small individual color inserts and are on a large color one in the medal ceremony. At one time I also had probably a complete set of unmounted cards from 1936 Band 1 & 2 (Volume 1 in 1936 was the winter games, Volume 2 was the summer games). I did notice that any insert that featured 'der Neger', German for 'the Negro', appears to be in black and white, though Edward Gordon winner of the long jump in 1932 got a large card.

The thinking behind these was that you would acquire the book then purchase a bilder-gruppe (photo group) for that book. The envelope that contained inserts listed the numbers on the outside so you knew which ones were included as they were not consecutive. You needed to acquire all of the envelopes to complete the set. Since Reemstma also did other subject books the envelopes were numbered. For instance 1936 Olympia Band 1 had bilder-gruppe(s) 53 through 56. Envelope 55 had the large inserts, the remainder were small. There were 50 in each small envelope and 25 in the large for 175 inserts for that book. The envelopes were also identified on the outside with 'Die bilder der Sammlung "Olympia 1936 Band 1 (or 2) - The images of the collection Olympia 1936 Band 1. I know there were 175 inserts in the 1936 Band 1 (winter). I believe there were 200 inserts for Band 2. You can actually find people from Germany selling complete unmounted sets for Band 1 and Band 2 in their original envelopes. I even recall seeing someone selling the complete group for both Bands for 1936 in the original mailing box. They should not be that expensive. In my opinion the people trying to get $5 and up for the individual inserts or over $30 dollars for a complete volume is blowing smoke out of there rectum. They are not rare and are not that valuable. I will say they are nice to reproduce. I made 8x10 photos of the one showing Jack Shea and had him sign them back in the late 1990s. I also made photographs of others to go with autographs I was selling.

I hope this answers your questions.

[Michael B]

I was re-reading the thread to see if I made any silly mistakes in my answers. Fortunately no. The group image in the original post lists Johnson, Peacock and Robinson on the back. I am not sure how accurate the information is. Eulace Peacock did not make the Olympic team and did not travel to Berlin. The other Blacks on the team other than Owens and Mack Robinson were Dave Albritton, Cornelius Johnson, Ralph Metcalfe, Archie Williams, James LuValle, John Woodruff and Fritz Pollard, son of the football HOFer. Without comparing the faces, I would not positively state it is Mack. As a side note this is a good time to dispel one of the biggest myths about the 1936 Olympics. Hitler DID NOT snub Jesse Owens. On the first full day of the games there were two athletics (track and field) finals - women's javelin and the high jump. The javelin was won by Tilly Fleischer of Germany. The high jump was won by Cornelius Johnson, the pride of Compton Junior College. Hitler greeted Fleischer in his box after her medal ceremony. Johnson finished later in the day and Hitler left before the medal ceremony. The next day he was told, probably by Avery Brundage, president of the American Olympic Committee, that if he did not congratulate every winner he would not congratulate any. And so it went. The myth, which I believe was also perpetuated in the movie is a pile of ... and don't get me started on Marty Glickman.

I just acquired a program from the 1936 U.S. Olympic track trials signed by almost every American medalist from the 1936 games. When I get a chance to scan it I will post in the monthly autograph pickups.

Tilly Fleischer signature from the 1932 Olympics
Fleischer, Tilly (1932).jpg

Cornelius Johnson signature from the 1934 AAU Championships in Milwaukee.
Johnson, Cornelius (1934).jpg

[HR JR]

[QUOTE=Michael B;2004173]I was re-reading the thread to see if I made any silly mistakes in my answers. Fortunately no. The group image in the original post lists Johnson, Peacock and Robinson on the back. I am not sure how accurate the information is. Eulace Peacock did not make the Olympic team and did not travel to Berlin. The other Blacks on the team other than Owens and Mack Robinson were Dave Albritton, Cornelius Johnson, Ralph Metcalfe, Archie Williams, James LuValle, John Woodruff and Fritz Pollard, son of the football HOFer. Without comparing the faces, I would not positively state it is Mack. As a side note this is a good time to dispel one of the biggest myths about the 1936 Olympics. Hitler DID NOT snub Jesse Owens. On the first full day of the games there were two athletics (track and field) finals - women's javelin and the high jump. The javelin was won by Tilly Fleischer of Germany. The high jump was won by Cornelius Johnson, the pride of Compton Junior College. Hitler greeted Fleischer in his box after her medal ceremony. Johnson finished later in the day and Hitler left before the medal ceremony. The next day he was told, probably by Avery Brundage, president of the American Olympic Committee, that if he did not congratulate every winner he would not congratulate any. And so it went. The myth, which I believe was also perpetuated in the movie is a pile of ... and don't get me started on Marty Glickman.

I just acquired a program from the 1936 U.S. Olympic track trials signed by almost every American medalist from the 1936 games. When I get a chance to scan it I will post in the monthly autograph pickups.

.......

Thank you for the information!!! Really helps as I acquired a few of these cards recently and I was surprised by the paper they were printed on and how well they've been preserved considering. Regarding the Hitler myth, I was reading an article where Helen Stephens stated that Hitler congratulated her after winning the 100m and essentially groped her and invited her to a private residence (which she declined). Could it be that he was still managing to congratulate certain athletes behind the scenes? I imagine that Hitler could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, despite restrictions put in place by any IOC director.

Nice autos btw!!!! Some truly historic stuff.