Cracker Jack Box

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Posted By: Ron Toth, Jr.

Richard,
Hi! A friend directed me to this link to show me your Cracker Jack box. What you have here is a box from the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Walter M. Lowney Company of Montreal and Boston also used the label, but with their name and address when they were Licensed to make Cracker Jack for the market outside the United States. It could contain one of the many hundreds of prizes from the era, including a wrapped plastic prize which started in 1948. The card that the box refers to could be one of three types.

One is from a series of cards called "Sports-Yesterdayd and Today" This is a 48 card set of cards that portrays two cards for each of 24 sports. One card is from "Yesterday" meaning from the sport's beginning and the other "Today" meaning from the 1940s or 1950s. These cards come with rounded and square corners. There is also a premium album that was made for them that you would mail for.

The second card it could be is from a set called "Victoria Cross" cards. This is a set of 72 cards that have images of World War II scenes, some are very graphic.

The third possibility is one of many airplane cards. The U.S. had a set of 24 cards of airplanes from different countries. There was a mail away offer for the complete set as well. The Canadians had three sets of smaller airplane cards. There was a set of 50 cards, a set of 98 cards, and a set of 147 cards.

There was one more card set that was used around that time. These were not produced specifically for Cracker Jack. They were actually strip cards that were cut apart and inserted in the boxes as prizes. It was a set called "Allies in Action". it was another war scene set and these are the only ones that are not marked "Cracker Jack".

I saw some responses about Sailor Jack and Bingo as well. They first appeared on advertising and prizes around 1916 and then on the boxes as early as 1918.

Here is an example on my website of an unused label:
http://www.timepassagesnostalgia.com/?pm=0&page=1&searchkeywords=%23cjc0001

Hope this information helps.

"When you are really good, they call you Cracker Jack"