Early bowman baseball: Artist

[tedzan]

Warren Bowman and George Moll were very close business associates in the late 1930's to mid 1950's. Bowman had the Trademark for his popular BLONY
bubble gum (circa 1935). George Moll operated an Advertising Agency in Abington, PA. George employed 12 professional artists and they did the artwork
for all the GUM, Inc. and BOWMAN sports and non-sports cards from 1938 - 1955. The lead (senior) artist was Charlie Steinbacher.

I interviewed George Moll at his home in 1981 for a BB card article that I was writing for Bob Lemke's Baseball Cards magazine. Mr. Moll was in his 80's at
that time, but he still was as enthusiastic as a young kid talking and showing me a lot of the artwork, uncut sheets of 1950's BB and FB cards, and his BB
card collection which started with the 1933 Goudey set. A very gracious and fine gentleman.


TED Z

[enoch47]

these are a few scans of the cards, they all look bowman like, im tring to match up a artist potentially

[skooter]

Do you have a copy of the article, or know where I can get one. I would love to read it!

[tedzan]

This Bowman article is titled "The Case of the Mysterious 1949 Bowmans". It is a 6-page (well-researched) story that resolved
the existing confusion (at that time) regarding the dozen (or so) variations in this Bowman set.

Provide me your mailing address and I will send you a color xerox copy.

Email me directly........tedzan11@comcast.net

No PM's please.


TED Z

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

FYI, out of the three late Charles Steinbachers from Pennsylvania, only two could have likely fit the age criteria to be the artist in question. Unfortunately, both passed away in the 1960's (1962 and 1966). It would be interesting to discover the names of other Bowman artists. Does anyone have any leads?

[tedzan]

Jodi

The Charles Steinbacher (art Director) of the George Moll Advertising Agency that I have noted in my prior post here met with an untimely death in 1966.
He was the lead artist who designed many of the 1938 "Horrors of War" cards issued by GUM, Inc. (Blony bubble gum....the former Trademark of Bowman
Gum). This very dramatic and exceptionally artistic set of 240 Non-Sports cards depict the eventual horrors of WWII. This set of bubble gum cards was
the predecessor to the 1939-1941 Play Ball BB issues.

Another Bowman card artist was Tom King. My long-time hobby friend, Jack Weaver (professional artist), and I met with Tom back in the early 1990's at
his home. Tom and his wife (also a former Moll Agency employee) were a wealth of knowledge regarding the "good ole days" working for George Moll and
J. Warren Bowman.

With some amount of research, I can probably find more of the 12 artists that created a lot of the Bowman Sports and Non-Sports cards....no guaratees,
though.


Jodi
If you are interested, I have a newspaper article on Charles Steinbacher from The Philadelphia Inquirer (dated Sept 23, 1993) which I can send you.


TED Z

[Chris-Counts]

So are the four cards pictured '49 Bowman proofs? They seem like crude prototypes for the '50 Bowman set ...

[Chris-Counts]

Jodi, not only did Hires use one of the three 1956 Bowman prototypes for its 1958 design, but many of the photos appear to be outtakes from the 1955 Bowman set, which unlike almost any other set, primarily used photos taken in Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium, presumably in 1954 ...

[tedzan]

Are you sure that your top picture is Nellie Fox ?

(1) The BB player in this picture resembles White Sox outfielder Dave Philley more so than Nellie Fox.

(2) Nellie Fox started with the Philadelphia A's in 1947, and traded to the White Sox for the 1950 season.
Fox was not depicted in the Bowman sets till 1951. He is depicted in a different pose than the one in your top picture.

(3) The Ned Garver picture is circa 1948-1949 and was the image used by Bowman to create his 1949 & 1950 Bowman cards.



TED Z

[Chris-Counts]

The inclusion of Kramer makes me wonder if they really are Bowmans. He basically didn't arrive on the scene until '55, and didn't play in the pros until '57. Clarke started up about the same time. Why would Bowman create such a crude prototype in '56 when their artists, by that time, were producing much better work? The design would make sense if Bowman created it in '49, but not '56. Also, I've seen a few '56 Bowman proofs (Shuba and Koshorek?) and they look nothing like these cards ...

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

I recall reading a 1984 article about the '56 Bowman proofs. Too bad they didn't have the chance to issue them. One of the proposed styles resembled the 1958 Hires cards IIRC.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by JBirkholm

I recall reading a 1984 article about the '56 Bowman proofs. Too bad they didn't have the chance to issue them. One of the proposed styles resembled the 1958 Hires cards IIRC.

I am pretty sure Topps produced the Hires cards. They were famous for recycling designs, even if they originated with Bowman.

[enoch47]

I think in 56 bowman was going to release a college set in the classic 1948 bowman look, this time in color, we may never known. I have seen the Hires, those would have been some cool cards as a mainstream bowman release.