Charles Conlon photographs and negro leagues ?

eddieo24 · #1 03-30-2021, 05:09 AM

Did Charles Conlon take photographs of negro league players and was it ever transferred to cards ?

tschock · #2 03-31-2021, 06:58 AM

I do not believe so. In the 1933 All-Star and Negro League "Conlon sets" put out in the 1980s, the Negro League photos were not Conlon photos. Hard to say if he ever took photos of Negro League players. I am not aware of any but there could be. Though if there were any in the surviving negatives, I would imagine that The Sporting News would have included some as part of one of the 'subsets' in The Conlon Collection series they put out over the years. Maybe they were planning it for an unpublished series.

So to your questions, he may have, but if so none ever made it to cards (AFAIK).

eddieo24 · #3 03-31-2021, 07:10 AM

ty

ALR-bishop · #4 03-31-2021, 09:20 AM

eddie--I did the Conlon Collection ( Mega Cards and The Sporting News) sets 1991 to 1995. In one of their 1995 sets they did interpose some Ken Griffey Jr images. I also have a Mega Cards Conlon based Ruth only set in 1992. Also did The Sporting News Conlon based sets in 1981, 1983 and 1984.

And I have the Worldwide Conlon sets from 1986 to 1988. Those included a 1988 World Wide Sports 1933 All Star set of 48 and a 1988 World Wide Sports 1933 Negro All Star set of 12. SCD listed it in their 2011 Standard Catalog, the last one with post 80 listings. It says that Negro All Star set was based on Conlon photos from the Sporting News archives files. If you need or want the checklist, let me know. Also have the set in you need any scans

Thank you Bob Lemke again

eddieo24 · #5 03-31-2021, 09:55 AM

Thanks for reply ..but are you bob lemke or al richter ?..can i PM you

ALR-bishop · #6 03-31-2021, 10:03 AM

Fortunately I am not Bob, but the hobby is better for the likes of Bob and his work on the Standard Catalog. RIP Bob

Yes on pms

scmavl · #7 03-31-2021, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eddieo24

Thanks for reply ..but are you bob lemke or al richter ?..can i PM you

Bob was a wealth of information, and happy to share it with anyone. When you have some time, visit Bob's old blog at http://boblemke.blogspot.com/ as it's still up and he was quite active on there for years. He was a very nice man who I am grateful I got to talk with a few times before his passing.

tschock · #8 04-01-2021, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

And I have the Worldwide Conlon sets from 1986 to 1988. Those included a 1988 World Wide Sports 1933 All Star set of 48 and a 1988 World Wide Sports 1933 Negro All Star set of 12. SCD listed it in their 2011 Standard Catalog, the last one with post 80 listings. It says that Negro All Star set was based on Conlon photos from the Sporting News archives files. If you need or want the checklist, let me know. Also have the set in you need any scans

Thank you Bob Lemke again

Al,

Not a slight at all toward Mr Lemke and all the work that he (and others) have done, but I'm not totally buying that the Negro League cards were Conlon photos, or not all of them anyway. And I would wager that they are definitely not from any of Conlon negatives The Sporting News had access to. The backs of the 1983 and 1988 cards would give the impression that they from Conlon photos, but its not clear (AFAIK) whether TSN had copies of the photos in their possession or if they were taken from another source.

I would be interested in knowing if you (or anyone) has a reference to the full source photo for any of the cards, as most (all?) of the photos on the NL cards were cropped from any original photos, and in some cases I believe possibly from a team photo. Also from looking through thousands of Conlon photos, some of the pics do not 'feel' like Conlon photos in style, composition, and/or quality (even allowing for the cards being a copy from a copy from a copy). Had TSN had an original negatives of the NL players they chose, they likely would have used them (including the 1991-1995 series). But it could be that any Conlon NL negatives were some of those glass negatives that Conlon himself destroyed, which were about 2/3 of all the glass negatives he produced, and the source photos could be directly linked back to Conlon by other means.

I'd be interested in any additional evidence that could provide that direct link or verification. As to the Conlon cards themselves, there's some great information on all the Conlon sets at http://conloncards.blogspot.com/

P.S. There are actually 3 printings of the 1991 set, unless I'm missing what you had (or was cut off) in your subsequent post. The 1st printing had Hall of Fame spelled out on the first 67 cards (no MLB logo), 2nd had HOF (year) with no MLB logo on back, 3rd had MLB logo. There is no visible/obvious difference between the 1st and 2nd printing for cards 68-330.

eddieo24 · #9 04-01-2021, 04:12 PM

Thanks for info

orioles70 · #10 04-02-2021, 05:30 AM

There are lots of oddball Conlon items...here are a couple