1969 Pro's Pizza Ron Santo ?

[Cliff Bowman]

These show up on eBay regularly and they are often referred to as 1969 Pro's Pizza. There are two slightly different sizes of the photos and the facsimile autograph is placed differently. I don’t know what exact year they are and I don't believe they are directly connected to the 1966 or 1967 Pro's Pizza sets that were sold at the Pro's Pizza concession stand at Wrigley Field those two years. I believe they are more closely related to the 1967 Pro's Pizza discs that were on frozen pizza boxes sold in Chicagoland grocery stores that year. They are made out of the same material as the discs, a waxy cardboard that is standard for frozen pizza boxes. I believe they were part of a Pro's Pizza frozen pizza box that only featured Santo and were sold in Chicagoland grocery stores sometime between 1966 and 1969. Ron Santo was the majority owner of Pro's Pizza along with his very reluctant business partner Glenn Beckert (that is Beckert to the right in the color photo) from the time it started (1965-1966?) until it was bought out in 1969. Santo also owned and ran a few Pro's Pizza restaurants in suburban Chicago in the late 60's. It's amazing that as many of these there are available that there hasn't been a complete box or more information on them, that I am aware of anyway.

[sflayank]

nice ancillary pieces
are they for sale?

[brian1961]

Cliff, I can confirm the beautiful Ron Santo color photo was definitely on the backside of a Pro's Pizza box. I helped my dear mother with her shopping one late March day in 1968, and saw these boxes. She let me select one. I thought the Santo photo was terrific. His photo was the only one featured on the boxes. My family was living in the northwest suburbs of Chicago at the time.

Regards, bro. ---Brian Powell

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by brian1961

Cliff, I can confirm the beautiful Ron Santo color photo was definitely on the backside of a Pro's Pizza box. I helped my dear mother with her shopping one late March day in 1968, and saw these boxes. She let me select one. I thought the Santo photo was terrific. His photo was the only one featured on the boxes. My family was living in the northwest suburbs of Chicago at the time.

Regards, bro. ---Brian Powell

Thank you! ETA, I didn’t think they were a 1969 issue.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by sflayank

nice ancillary pieces
are they for sale?

I got them off of Pinterest, although I do own a couple of them.