Country of Issue: USA
Year of Issue: late 1940s
Color/B&W: B&W
Number of Cards in Set:
Card Size:
Issued as insert with what product:
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Issuing Company: Country of Issue: USA Year of Issue: late 1940s Color/B&W: B&W Number of Cards in Set: Card Size: Issued as insert with what product: |
Notes: Checklist incomplete. This checklist is more of a smorgasbord of information than an actual checklist. I have titled the set "Bond Bread" even though there is great doubt that Bond Bread ever issued these cards, but that is what they are known by in collecting circles, so I'll go with that name in quotation marks.
This is one of the more confusing groups of cards ever issued because they were issued several different ways, by several different issuers, with different types of cards such as baseball players, movie stars, boxers, football players, and western stars mixed together.
The reason everyone thinks of them as Bond Bread cards is because there was a set of Bond Bread Jackie Robinson baseball cards issued at about the same time as these cards in the late 1940s. The Jackie Robinson cards can be found with Bond Bread advertising on the backs. In addition to the Bond Bread Jackie Robinson set, there is another baseball card set that has the same look as the Bond Bread Jackie Robinson cards. That set contains 48 cards (44 baseball players and four boxers). There is another set of 48 movie star cards with the same appearance that was issued by Wildman Sons (W.S.).
The set checklisted here is made up mostly of cards from the sets mentioned above in slightly different formats. The identified movie star cards in this set all contain cards with the same pictures from the W. S. Screen Star Subjects Rounded Corners set. The baseball players all come from the 48-card baseball-boxer card set mentioned above. In addition, there are a group of western movie star cards that appear to be unique to this set. There is also a football player card that is also unique to this set.
This set can be found with solid squared edges or with perforated edges. The W.S. movie star cards have rounded corners, but this set does not. This set is sometimes found with double-sided cards, with a star on each side. Those double-sided cards have been seen with advertising from two different companies. The ad backs indicate there are 46 cards in the double-sided sets. The double-sided cards have been seen only with perforated edges. These cards have also been seen with blank backs, and those cards have solid squared edges.
Almost all the cards from this set originated from the 48-card movie star set and the 48-card baseball-boxer set, but there are at least two additional cards in this set, including football player Bob Chappius (really Chappuis), and female golfer Babe Didrickson Zaharias. The unidentified cowboy movie stars are new as well.
Thanks to Amit Benyovits for help with this checklist. Various other collectors also contributed to this information with chat room and blog posts, including Ted Zanidakis, Leon Luckey, Bob Lemke, John Rumierz, Adam Warshaw.
Blank-backed version with solid squared edges (movie stars and cowboys)
The identified movie stars in this group all come from the W.S. movie star set. Any of the other cards from that 48-card set could also potentially be in this set, though the cards below are the only ones seen so far.
June Allyson
Dana Andrews
James Cagney
Claudette Colbert
Jeanne Crain
Joan Crawford
Linda Darnell
Bette Davis
Howard Duff
Irene Dunne
Errol Flynn
Henry Fonda
Greer Garson
Paulette Goddard
Betty Grable
Cary Grant
Rita Hayworth
Sonja Henie
Katherine Hepburn
Celeste Holm
Bob Hope
Van Johnson
Jennifer Jones
Danny Kaye
Victor Mature
Lon McCallister
Gregory Peck
Dick Powell
George Raft
Ginger Rogers
Roy Rogers
James Stewart
Lana Turner
Cornel Wilde
At least 18 different unidentified western movie stars including William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy),
Walter Brennan, William Conrad, Gene Autry, etc. Click the picture at the top of this page to
see a picture checklist of these cards.
Elgee version - perforated double-sided version (sports, movie stars, cowboys)
This group contains double-sided cards. A few cards have printed backs which mention Elgee and also say there are 46 cards in the set. This checklist shows known pairs of cards. Since these cards are double-sided, it is difficult to know for certain which fronts go with which backs from scans, so a second checklist is presented with all known cards but not in pairs.
Known pairs
Harry Brecheen (baseball) - unidentified cowboy (William Boyd)
Bruce Edwards (baseball) - unidentified cowboy
Tommy Holmes (baseball) - Van Johnson (movie star)
Larry Jansen (baseball) - unidentified cowboy
Lon McCallister (movie star) - unidentified cowboy (John Wayne)
Pee Wee Reese (baseball) - unidentified cowboys
John Sain (baseball) - Bob Hope (movie star)
All known cards (includes known and unknown pairs)
Baseball Players
Rex Barney
Harry Brecheen
Bruce Edwards
Tommy Holmes
Larry Jansen
Sheldon Jones
Dicky Kerr
Willard Marshall
Pee Wee Reese
John Sain
Identified Movie Stars
Claudette Colbert
Cary Grant
Sonja Henie
Katharine Hepburn
Bob Hope
Van Johnson
Jennifer Jones
Lon McCallister
Gregory Peck
Ginger Rogers
Roy Rogers
At least 15 different unidentified western movie stars including John Wayne and William Boyd
(Hopalong Cassidy). Click the picture at the top of this page to see a picture checklist of
these cards.
Hess version - perforated double-sided version (sports, movie stars, cowboys)
Known pairs
Unidentified cowboy - Hess printed back
All known cards (includes known and unknown pairs)
Identified Movie Stars
Henry Fonda
Gregory Peck
Ginger Rogers
James Stewart
Cornel Wilde
Identified Golfers
Babe Didrickson Zaharias
At least 6 different unidentified western movie stars including John Wayne and William Boyd
(Hopalong Cassidy). Click the picture at the top of this page to see a picture checklist of
these cards.
Unidentified versions (perforated)
These cards were reported by various collectors. It is unknown if they are a part of the Elgee or Hess sets, or if they are from other versions of this set.
Lou Boudreau (baseball) - Ingrid Bergman (movie star)
Tommy Holmes (baseball) - Bob Chappius (Chappuis) (football)
Johnny Mize (baseball) - Victor Mature (movie star)
Aaron Robinson (baseball) - unidentified cowboy
Jackie Robinson (baseball) - James Cagney (movie star)
Ted Williams (baseball) - Babe Zaharias (golf)
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