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I HAVE THE .... 1958 JIM BROWN ROOKIE CARD PHOTO.

Here is something that some of you fellow football buffs may find interesting.
At least I think it's kind of cool!!

Being a long time Cleveland Brown's fan, about a year ago I won an ebay auction for an 8 x10 Black and White vintage photograph
of legendary Brown's running back: Jimmy Brown.
At the time, I paid close to 100.00 for it, which I thought was pretty high....especially for no autograph.
But you could tell that it was a first generation shot that had come directly off the photographers original negetive.
On the back of this photo there is a stamp that reads:

PLAYER....................... Jim Brown, Brown's name witten in long hand
POSITION................... Fullback written in long hand
The Cleveland BROWNS

PHOTOGRAPH BY HENRY M. BARR
COMMAND INDUSTRIAL PHOTOGRAPHER
BEREA, OHIO
Phone BErea 4-1337
DATE: Note: date not filled in

What is so cool, is that this is the EXACT PHOTO of Jim Brown's Rookie Card.
Brown's Rookie card was taken from a black and white 8 x 10 photograph and totally colored in or colorized.
None of the colors on the Rookie card are true.
It is just basically an artists rendition, of what they thought the colors ought to be.

You can really see it clearly on the orange stripes on both the top uniform sleeves and socks.
Jim Brown's led foot in the origianal photo has a slight motion blur, thus lightening the strip on his socks.
When you look closely at his Rookie card, it looks as if someone used a bright orange marker and just drew them in.

Darn it, I wish I knew how to post a picture to this thread......as pictures truely are worth a thousand words.
It would be great if I could post side by side the rookie card and the original B& W photo for you guy's to look at.

Anyway, since the Brown Rookie card is one of the most coveted in all the Football Collecting Hobby,
I just thought some of you might find this little tid bit interesting.

CHEERS!

MojoRob



Comments

  • VirtualizardVirtualizard Posts: 1,936 ✭✭
    Cool!

    Email me a scan of your photo and I'll get a side by side picture posted here - jeb@virtualizard.com

    JEB.
  • CWCW Posts: 1,213 ✭✭✭
    Very interesting!
    Will look forward to seeing it...
  • mojorobmojorob Posts: 392 ✭✭
    I have mentioned to Jeb via email that I will try and get him a nice quality scan of the Brown photo in the next day or two.
    I don't have a scanner only a digital camera.
    Until then.

    MojoRob
  • shouldabeena10shouldabeena10 Posts: 1,357 ✭✭✭
    Hey Mojo,

    I'll trade you an old used scanner for the old Jim Brown Photo image

    Mike
    "Vintage Football Cards" A private Facebook Group of 4000 members, for vintage football card trading, sales & auctions. https://facebook.com/groups/vintagefootball/
  • VirtualizardVirtualizard Posts: 1,936 ✭✭
    MojoRob got his photo scanned today and emailed it to me. Here it is, side by side with a PSA 9 version of the '58 Topps card, cropped out of the holder for comparison. Enjoy!

    JEB.


    image
  • Very cool - you should get the two pieces framed side-by-side!

    Robert
  • CWCW Posts: 1,213 ✭✭✭
    Now that's pretty damn cool! Thanks for posting the images, JEB.

    mojorob - did you get this from the Topps Vault? Makes you wonder how
    many of these exist. Did card companies generally develop only one
    photo for each player?
  • mojorobmojorob Posts: 392 ✭✭
    CW,
    No, I didn't get this photo from the Topps Vault.
    Here would be my educated guess on the subject.
    The Football Teams back in the late 50's and early 60's hired their own photographers to take player publicity shots for their respective teams.
    These shots were usually taken toward the end of training camp, right before the team would break camp.
    The camps in those days were usually colleges in the general area of the teams main cities.
    That is why you see many photos with rolling hills and large brick dormatory looking buildings in many of the back grounds.
    These shots were taken usually for game day program purposes and newspaper publicity shots.
    Topps many times would not have a decent photograph of a particular player, so they would use these team issued training camp shots
    for their cards issues.
    You can really see this practice used in abundance for the 1964 Topps AFL issue.
    The majority of this set was taken from team issued publicity photos with the backgrounds cropped out.
    By and large, this lazy practice really made for an ugly set, which IMHO the Topps 64 Football issue certainly qualifies for.
    Topps was simply cutting corners and their issues suffered when this practice was used extensively.
    But what you also have to understand is that Topp's budget wasn't nearly as large for football back then, as it was for the National Pastime...Baseball.
    If you ever get the chance to study any early AFL Football programs, you will see many examples of Topps Football Cards gracing the programs pages.
    Anyway, those are just some of my brief observations as I collect 8x10 photos & game day programs from the 60's era.
    Hope you guy's enjoyed the Jimmy Brown photo(s) comparison.
    A BIG THANKYOU to the Virtualizard JEB, for making it possible!

    Cheers
    MojoRob
  • AlanAllenAlanAllen Posts: 1,530 ✭✭✭
    Rob,
    That is a suberb piece! I think you got a steal - if the seller had known the significance of the photo and advertised it as such, I'm sure it would have gotten much more bidding.

    Joe
    No such details will spoil my plans...
  • That is a beautiful example you have there..

    .. John Pound, a artist for Topps' non-sport trading cards, and Rob Lifson, President of MastroNet's Americana Division According to Lifson, the supply of original paintings for early (Pre-1955) trading cards is rare. For baseball and football trading cards, he could only come up with, off the top of his head, 1933 National Chicle (football), 1930s Diamond Star (baseball) and 1950s Topps and Bowman. He said that even vintage non-painting original art (photographs, flexichrome, etc) is rare..

    You may have the only picture developed for that card and it would demand high dollars..
    Scott
  • MojoRob,

    Nice picture!

    I graduated from high school in Middleburg Hts, Ohio with Mr. Barr's son. (Let's just say this was a few years back!) Middleburg Hts is adjacent to Berea as both are suburbs in the greater Cleveland area. Mr. Barr always did the school pictures and I didn't realize he was into sports photography. I'm not sure if he's still alive or not or if the business still exists and has been carried on by his sons or others? You might be interested in trying to follow up on that to find out more details about your photo.

    Good luck and thanks for sharing it on the forum.
    Tom
  • mojorobmojorob Posts: 392 ✭✭
    Tom,
    Hey, this is kind of fun.
    Thanks a lot for the info re. Mr Barr.
    I will follow up to see if I can get a little more info re. the picture and will be happy to share it with you guy's.
    Would you be kind enough to email me at: robinson209@comcast.net
    I have a couple quick questions I would like to ask you, if possible.
    Thank you for your kind consideration.
    I appreciate it.

    MojoRob
    Kirk Robinson
  • wolfbearwolfbear Posts: 2,759 ✭✭✭

    The pics ARE similar, but me thinks it's nothing more than a coinkydink. image

    Pix of 'My Kids'

    "How about a little fire Scarecrow ?"
  • mojorobmojorob Posts: 392 ✭✭
    Wolfbear,

    It be just a tad bit more dan your everyday ............ coinkydink.

    It be a full blown.......... DEAD ON RING-A-DINK!! image

    MojoRob
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