Tag Archives: cards

At last the complete BATMAN A&BC Gum Cards 1966. PINK BACK #batman #A&BC

55 Batman Cards…

It has only taken me 48 years to get the complete set of f Batman 1966  A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd cards but I am a happy man… I acquired the missing one today.

Each card is a full colour, hand-painted image by one of several contributing (comic book) artists including: Norm Saunders and Bob Powell.

batman_bubble_gum_cards

Set of 55 Batman cards (British variant of Topps Batman set – Front is the same as US set, reverse has pink background with text.) Commonly known as “Pink Back Series” or “Black Bats”. UK cards smaller in size compared to the US Topps sets

The Beatles A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd (first series) 7 loose cards #beatles

Faded Beatles – my life has faded with them

I unearthed a box of old stuff which was crammed with bits and pieces from my childhood. Photographs of the Beatles printed on cardboard, faded and going the colour of straw – I looked in the mirror and there was the same reflection.

Below are a few of the Beatles black & white cards. Numbers 7, 37, 45, 48, 51, 57, 60 from a series of 60. A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd cards showing John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney with printed signatures in blue.

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The #Beatles – trading cards better than the real thing

I understand the joys of collecting things like stamps, trading crds etc. there is alway the pleasure of finding, buying that elusive one that will make the set. Chewing gum cards were my thing when I was small – I loved the chance element, the hope of getting what I wanted. I no longer collect things but I still love chance, which is why I now do the lottery.

The Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act and producer George Martin enhanced their musical potential. They gained popularity in the United Kingdom after their first hit, “Love Me Do”, in late 1962. They acquired the nickname “the Fab Four” as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the following year, and by early 1964 they had become international stars, leading the “British Invasion” of the United States pop market.

In 1962 / 63 Douglas Coakley of A & BC Chewing Gum Ltd, approached Brian Epstein, The Beatles manager, and his lawyer David Jacobs, to obtain the rights to produce trading cards featuring photographs and autographs of the Beatles. A set of 60 cards was produced and issued in 1964. The photographs were provided to A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd courtesy of Nems Enterprises Ltd, Brian Epstein’s company, and appear to be mostly taken in 1963 and maybe 1962. A second series quickly followed.

I love Beatles ephemera – I hate their annoying music

As far as I am concerned they are not the massive influence on popular music they are claimed to be – mediocrity comes to mind.

beatles_series_1_backs

The backs are clean on 7, 37, 48, 51, 57(obviously age faded) and corners and edges fairly crisp and sharp.

The backs of 45 and 60 are glue damaged and age faded. Corners and edges are fairly crisp and sharp.

WHO-Z-AT STAR Chewing Gum Cards – Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE

Going through the attic I have founds loads of complete Chewing Gum Card sets including two from 1959(?) in the series Who-z-at Star. Stars from Arthur Askey to Patrick McGoohan, Adam Faith to Noel Gordon etc. Great nostalgic excursion.

Who-z-at Star Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE

who-z-at star Shirley Bassey

who-z-at star 42

SHIRLEY BASSEY A.& B.C. GUM CARD-WHO-Z-AT STAR? No.42

Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE (born 8 January 1937) is a Welsh singer with a career spanning more than 60 years. Originally finding fame in the mid-1950s, Bassey has gone on to be dubbed “one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century” and has sold an estimated 135 million records worldwide making her one of the most successful British music acts in history. In the US, in particular, she is best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979).

Shirley Bassey. (2014, November 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:48, November 19, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shirley_Bassey&oldid=634386202

Great nostalgia. Shirley Bassey A.& B.C. GUM Card: WHO-Z-AT STAR? No.42

A&BC Cards – full of blood, gore, and sadistic acts

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BATTLE CARDS A&BC Chewing Gum Cards

World War II cards known as ‘Battle’ trading cards 1965 were incredibly graphic: full of blood, gore, and sadistic acts. With our second millennium disposition and political correctness they seem strange, from another world, unacceptable, shocking – they are also tiny works of popular art (pop art) graphic art / illustration – but above all outrageous. Even during the 1960s they were classed as subversive, perverse and dangerous for children to look at, so dangerous in fact that A&BC Ltd. were charged under the Obscene Publications Act in 1968 for publishing theses images.

Early Post War Britain was a very different place than it is now, the victory over Germany and Japan was still fresh in Britain’s consciousness – I can remember seeing a former Japanese prisoner of war walking around my town, he had white hair, dark sunken eyes and the haunted look of a condemned man. Horror and the reality of war was still evident so the images of war on these cards were not so shocking to a 10 year old – but aren’t todays video games more shocking?

The Battle cards were painted by Norman Saunders, Maurice Blumenfeld, Ed Valigurski, and Bob Powell.

 

(Land Of) Hope

The bells ring out for obedience,

Like a chorus of funeral bells.

The drugged out hippy cries for peace,
And then tries to find his head.

Bloody whores whip them,
Watch them bob and dance.

On the end of a rope,
On the end of a joke.