ephemera

American Idol Red Hot Ephemera Market

My wife has a thing for former American Idol contestant, Constantine Maroulis. So, I picked his cherubic punim to make a broad point about the hot market for Idol ephemera on eBay. In fact, MTV.com news reports that "the business of Idol ephemera and bootleg tie-in products is booming."

I did a quick search on eBay to check out some of the weird and wonderful Idol ephemera for sale. The majority of items fall into the personalized buttons, stickers, and t-shirt category. But there were more than a few items that made my head bobble and eyes roll more wildly than Paula's at a four-way stop. For instance, a quick scan of David Archuleta merchandise reveals some interesting paper goods, including Archuleta return address labels. Anyone collect return address labels of the stars?

And my favorite misfit Idol, Jason Castro, has inspired a slew of ephemera nuggets.

Surely, American Idol will eventually run its course, like a bad case of German Measles, and find its way on to the TV land scrap heap. However, I believe the ephemera the show has spawned will live on into the next century. I wonder if any crafty ephemera collectors have made American Idol a main focus of their pop culture collection. If you have, leave a comment here. I know we'd all like to hear more about it.

[Photo attribution: Maroulis image by Aine D.]

Bobby Fischer Autograph Expert Lawrence Totaro

Author and chess collector, Lawrence Totaro, 26, resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, and enjoys playing the piano, drawing, and researching chess materials. We spoke recently about his new book, Fisching for Forgeries, a guide to determining the authenticity of the signature of the late chess legend, Bobby Fischer.

ephemera: Tell me about the Fisching for Forgeries. How did the project begin?

Totaro: Fisching for Forgeries did not have a preconceived, intentional beginning. After three years of corresponding with collectors and researchers, material began to build regarding the Bobby Fischer autograph. Observing and comparing these items with those discovered on eBay, it became clearly apparent that introspection needed to be conducted and Fisching for Forgeries was the result, not something a process to be completed.

ephemera: What challenges or obstacles do you encounter in writing the book? How do you overcome these challenges?

Totaro: A major challenge encountered in the research was the discovery of variation after another in an attempt to establish a set autograph. As stated in the book, there have been eleven variations discovered and when these variations kept occurring; it was quite hard to assemble an objective autograph. Establishing a comparable foundation was quite difficult but with sufficient amount of quality material followed by proper guidance from fellow colleagues, it was clear that overcoming this obstacle was highly probable.

ephemera: What discoveries did you make along the way?

Totaro: When one conducts research, it is natural to ponder through various sources to see if proper research has been already attempted. Whether that research has been conducted by an “expert” or an “authority” it becomes quite clear that one establishes a foundation, or better yet, a place to begin. In this project, there were no “authoritative” or so called, “experts” to rely upon and so the beginning of a foundation was created. It should be noted that a little pamphlet such as Fisching for Forgeries does not answer any questions or offer an “expert” opinion; it is merely a foundation for others to build upon. Whether this foundation is helpful, that is up to future researchers to decide.

ephemera: I recently read the fascinating book, Bobby Fisher Goes to War. Beyond his brilliance at Chess, Fischer is such an interesting character. What does the book tell us about the Bobby Fischer and his career?

Totaro: Fisching for Forgeries will not discuss the chess career of Bobby Fischer. The grapholigcal analysis written by Sheila Lowe is the only section of the book that attempts to deliver an understanding of Fischer’s personality. [It should be noted to readers that a site has compiled such books on Fischer and/or his career. For quick web access, visit this page by chess researcher, Bill Wall.]

ephemera: Who is the audience for the book, and what will they gain by reading it?

Totaro: Collectors of chess autographs and researchers of Bobby Fischer’s autograph should be the direct audience of Fisching for Forgeries. However, collectors from other areas should be able to understand the need to deepen their insight before making a purchase.

ephemera: Thank you, Lawrence. I'm glad we had the chance to discuss your book. I know a lot of autograph collectors will want to check it out. [To read a review of the book written by chess enthusiast, Phil Innes, click here.]

The Peterhof Museum of Playing Cards

The Museum of Playing Cards is now open at the Peterhof State Museum-Reserve, more widely known as the Summer Residence of the Russian Emperors. The museum's collection of playing cards contains about 30,000 items, more than 6,000 decks.

Its core is the collection of the well-known collector from Leningrad, Alexander Semenovich Perelman (1932-1995). He was an active collector and kept in contact with collectors at the International Association of Collectors of Playing Cards, and also with some foreign factories, which manufactured playing cards.

In 1999, the Peterhof Museum bought this collection from the collector's widow and then considerably enlarged it with its own acquisitions--purchased mainly at auctions and antique stores. Alexander Perelman dreamed of opening a museum of playing cards. He even commissioned an architectural project of such a building, the future storehouse of his collection. But at that time his plans could not be brought to life, the passion for playing cards, even as an object of historic entity or subject of collecting, was not encouraged in the Soviet Union. Today, Alexander Perelman dream is a reality.

The museum playing cards range in date from the 16th to 20th centuries, from many countries of Europe, Russia, America, and Asia. Among them there are well-known card factories, cards by famous engravers and artists, collection and author's samples of the last century. Beyond playing cards the exposition displays Tarot cards and cards for tarock, cards for fortune-telling and for children's games, educational and geographical cards, propaganda and advertising cards, historical and political cards, and many others. The collection is supplemented by objects of arts and crafts, for which artists used playing card symbols, accessories accompanying the game, and a wonderful library. The museum display has about 6,000 objects, more than 1,000 decks of playing cards and about five hundred objects of numismatics – rare and unique counters and chips.

The Guest of Honor at the opening of the Museum (September, 2007) was Stuart Kaplan, the famous U.S. collector of playing and tarot cards. Kaplan is the founder of the U.S. Games Systems, a leading publisher of tarot decks, books, and card games. He has authored six books about tarot, its symbolism and history. His four-volume work, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, is in the Library of the Museum.

In June 2006 the Peterhof Museum bought a number of historic pieces from the collection of Stuart Kaplan for the future Museum of Playing Cards. The Museum is open every day, except Monday.

Baseball Card Collector Josh Wilker Interview

As part of my celebration of the opening of the 2008 baseball season, I've featured several posts recently about baseball ephemera, including a recent interview with a collector of White Sox baseball cards. Today's post contains an interview with Josh Wilker, a baseball card collector and editor of the Carboard Gods blog. In it, Josh talks about card collecting from a generalists perspective.

ephemera: When did you become interested in baseball cards?

Wilker: I started collecting cards when my older brother started collecting cards, in 1975, when I was in first grade. It was something for us to grab onto just after our family moved away from our dad and all our friends and to a new state. I'm sure for me it was also a way to try to stay as close as possible to my brother, who I worshiped and imitated whenever possible.

ephemera: Did you begin consciously, knowing what you would collect, or did you just one day discover what you were doing?

Wilker: The collecting of baseball cards in some ways began--or at least paralleled the beginning of--my conscious life. It was something I woke up doing. Once I was doing it I had some conception of goals, such as completing a year's set or at least one team's set (I never accomplished either goal), but mostly I was just carried along by the feeling of opening a new pack of cards and chewing the gum and thumbing through the colorful new cards. The greatest feeling, of course, was when you discovered an All-Time Great in your pack. I was an addict of the sugar-high feeling, and of the slightly milder corollary highs--memorizing stats on the back of the cards, sorting the cards into teams, checking off acquired cards on checklists, etc.

ephemera: What challenges or obstacles do you encounter in compiling this collection? How do you overcome these challenges?

Wilker: I stopped collecting cards around the time I hit puberty. But after years--decades--of dormancy my childhood collection started to become a part of my present life again when I wrote about a few cards during a year spent in a Unabomber-type cabin with no electricity and no running water. I gradually began to realize that I wanted to try to bring the cards back to life. In that sense, the challenge became not one of compiling but of connecting. I've been writing at great length about the cards for a year and a half, and in that span there hasn't been a week that's gone by where I haven't wondered if there was absolutely nothing left to say about my childhood baseball card collection. But eventually a newly rediscovered card will show some glimmer of life, if I sit and look at it for long enough.

ephemera: What are your favorite items in the collection? Do you have a 'show stopper' in your collection? If so, what is it?

Wilker: The first card that comes to mind is a 1980 Mark Fidrych card. When I started the Cardboard Gods blog, I decided that the first card profile I would write would be chosen at random. I was stunned that out of all my cards the one to start the whole project would be Mark Fidrych. No one player from my childhood epitomized the brief, joyous flowering of childhood itself than Mark Fidrych, who burst into the league in 1976 and had one incredibly effective and entertaining season before fizzling out due to injuries. The 1980 card is especially poignant to me because by that point his fate as a one-season wonder had pretty much been sealed, yet here he was, still hanging on, still trying.

Beyond that, I don't have a hierarchical sense of my cards. Monetarily, they're all equally dinged-up and worthless. And in my own mind the cards of the least known players are often more fascinating than the cards of the stars. But that said, if I were showing someone a small sample of my collection, I'd show my 1975 Rudy Meoli, which because of its enigmatic action photo was a favorite of mine as a kid, and my 1977 J.R. Richard, dazzling in its rainbow colors and ferocious coiled energy, and my 1977 Pete Broberg for the strange, otherworldly effect created by the crude airbrushing job, and my 1980 Carl Yastrzemski, because he was my favorite player as a kid and because throughout my twenties I kept the card on my writing desk as a guide, i.e., "here's how to stand in there and wait for your pitch."

ephemera: What resources do you recommend for people interested in collecting baseball cards?

Wilker: The greatest baseball card writing ever done, and some of the best sports writing, period, was produced by Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris in Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book. I've also gotten inspiration in my attempts to connect to my cards from other of my favorite writers, most importantly Frederick Exley, who in A Fan's Notes showed that it was possible to present a life in full through the lens of being on the sidelines, as a fan. As for tools, I store all my cards the way I did as a kid, in a shoebox, no plastic, each individual team wrapped in a rubber band.

ephemera: Thanks for helping me celebrate the opening of another great baseball season, Josh. I appreciate your time and thoughtful care in answering my questions.

White Sox Baseball Card Collector Steve Gierman

I've been a White Sox fan since the early 1970s, when my uncle introduced me to his favorite team. For a kid living on the Northside of Chicago--in enemy territory--it was a hard road. But there were others similarly afflicted. That's why I'm so excited about my recent interview with Steve Gierman. Steve has been collecting baseball cards on and off since 1983. In the past few years, he has focused his attention to collecting only cards of the Chicago White Sox and his two favorite players--Baines and Fisk. We discussed his collection and his love of the White Sox in the following interview:

ephemera: As a White Sox fan, I'm eager to hear why you selected the team as the focus for your card collection.

Gierman: To understand my interest in White Sox baseball cards, I have to recall a few key events that shaped my youth. I had always enjoyed playing baseball with my friends, but I was oblivious to any type of professional baseball being played. I can remember sitting in my bedroom, in 1982, turning the knob to flip through the television channels. I came across a baseball game on channel 44, which was a local UHF station in Chicago. It was a White Sox game, and I’m almost certain that they were playing the Blue Jays.

I had no idea when these games would be televised, so I would channel flip until I found a baseball game. I would watch any game that was played, but I preferred watching the White Sox. I enjoyed listening to Ken “Hawk” Harrelson and Don Drysdale call the games on television and I liked the style of play that the White Sox brought to the game. Players like Harold Baines, Carlton Fisk, and Richard Dotson brought the game I played with my friends to life.

In 1983, my dad surprised me with a pack of Topps cards. I didn’t have a clue that the people I watched play my favorite game were being immortalized on cardboard. Most of the pack was cool, but nothing that exciting. Then I got to the card of Alfredo Griffin. There was something about the expression on his face, while desperately trying to hold on to the ball, that captured my young imagination. I was instantly hooked. For the next few years, I tried to get my hands on any card I could. It didn’t matter who was on it or what team he was on. I had delusions of grandeur of collecting every single card out there. With only three companies producing cards, it seemed like an attainable goal as a kid.

My dad started to take me to White Sox games shortly after that. Seeing the players that I admired in person was the biggest thrill for me. It didn’t matter if I met them or not. I was just glad to be privileged enough to see them play in person. The sounds and sights of old Comiskey Park were enough to make a lasting impression on me that still brings a smile to my face. Every time that the White Sox hit a home run, the scoreboard exploded in a colorful array of fireworks. The players, the food, the fireworks and the organist, Nancy Faust, all were a part of my growing love for the White Sox.

ephemera: Excuse me, I'm getting misty-eyed. Did you begin consciously, knowing what you would collect, or did you just one day discover what you were doing?

Gierman: When I began collecting cards, I tried collecting everything under the sun. This led to a lot of disappointment and frustration. I was never able to complete any of my Topps sets as a kid. I didn’t have the resources available to realistically get it done. This led me to stop collecting baseball cards at two different times in my life. The first time was after 1987. My interest started to wane from collecting everything and not being able to complete sets through the packs I would buy at the corner drugstore or through trades. The kids that I would usually trade with started to move away from the area. I was stuck with opening whatever packs my allowance could buy.

I started to move into what other kids were collecting, just so I could have a chance at completing some sets. I got into Garbage Pail Kids for awhile and gravitated towards comic books for a few years. Both of those were fine for something different, but couldn’t satisfy what I really wanted to collect.

In 1990, I started buying packs at the corner drugstore again. This time, I found many more packs to choose from. A few other companies, like Upper Deck and Score, had started in my absence. The card companies that I grew up with expanded with sister sets. I picked up me first Bowman and Leaf cards that year. I was able to complete a few sets in 1990, with the help of factory sets that I received at Christmas. I had all the cards in the set, but it didn’t feel right. I missed the fun of the hunt. I have never bought another factory set since 1990.

The next year, I reached my peak in collecting. I was unimpressed with the majority of the product coming out, so I cut back my pack buying. I bought what I thought would be my last pack in 1994. There were too many releases coming out and the price was starting to skyrocket past my comfort level.

While I never boycotted baseball, the 1994 strike hit close to home. The White Sox were the favorites to go to the World Series and that never had a chance to happen. It took awhile, but baseball won me over again. I had always kept an eye on the games when the strike was over, but with each passing year, the games became more important in my life. It was about the feeling of my youth and the pure joy of the game.

Then around 2004, I started to collect team sets on eBay. I had to learn everything that happened in the hobby since 1994. It was like starting from scratch. I pulled out my old collection and started to sort through everything again. I vowed that I would start collecting again because it was something that brought me great joy in my life. I would only collect what really mattered to me, which was White Sox cards. As long as I had eBay, I would be able to collect only the White Sox cards and not be forced to buy something I didn’t want.

In 2007, I picked up my first pack of baseball cards in 13 years. It was all downhill from there. I had started to pick up packs again. Then, I graduated to blaster boxes and finally to hobby boxes. I kept true to my vow though, although with a slight tweak. I only collect White Sox cards, but I have expanded that to also include my two favorite players from my youth, Harold Baines and Carlton Fisk.

ephemera: Oh, I remember 1994. Thank goodness for 2005. And Harold is one of my all-time favorites. Robin Ventura, Bo Jackson, and Bucky Dent are also on my favorites list. What challenges or obstacles do you encounter in compiling this collection? How do you overcome these challenges?

Gierman: The biggest obstacle would be the team’s popularity. The White Sox don’t have as many cards as the Yankees or the Red Sox or even the Cubs. Since the team isn’t in the top 5, many eBay sellers will concentrate on selling cards of the more popular teams. I bypass that by trading with other collectors. This way of collecting also connects me to my youth. I get a kick out of each trade I complete. Everyone has different tastes and different ideas of what I want in return. Everyone has found something that I needed though and I love the variety in each trade.

Since the team generally has fewer cards available, the White Sox collectors tend to pounce on the same items. I have overpaid for some cards because of other collectors bidding on the same card. I usually set limits for each card. If I can’t find it under a certain amount or the bidding goes past a certain point, I can let it go without losing any sleep. I quickly learned the subtle nuances of bidding on eBay and have gotten better results out of my experiences.

A particular tricky part about collecting only specific cards of a team or a player is the parallel cards. Sometimes there seems to be an infinite amount of parallel cards for a release. Usually these cards are limited to as few as one card produced. My attitude towards those cards varies. Usually the lower the number is, the more I’ll resign myself to the fact that I probably won’t be adding it to my collection. If I happen to get it, that great, but I won’t stress myself over it if I don’t.

Being a team collector, the short print card has been another obstacle that I’ve encountered. The 2007 Topps Turkey Red set has two short print cards featuring White Sox players. Including the short print cards, the team set is only 6 cards. That makes it a bit difficult to complete a set. As of this writing, I’m still one card short of completing the team set for that release.

I would say that the most annoying trend that I run into is the cards of a player that feature him in one uniform and list him, on the card, on another team. This makes my task that much more difficult. My definition of a complete team set includes those cards listed as being on the White Sox and any card that features a player in a White Sox uniform. Many times I have to physically see the card to know if a recently traded player on another team is featured in his White Sox uniform. It can cause a lot of frustration completing a set this way, but it is soon replaced by a sense of accomplishment.

ephemera: What are your favorite items in the collection? Do you have a 'crowning jewel' or 'show stopper' in your collection? If so, what is it?

Gierman: While I love all my cards equally, I am especially proud of each Harold Baines and each Carlton Fisk memorabilia or autographed card that I pick up. Some people are impressed at my complete 1968 Topps team set, while others are amazed at my cards from the fifties or my autographed Frank Thomas 1990 Topps rookie card, which was signed in person in 1990.
I have four cards that I love to show off. The first is my 1933 World Wide Gum V353 card of Ralph Kress. World Wide Gum is basically the Canadian version of Goudey. The 1933 Goudey is one of the more iconic card releases in the 20th century.

The second card that I will show off is a 2005 Donruss Elite – Passing The Torch card featuring pieces of bats from Carlton Fisk and Magglio Ordonez. The card is numbered 125/250.
If anyone still needs impressing, I pull out my 2007 Triple Threads relic card of A.J. Pierzynski, Kelvim Escobar and Josh Paul numbered 29/36. It features bats from Pierzynski and Paul, plus a uniform swatch from Escobar. Essentially, this represents the famous third strike call from the 2005 ALCS, where Pierzynski made it safely to first base after Josh Paul rolled the ball towards the pitcher’s mound thinking that it was the final out. He never tagged Pierzynski, so when A.J. ran to first, he ended up being safe.

If I still can’t convince someone, I pull out my 2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia – Team Six relic card. It features uniform swatches from Bo Jackson, Frank Thomas, Sammy Sosa, Hoyt Wilhelm and Harold Baines. It also has a jacket swatch from Carlton Fisk. This usually silences people when I show that card off.

ephemera: Oh, I loved watching LaMarr Hoyt pitch. Speaking of pitchers, I also liked "Black" Jack McDowell and Floyd "The Barber" Bannister. What resources do you recommend for those who wish we had the time to assemble a White Sox card collection? And also talk about how to care for a collection of this type.

Gierman: I subscribe to Beckett’s online baseball card price guide. From there you can look up almost any release of baseball cards. I have found a few team sets that they don’t have included in their online database, but for the most part, Beckett is pretty extensive. The magazine itself is going through a lot of change at the moment. I would still recommend picking one up to catch up on recent releases. If you are looking for oddball releases, you will find most of them in the online database. It’s searchable by year, player, or set name.

I would also recommend the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards book for a searchable print version of the cards that are out there. It is definitely a valuable resource.

The best sources for uncovering information on some card releases are the baseball card blogs. Most of the bloggers are very knowledgeable and very willing to share information. A good beginning point is eBay. Do not buy without doing your research first! There are unscrupulous sellers out there. I have seen cards misrepresented and overpriced too many times. The best advice that I can give is to know the cards you are looking for. It will save you a lot of money in the long run.

When I store my cards, I use a variety of methods. For the bulk of my collection, I use Ultra Pro pages and store them in D ring binders. I’ve tried other pages, but Ultra Pro is the best to store your cards properly. Don’t be fooled by the cheap pages that you can find at places like Wal-Mart. There may be 100 pages there for $5.00, but you are sacrificing the longevity of your cards by going cheap.

There are several methods to store thicker cards. I use a magnetized hard plastic protector to store my Triple Threads Pierzynski relic. One side hooks into two slots and the other side is held together by magnets. I’ve never had a problem with it opening unexpectedly and the card is well protected.

Other cards are first housed in penny sleeves and put into a rigid plastic toploader. Some are in screw-down hard plastic protectors. The best method is one that you are comfortable with and protects the card. I only put certain cards in hard plastic. Most of my collection is in plastic pages. I have always believed that cards should be protected, but still be allowed to breathe. After all, collecting should be about the fun you experience and that can’t happen under thick, hard plastic.

ephemera: Thanks, Steve. Great tips and stellar advice. This interview brought back a lot of great memories for me. Go White Sox! And let's hope 2008 brings the title back to the Southside of Chicago.

White Sox Season Opener Nellie Fox 2nd Base

It's my uncle's fault that I'm a White Sox fan. He blames his father.

Back in the day, my uncle's favorite player was "Little Nel" Nellie Fox baseball's Mighty Mite, the great White Sox Second Baseman. In honor of my uncle and the 2008 baseball season opener, I thought I'd feature this 1960 Topp's Nellie Fox classic.

For the White Sox sake, let's hope 2008 is more like 2005 than 2007.

[Editor's Note: Don't miss my special White Sox Home Opener interview post coming April 7th...it's going to be a home run!]

Pinetop Perkins - Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen

Through dumb luck and quirky circumstances, I found myself virtually alone with the 94-year-old Pinetop Perkins, the last of the great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen, at the soundcheck of his recent Asheville appearance. Besides myself (and my wife), only the band members, sound guy, and the club owners were inside the venue at the time. It was one of those rare moments that send chills down your spine—an eerie sense that this really can’t be happening but it is. [Click over to my Asheville blog to see an image from the show.]

For most of the soundcheck Pinetop sat quietly in the seats near us, dressed up and clutching a cane, as he watched the band tune up. After a few minutes, Pinetop slowly walked the few feet to the stage, frail at 94, and was helped to his piano, where he graciously played his classic Down in Mississippi.

Even though frail, his voice was excellent, and his impossibly long fingers still smoothly moved across the keys. I’d forgotten what a truly great Chicago blues band could sound like. There is a huge difference between this level and lesser talents.

The highlights of the show were hearing him sing his theme song, They Call Me Pinetop Perkins, and a show-stopping version of Got My Mojo Workin'.

At 94, Pinetop's voice and piano work are still amazingly strong. Even so, it was like watching history, and knowing, certainly, that there would never be another opportunity to see a pre-war Delta Blues Master perform live again, which made the evening a little bittersweet for this life-long fan of the Blues.

Groundhog Day - Andie MacDowell Prediction

Happy Groundhog Day! I have a confession: I'm strangely attracted to this predictable holiday and the movie by the same name. So, when I came across this nifty piece of Groundhog Day ephemera, I knew it was the perfect item to feature on this unheralded holiday.

I was excited to hear a rumor that Asheville's Andie MacDowell, the lead actress in Groundhog Day, is making a rare, local appearance to celebrate the holiday. It's hard to predict if it's true, but if I see her or my shadow today, I'll twitter it.

Lincoln Park Traps - What Really Happened

Nearly a century ago, the elite families of Chicago built a remarkable shooting facility called the Lincoln Park Traps (LPT) on Chicago’s downtown lakefront, where they had begun to play a new, unnamed sport. By 1918, it was common to hear the pop, pop, pop of gun fire on the lakefront, the sound of which was muffled by the big lake that absorbed and deadened the explosive sound of firing.

The Chicagoans were enjoying a sport started by Charles E. Davies, an avid grouse hunter, who invented a shooting game in 1915 using live pigeons. During the next decade, the game evolved and clay targets were used instead of pigeons. In 1926, a contest was held to name the sport. Gertrude Hurlbutt won the contest with the name “Skeet,” which is derived from the Scandinavian word for shoot. By the 1940s, Skeet was used by the U.S. military to teach novice gunners the principle of leading and timing flying targets.

The Lincoln Park Traps was formed by the upper class of Chicago society. As the years went by, the LPT became a public entity and evolved into a very egalitarian facility. Everyone was welcome to shoot at Lincoln Park Traps, and it was common for Chicago’s plumbers and carpenters to shoot Skeet next to the city’s captains of industry.

Through the decades of the 20th century, Chicago’s industrialists, lawyers, shopkeepers, and laborers brought their L.C. Smiths, Remingtons, Parkers, and Uticas to the Lincoln Park Traps to shoot Skeet. Each year, thousands of recreational shooters took aim at the Club’s clay targets as they sailed through the air, and millions of clay targets were either broken by the crack of a gun or shattered upon landing on the rocky shore.

In its heyday, the LPT played host to the Pan American Games and was also the home club of the first woman Skeet Shooting Champion, Carolla Mandel. In 1954 she won the 20-gauge World Skeet title. It was the first time a woman had ever won an open title. They were still talking about it in the warm and weathered clubhouse when my father began shooting at the Lincoln Park Traps in 1957. He shot there—in the strange and horrible weather that only the Chicago lakefront can produce—until 1991 when someone from the Chicago Park District entered the clubhouse and handed the manager an eviction notice.

The arrival of the Park District’s notice closely coincided with the filing of a lawsuit by Illinois Attorney General Roland W. Burris that accused the Lincoln Park Traps of polluting Lake Michigan. According to Harlan Draeger’s reporting in the Chicago Sun-Times, Burris accused the club of discharging lead shot, clay target materials, and plastic shell wadding into the lake without a federal permit. Apparently, no one in 1918 thought to ask the federal government’s permission to shoot pigeons on the lakefront and so it remained an unsanctioned activity right up until the time Burris made his stand.

Skeet shooting is one of the two major types of competitive shotgun shooting at clay targets, the other being Trap. For the uninitiated like Burris, the game of Skeet might seem like an odd sport. Skeet shooters attempt to break clay disks flung through the air at high speed from a variety of angles. The firearm of choice for this task is usually a high quality shotgun, although many shooters use inexpensive semi-auto and pump action shotguns. The use of clay targets replaced the more traditional target of live birds, as a cheaper, humane, and more reliable alternative, and is the main reason the targets are today called clay pigeons.

By the time Rolland Burris decided to put a stop to the recreational breaking of clay on Chicago’s lakefront, L.C. Smith guns, and others like it, had sent more than 400 tons of lead shotgun pellets to the bottom of Lake Michigan just a few yards off of the rocky breakwater that lines the shore along Lake Shore Drive at Diversey Harbor.

Frederick Lappe, president of the Lincoln Park Traps at the time, promised a legal battle. He said that it was not “clear-cut” that a permit was needed for sportsmen to shoot Skeet on the lakefront. In fact, the permit law Burris was enforcing was written for industrial “point sources” rather then gun clubs.

Lappe termed Burris’ action “more a response to social and political pressures” than to environmental concerns. Lappe accused the Illinois Conservation Department of operating 30 similar shooting facilities along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. But Matt Dunn, chief of Burris' environmental control division, said those clubs required steel shot, not lead. And back and forth the argument went.

The club was threatened with civil penalties of up to $50,000 per violation and $10,000 per day. But that’s not what closed the club. In fact, The Lincoln Park Traps was never fined. "It wasn’t the Burris suit that shut down the club," says former LPT President Lappe. “In the end, the Lincoln Park Traps closed because the Chicago Park District terminated our ‘dollar a year’ lease agreement. The Park District used the Burris lawsuit as an excuse for not extending our lease. There were never any fines levied against us for polluting the lake. In fact, after we closed, the EPA issued a report finding that there were no adverse effects on the Lake from the lead shot we’d deposited.”

To this day, none of the shotgun lead has been removed from the bottom of Lake Michigan. So, it was the Chicago Park District and not the Attorney General or the EPA, as many believed, that eventually quieted the guns on Lake Michigan. “The Lincoln Park Traps was one of the most fabulous sporting facilities that ever existed in this country,” Lappe recalls. “It was one of the first Skeet facilities in the U.S., and one of the few ever constructed in the downtown area of a major city. It was enjoyed by people from all walks of life; it was a neat place.”

The Lincoln Park Traps are gone. The club ran its course through the heart of the 20th century, but like so many of the traditions of Chicago’s post-industrial age, it sank in the sand of time and lays buried in memory like the lead shot that lies in the cold silt off Diversey Harbor.

Cigarette Cards - An Addictive Collectible

Cigarette cards like this set of famous 1930's gangsters provides collectors with a window into the history of the United States between 1870-1930. Cigarette cards cover a lot of historic ground from World Wars to the first Hollywood movie stars. And even a few infamous stars like Al Capone and John Dillinger.

The brilliant marketing idea of inserting a cigarette card in a packet of cigarettes created a collectible prized like few others. A cigarette card featuring baseball player Honus Wagner, for instance, is one of the most expensive items ever sold on eBay .

In case you missed it, check out my recent interview with cigarette baseball card collector, David Campell.