4. Set Profile: 1937 Cleveland Press Indians
The 29 newspaper cutouts of the 1937 Cleveland Indians featured here were designed as a numbered series to be pasted into a collector's album.
Issued within the pages of the Cleveland Press, they came on the heals of a similar nationally syndicated series of "sports stamps" issued the previous year by the Boston Globe, the Detroit Times and other newspapers. The Cleveland set, however, features players only from the Cleveland Indians.
At 3-5/8 by about 8-1/2 inches, the Cleveland "cards" are also somewhat larger than the "sports stamps" issued the previous year. Examples vary a little in height due to the length of the player bios.
The cut-outs were printed in the newspaper at the beginning of the 1937 season. According to Jason Lange, who collects the set, "the cutouts were highly collectible and clearly used by the newspaper to increase circulation."
The set includes just two players (Earl Averill and Bob Feller) that were later inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. Significantly, however, Feller's cutout (shown in the example) is among his very earliest cards and was issued at age 18 years in his second season with Cleveland.
Under the title "Indian's Album" at the top of each cut-out is the card number and player's name. Each player image includes a facsimile autograph and is followed by a brief player bio. Feller's bio in the example reads:
"Bob Feller--you know the rest. Came unheralded from the sandlots of Van Meter, IA to strike out 15 St. Louis Browns in his first major league start and followed that performance by fanning 17 Philadelphia Athletics for a new American league record. Got priceless publicity when Commissioner Kenesaw M. Landis investigated a claim he did not really belong to Cleveland. Bob is 18, 6 feet tall and weights 182 pounds."
The player bio on each card is followed by a tag line in italics that reads: "This is the (card number) in a series presenting autographed pictures of the Indians. Save them for your scrapbook."
Despite the reference to a "scrapbook" or "album" for displaying the cut-outs, no such album is known among today's collectors.
According to Lange, "a few of the cutouts that I have display dates on the back in the newsprint: #2-Roy Weatherly says March 30, 1937; #6-Julius Solters, April 3, 1937; and #8-Mel Harder, April 6, 1937. Looking at the calendar for 1937, it appears that the Cleveland Press cutouts were issued on consecutive days, Monday through Saturday, beginning on Monday March 29th and ending Friday April 30th. The 1937 season began with Cleveland losing to Detroit on Tuesday, April 20, 1937, and then winning the home opener against the St. Louis Browns on Friday, April 23."
A 1937 Cleveland Press Indians Set Profile has been added to the Old Cardboard website. Based on scans provided by Lange, a Set Checklist and Gallery will be added in the near future. Note: We are missing scans of five players (#3 Roy Hughes, #4 Bruce Campbell, #5 Lyn Lary, #26 George Uhle and #27 Wally Schang). Scans for any of these players from our readers would be much appreciated and will be added to the Set Gallery for all to view. Please send to
editor@oldcardboard.com.
5. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings)
Reader Helps Expand 1929 Strip Card Checklist. As a result of the 1929 "Universal Toy" set profile that we ran in last month's issue (Issue #77) of the Old Cardboard eNewsletter, reader Bob Richardson has provided us with four additions (three baseball and one actor) to the Checklist for this obscure set. The new additions are baseballers Earl Averill, Charlie Gelbert and Roy Johnson, as well as actor Nils Asther. All are included in a Set Checklist and a Set Gallery--both recently posted on the Old Cardboard website.
Lyman and Brett Hardeman
Old Cardboard, LLC.
Old Cardboard, LLC. was established in December 2003, to help bring information on vintage baseball card collecting to the hobbyist. Produced by collectors for collectors, this comprehensive resource consists of three components: (1) Old Cardboard Magazine, (2) a companion website at www.oldcardboard.com and (3) this eNewsletter. The Old Cardboard website contains more than 500 pages of descriptive reference information for baseball card sets produced fifty years ago or longer. Each of these set summaries has a direct set-specific link to 
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