Shedding some light on why the Hughes card was pulled by Heinz starts with the date of production. The designation "32236" on the back of the card most likely translates to the first production date of November 17, 1936 (Julian Date Calendar the 322nd day of 1936). The reason for the November date, and not March 22, 1936, can be found by examining the back of Louise Thaden's card (# 10) and/or Laura Ingalls card (# 5). Both cards mention the 1936 Bendix Transcontinental Race, in which Thaden placed first and Ingalls placed second. The 1936 Bendix was held on September 4, 1936 (see photo scan of Thaden's card and 1936 Bendix logo).

In the Spring of 2002 Legendary Auction sold a Heinz Hughes card (lot # 728) and offered their own theory as to the rarity of the card. Their theory was that Hughes learned of his inclusion in the Famous Aviator set, and wished not to be included. Legendary Auction went on to say, "To not heed such a request would probably be to incur the risk that Hughes would purchase the Heinz Company, take care of the matter himself, and fire all parties responsible."

In September 1935 Hughes set the Aviation landplane speed record in his radically designed H-1 Racer at 352mph. Unfortunately, Hughes damaged the H-1 while landing in a beet field after running out of gas ( a plane wreck would have negated the record). After setting that record, Hughes set his sights on Roscoe Turner's Transcontinental record. While the H-1 Racer was being repaired, Hughes found a suitable plane and leased Jackie Cochran's Northrup Gamma 2G. On January 13, 1936 Hughes flew the modified Gamma 2G cross-country and set a new record of 9hrs and 27 minutes, beating Turner's mark by only 36 minutes. Hughes was disappointed he had not beat Turner's record by a wider margin. Hughes set several inter-city records including a perilous flight from Chicago to LA (May 14, 1936) in the Gamma and that flight nearly cost him his life. On that trip (perhaps the last time Hughes would fly the Gamma) Hughes later remarked that everything failed except the engine. The Gamma 2G was subsequently sold back to Cochran. By mid-July 1936, after a fire and a subsequent accident, Jackie Cochran retired her Gamma. The Gamma was used for spare parts and would not fly again. Hughes knew, he knew that his H-1 Racer was the fastest plane ever built, and by December 1936 it was all but ready to fly. By late 1936, Hughes focused on preparing the Racer (aka the Winged Bullet, the Silver Bullet, Hughes Mystery Ship) for the Transcontinental flight.

On January 19, 1937 Hughes flew his Winged Bullet (the H-1 Racer) and crushed his previous record to set a new Transcontinental record of 7hrs and 28minutes. That record stood until 1946, when it was broken by stunt pilot Paul Mantz in a souped-up WWII P-51 Mustang. Hughes had been chasing Lindbergh's shadow (think Tiger chasing Jack), and by the summer of 1938 would crush Lindbergh's 1927 New York to Paris Transatlantic record.

So, back to cards.

Goudey had produced a Hughes card in 1936 named History of Aviation (R65). The Hughes image on the Goudey card appears to have come from a January 1936 Press Photo of Hughes standing in front of the Gamma 2G (shortly before the first Transcontinental record flight). Hughes was probably pleased, as he was listed as card # 1 (Aviation Speed King) while Lindbergh was listed as card # 4 (The Lone Eagle). Scans attached (Scan of the Gamma 2G and Goudey card).

Heinz produced the Famous Aviator Hughes card in November 1936 (F277-4). By November 17, 1936 Hughes had already set the first Transcontinental record (almost a year previously), and in a matter of weeks would shatter his own record flying in his beloved Racer.

The enigmatic Hughes, with a near-photographic memory and recall for detail boarding on genius, would have known exactly where the his image on the Heinz card had come from. Hughes provided the image. Heinz appears to have taken/copied the Hughes image from a press photo taken in Chicago in May 1936 shortly before Hughes's perilous flight from Chicago to LA in the Gamma. If you look closely at the two images, the shadows on Hughes's face are nearly identical. The artistic differences are in the eyes, but the similarities are beyond coincidence. The shadow lines are all but identical and you may also notice the slant of the goggles, and the glare lines in the goggles. Scans attached.

In November 1936, the timing for Heinz couldn't be worse. The plane shown behind Hughes on the Heinz card is Jackie Cochran's Gamma 2G. The same Gamma that nearly killed Hughes in May. The same Gamma that was now being used for spare parts. The same Gamma that Hughes no longer owned, and it wasn't the Racer. Also, had Hughes been told that Lindbergh was assigned card # 1 and he was assigned card # 7, he may have paused and wondered who Heinz considered to be the better Aviator. In 1938 Hughes would crush Lindbergh's 1927 record from New York to Paris (for his record-setting solo flight, Lindbergh won the Harmon International trophy). Hughes would be the first, and only American to ever win the Harmon International trophy twice (world's best Aviator). Was Hughes chasing Lindbergh's shadow? In 1933, when Hughes received his pilot's license number of 4223, he persuaded the Commerce Department to lower his number to 80. Lindbergh's license number was 69.

Heinz had pulled five pilots (Hughes, Earhart, Ingalls, Musick, and Hawks). Heinz would have eventually had trouble securing Earhart (missing July 1937), Musick (mid-air explosion January 1938) and Hawks (crashed and killed August 1938) anyway. Ingalls may have been a marketing disaster. She "bombed" the White House with anti-war leaflets in September 1939 and was subsequently arrested as an unregistered German agent in February 1942. Hughes himself wasn't immune from controversy, as he was held on a vehicular manslaughter charge in July 1936 (later dropped).

I dont' know the reason Heinz pulled the Hughes card, but I do know that Hughes secured his Legacy as an Avaitor. Hughes was the last civilian in a non-military plane to set the aviation landplane speed record. Who knows, maybe Heinz sent the card over to Hughes for him to look at prior to distribution. I can almost hear Hughes yell over to Noah Dietrich, "Noah, who in the hell put me in a green jacket!"....

Hughes did not need the money, and once he said "no" he did not change his mind. It was the wrong plane, and Heinz got it wrong.

The five replacments pilots (Schroeder, Neumann, Depew, Vaughn, Seversky) show a production number of "13137" (May 16, 1937) which should be the earliest production date. I believe none of these five replacement cards will ever show "32236."


One more thing, I think Chris Watson was right when he opined in the NSB that there is a Famous Aviator Album out there showing the 5 rare pilots.I'll save that article for another day. The last scan is a replica H-1 Racer (retractable wheels is most notable difference).

What an amazing article.

I would love the Goudy Hughes card. What does that card sell for ?

Primo Article, You write for Atlantic? Seriously, fact filled, in depth, non sport stuff.
Many Thanks









"showin the love since 1967"

Hi Allen - nice work!

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The real gold nugget of new info in this thread was that FINAL clarification you've dredged up re the serial number / dates on the bottom right corners. We've had a lot of discussion, in the hobby and on this forum, as to whether the serial numbers signified the "number of the day of the year" (as has been commonly assumed) or a more standard "Month-Day-Year" or "Day-Month-Year". I admit to have been leaning strongly toward the latter camp, only because the least complicated answer is usually the right one and that seemed to work well, with only one or two inconsistencies that could be accommodated by swapping Day/Month position on those few cards.

However in this case, your eagle eyes have spotted the key mention of the Bendix Race on the Thaden card and, indeed, that race used to take place in September each year (per my quick internet search). So, the ONLY POSSIBLE conclusion, that works for the numbering on that Thaden card, is indeed the "number of the day of the year" dating.

Thanks for 100% clearing this up!

----------------------------

Secondly, very cool that you found that photo that the Hughes artwork drawing for the Famous Aviator card was based upon.

Pls clarify: Were you saying this was a publicity release that Hughes himself provided thru his PR department -- I didn't see attribution. It could also have been a wire service shot, too, tho much more likely was a PR still issued for use with permission, therefore putting him in position to request the likeness NOT be used. Very staged, perfect in composition, and a quick head and shoulders shot by media would probably not be as lovingly composed! So let's assume this WAS a copyrighted PR still. And while Heinz could easily have put its lawyers to work to deflect any pressure, if Hughes had pressed the matter about using the image, the question is probably "why bother" . . . tipping the cap to Mastro's theory. No good served getting into a needless legal battle with Hughes, so just pull the card if that's what he and his bottomless legal fund probably would demand.

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Re the other aviators, and speculating why their cards were pulled, note that we need to have the "reason" for retraction in place by early 1937, when Heinz made the switch on Earhart, Hawks, Musick and Ingalls . . . so the issues you mentioned (deaths, PR nightmare, etc.) which all took place later would not explain why Heinz yanked these other four.

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In any event, I really enjoyed your write-up.

THANKS.

This is a fantastic post! Thank you!

Ralph,


My "Death Theory" originated when I received my Hughes card back from PSA. PSA (on the website) stated the card was from 1938. The Death Theory works for Heinz and PSA if the Hughes card was first printed in 1938, which is wasn't. I learned that when I was corresponding with Watson, Finn and Rand...and it was a matter of research in coordinating the September 1936 Bendix Race with the information on the Thaden and Ingalls cards...concluding "32236" was from the Julian date Calendar and the Famous Aviator cards were originally printed in 1936 (November 17, 1936).

The plane pictured on the Hughes card is Jackie Cochran's Gamma, not the H-1 Racer. So, I was back at square one trying to figure out the Hughes connection and why the Hughes card (and 4 others) was pulled.

Heinz may have had trouble securing Amelia Earhart's permission because she was preparing for her ill-fated 'round-the-world flight. Amelia initially took off in March 1937, and Heinz would have had extreme difficulty in getting her approval after Feb 1937. The replacement cards have a May 16, 1937 initial printing ("13137"). Incidentally, Earhart was acquainted with Hughes and was one of the official observers ("judge") when Hughes set the landspeed aviation record in the H-1 in 1935.

The photo of Hughes is a from a Press Photo, which I own. I will include a scan of the back of it. It shows an original wire date of May 13, 1936. Allegedly, Hughes ate lunch in Chicago, and a friend (or heckler) bet Hughes that he could not fly to LA in time for dinner. Hughes took the $50 bet and won, and incidentally set a new record from Chicago to LA. The flight cost Hughes about a $1,000 for which he won a steak dinner. Looking at another photo of Hughes at what I believe to be the Chicago airport, I can see a movie camera in the background. I have not confirmed with 100% confidence that it is from the same date/place as my press photo, but I believe it is. There is very little movie and photo evidence of Hughes in the 1930's, and it appears to have been a rare occasion where the journalists were invited to photograph and film Hughes. A photo op for Hughes was rare, and it's anyone's guess whether the Hughes PR machine allowed it.

(Chris Watson is right) I believe a Famous Aviator album exists showing the 5 rare pilots. My Famous Aviator album shows a print date of "32236" and if you look closely, you will notice that page 5 (front side showing Shorty, Rickenbacker, Turner, Neumann) and backside page 6 (Tomlinson, Depew, Vaughn, Seversky) has been carefully pasted in. See scan. The page it replaced would have featured Earhart on front and Hughes on back. It's pasted in very very well, most likely by Heinz from the Heinz factory. My question is why was the original page cut out, and what did it show? I believe the answer is obvious. The original album had the five rare pilots, and someone, at Heinz took the time to cut out page 5/6 and replace it. Now, think about it. Do you really think every booklet was found and altered? Or do you believe that somebody at Heinz thought about keeping an original copy of the booklet? I would have, and I bet there are a few floating around out there, and I would be happy to pay $500 for an original. Chris Watson opined in his NSB that some may exist ("existence unconfirmed"). You can clearly see the cut on page 6...it's about one inch from the margin.

Allen.......you should be in CSI........but, wait, you ARE a Postal Inspector, so you have that quality already I guess.......

If such booklets with the original five truly were initially printed by Heinz, they certainly did an exceptional job at later eliminating them.
I've had easily 30 or 40 or more of those Famous Aviators bookets pass through my hands over the past 20 years, and have never yet seen one with HH and the other 4 deletions.
And add to that, for good measure, all the other FA books turning up on eBay that I didn't acquire -- same story for them.

Been looking hard!

Such a booklet would be THE find of the nonsport hobby, I think, blowing away WW25, the Strongman, US Caramels McKinley, STS24, you-name-it . . .

A few thoughts:

1. Julian date codes are common in food production today. If, for example, a batch of soup has to be recalled, since lots are dated daily, you can recall the minimum amount necessary (only one day's production, rather than a week's or a month's).

2. The need for permission may not be as important as stated above. Publicity law, which is why Topps and other companies need permission from the subjects of their cards, was not developed as much in the 1930s as it is now (Bela Lugosi's son, an attorney, was instrumental in the lawsuits that developed the "right" of publicity, and the right for celebrities to control the use of their images).

3. The album may explain why five cards were pulled. Supposing that they really were only worried about Hughes, and they needed to pull that page from the album. They may have decided for other reasons (creative reasons on the parts of the artists/editors, popularity of the pilots, etc), to change all of the other pilots on that page.

I believe one of the original Fab-5 Famous Aviator albums exists. If Tom, Mark or Chris, or you, want to examine my booklet, I'll send it over....you can clearly see where the page has been removed/glued in...and there's only one good reason for that...it was replaced...

I don't think it would be worth the big money....

How many Strongmen cards are out there? Two?
Perhaps 4 Marquis cards (did I spell that right?)
Maybe 7 McKinley's, and a dozen to two dozen Cowboy Outfit cards.... and don't those cards sell for 10-20k?

Maybe like the Map...it's speculative

Allen - truly a great post.

I have very little to add. Can't find all of my albums, but of the 5 I can quickly put my hands on today, 2 have the "replaced" page. Of these 2, one has no issue date, and the other has a 32236 date.

In addition, I have 2 albums with the original shipping envelope (and here's the postal inspector tie-in), one with this stamp:

Mark/Tom....you may have revealed my secret identity!

That is a cool stamp...might be worth more than the album.

I was thinking about an hour ago, that maybe my album with the replaced page was a "fluke" done by some kid in the 1940's who spilled milk on his dad's favorite collectible album....

But, now knowing there are at least three albums out there with replaced pages, I can get back to work now....

...and in retrospect, I suppose it probably all came down to the green jacket anyway...

...the man who's companies gave us the guided air missle-to-missle, the Surveyor and Galileo Spacecraft, and the Apache Helicopter...he probably hated that green jacket...and the coolest thing about Hughes was that he loved Sean Connery as James Bond...

Thanks to Rand, Peter Lalos, and Richard L. this was the first set completed...all 30 cards...which is cool

Okay, Mark's finding got me wondering.
Just checked the Famous Aviators booklets in my collection (currently have 9).

- 5 are uncut, ie no alteration.

- 4 are the variety with the "cut-and-pasted" page (original Hughes/Earhart/Musick/Ingalls/Hawks pages may have been replaced);


Of the cut/pastes, 2 are serial number dated 32236; and 2 are completely undated;

Of the uncut booklets, all 5 are dated 32266.

I would think from a production standpoint the mfg. would print all cards first then print the more elaborate album later or even if they did them all at the same time it would still take more time to print and put together the album. Perhaps between printing the cards and distributing the finished album the change was adopted. Instead of trashing all the books that were already assembled they neatly replaced the page. Perhaps this pasted in variety is the only way the early finished album ever left the factory. Could a non-modified album exist? Maybe but I would think it would be like finding a needle in the haystack.

Todd, I've been looking specifically for that one unmodified book forever. And so have a lot of other familiar names, here on the Forum.
So, if none of us has found one in decades of searching, personally I just don't think any made it out of the Heinz factory showing Hughes/Ingalls/Earhart/Musick/Hawks.

Due to the incredible rarity, if one WERE to turn up, it would certainly be among the premiere collectibles in the entire nonsport insert card hobby . . . maybe el primo of them all.

Totally agree with your Ralph! I think the one with the pasted in page is as close as you are going to get to the variation album.

That being said - anyone have a decent one of those they are will to sell? My is the other type.

quite lucky most of the cards that were widthdrawn were on the one page ...luck or judgement ?

"the precise cut and the careful insertion" is in the eyes of the beholder:

Mark, I think the workers didn't give a darn that day !!!

PSA4(MC)

Tom! it would be (A) Authentic unless of course it was a major auction house submission , then it would be PSA 4 no qualifier. (smirk)

Laughed out loud as soon as read your quip.
Timing is everything.

I love the way they all wear ties to go flying! But I thought the REAL reason it was pulled was because Hughes didn't like the notion of all those kids with germs on their hands rubbing their dirty little fingers across his face on the card!

(PS. I still need #2 to this series if anyone has a dupe.)

This is a fantastic thread. I've never owned one of these cards or albums, but have been fascinated reading all of this interesting material. Thanks to everyone for providing such great information and especially to Allen for starting this thread.