Steph

Starting with the humorous one, then in chronological order. Didn't include all the times kids were hit by cars while playing marbles in the street. 1906 1851 1858 1874 1877 1880 1886 1903

Anacortes seemed to have reason for optimism in 1991. A 1990 article had discussed the improvements they were making, new equipment they had ordered. Then in early 1992, a few months after the following article ran, marble production ceased. They could still have been profitable -- they had enough orders to keep them going -- but according to AMMM, the marble side of the business was negatively impacting the more successful rope making side of the business. So, they stopped making marbles.

Made in Japan for sale in South America: From the auction description: (source)

Definitely not too early.

Blessings to his family. As loved as Larry was ... is ..., I do have hope that they will still find joy this season.

Gorgeous!

Love the Berry Pink revival. LOL Hard to know what to say after the info you've shared. Wonder why the guy ended the auction early. Why not wait that extra day to see if anyone would beat the $1500? One of my favorite parts of the auction is pretty trivial -- the part of the letter which says "3 line cleary, and a root beer cleary". I especially like that "3 line cleary" part. I hope it really is the marble shown. It'd be cool to have a kid's name for it.

Medical use: Grasp/Release exercises in physical therapy. semi-historical tidbit: In a 1978 newsletter, marble king was recommended as an economical source: "sells 5/8 inch cat’s eye or rainbow marbles, in boxes of 2100 for about $10.00."

Watertown is upstate NY. About 300 miles from NYC. Still "in the neighborhood" for a salesman I guess. mmm hmmm, a drawstring bag sounds good. The item # is still a puzzle if it is indeed from the MK catalog. The 75 would be for the number of marbles. The 5000 would still likely put it after 1962 though. Would the drawstring poly bag have said Berry Pink Industries in the late 60's, early 70's? Well, it was at least in the company address in the paperwork. And maybe "Berry Pink marbles" was the traditional name for that bag in that region dating back to the days when Pink was a celebrity. "Berry Pinks" is more fun to say than Tournament Assortment. My wild guess was that it might have been a commemorative promotional item with his name on it. Maybe only in the NY area since that's where he was most famous. (lol @ me) (Al, does that bag have a dark stain on the back?)

Anyone know what type of marble was for sale here? 75 Berry Pink Marbles for 49 cents. The date was May 19, 1973. The No. 5075 in the ad fits what appears to fit the trend of the Marble King catalog sheets in AMMM. The highest item no. showing on the 1954 sheet is No. 1008 for a cool Big Value box -- looks just like the Peltier version except the company name is given as Berry Pink Industries. And the lowest number showing on the 1979 catalog sheets is 6106 H. (H for the incredible Hulk header) So, 5075 is a reasonable catalog number for earlier in the 70's. But if a 1970's "Berry Pink Marble" is listed in AMMM, I missed it. I can't even see that they noted Mr. Pink's passing. He died in 1962. The 1958 St. Mary's fire is discussed on p. 94 and then on p. 95 it says: Also, 75 doesn't seem to appear as one of the marble counts found in Marble King packaging. Maybe it's not Marble King? But who else would be selling marbles with that name in 1973?

I knew better than that. Here's a bit more, from an Oswego, NY paper. Some nice details about Berry Pink and the tournament in general. The final prize appears to have been $250. Click the links below the headlines for more of the articles. Might need to double click for full size. The 2nd one ends early, but I think most of it is there. . . . . .. http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o151/modularforms/History/1940_April_11_Oswego_NY.jpg http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o151/modularforms/History/1940_June_14_Oswego_NY.jpg Papers archived here: http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html

Cool bag ... not exactly what it seems to be, but still cool: Jeff Hale's explanation: Source: Marble Collector's Club

The New York Times gives a figure of "more than 150" instead of 300 for the number of competitors at the national tournament in New York in 1940. But maybe some were unable to make the trip? One other discrepancy is that whoever gave the June 24-20 dates in the Tacoma Times description seems to have confused this tourney with the Scripps Howard tourney in New Jersey. The Berry Pink tourney was a week earlier, at the World's Fair. The winner Douglas Opperman of Pittsburgh received maybe $200 or $300 (accounts vary). This allowed the family to purchase their first car. He donated his crown to the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum at the Heinz History Center. Which doesn't tell Don when his trophy was awarded or how many there were. I thnk I'm done anyway. LOL (From NYT -- click to enlarge) Click here for bigger image: http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o151/modularforms/History/MarbleKing_June1940_40percent.jpg

p.s. How many "national" marble tournaments were there in 1940? At least two, it appears. So this one would have been different from the Scripps Howard tournament series which started in 1923? yes, okay. So, this contest is the one which ran from 1937 to 1952? (much later edit: I question whether Berry Pink had "Marble King" tournaments for all those years. Where did we learn about those dates?) Wonder what the top prize was.

One possibility is that the trophies were re-used. The winners may have had to return them for presentation to the next year's winner. ? Perhaps Don now has one of a very limited production from the 30's, which may have been recycled until it was replaced by the taller style in the 1940 photos. Perhaps the newspapers, or whoever sponsored the events, eventually discarded them. -- not having the same emotional attachment as the winners would have. ??

Thanks Lloyd. So it does look like Don's might be a city level trophy. (doesn't it?) At least for a biggish city. 300 cities in 48 states. I guess the little towns would have sent their reps to the nearest metropolitan area to compete? Or were the more rural areas left out? Great question Galen! For that year and any other?!

And the winner is ... Jimmy Collins!

Not identical but looks related. Maybe they had different designs in different years. Looks like a box of Rainbos, doesn't it. Source: Tacoma Public Library Image Archives

Christensen

Cairo Novelty From Rinesmarbles' dug Cairo auctions: From Marbelalan's old Cairo page:

Alox Jill Marie's bag: (click to enlarge) Posted at MCC: Awesome swirl (and cool patch): 3rd photo from David Chamberlain's Alox article at Marble Mental

Ravenswood from David Chamberlain's Ravenswood article at Marble Mental

Diaperfolds were a different type of marble. Single seam CACs. I think once upon a time this one might have been called a diaperfold: . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . .

How's this one? (christensen)

I know there are better CAC examples out there, but here's one for starters: A Christensen buttcrack would be a ButtCAC. ;-)