1947 Homogenized Bread

Bob Elliott (rounded corners)	Harry Brecheen

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When the United States entered World War Two at the end of 1941, civilian businesses were required to play by some new rules enforced on the entire nation by the war. Paper, printing materials, cardboard and ink were severely rationed and resulted in card manufacturers stopping new card issues altogether. When the war ended, it took some time for the card companies to start issuing sets again because many had to start again from square one. They had to begin acquiring materials from scratch, and some companies (like Goudey) didn't survive the transition. It took nearly three years for nationally-issued sets to appear again, but in the meantime a small handful of regional sets were released to help fill the void.

Among the regional sets were many by bakeries, which would include a card inside a wrapped loaf of bread. The 1947 Homogenized Bread set was given the designation D305 by Jefferson Burdick's American Card Catalog, but is rarely called that by collectors. At 2 1/4" by 3 1/2", they are slightly thinner than modern cards. The fronts feature only a borderless black and white photo with a facsimile authograph. They are found with either square or rounded corners (read farther for more about that), and backs are blank. It has been suggested that these cards were distributed separately from the company's loves of bread, since the cards are often found without tell-tale signs of damage caused by the odd shape of bread.

Some collectors refer to the set as "Homogenized Bond Bread," and that designation gets this set confused with the 1947 Bond Bread set. Both sets feature a similar design and are the same size. Bond Bread cards also have rounded corners. Both sets feature Jackie Robinson cards, however, there is advertising on the back of Bond Bread cards. The biggest difference is that while all 13 of the cards in the Bond Bread set feature Robinson, he is only one of 48 subjects in the Homogenized set. The set features 44 baseball players and four boxers.

Twelve of the 44 baseball players in the set are Hall of Famers, and the cards of Yogi Berra, Ralph Kiner, Stan Musial, Phil Rizzuto, Jackie Robinson and Enos Slughter predate the Bowman and Leaf cards called "rookie cards" by some collectors. Despite the historical significance of the set and the attractive cards, they haven't really caught on with collectors. There are some known reprints floating around the hobby -- some "graded" by unscrupulous and little-known companies -- while a large cache of twenty-four of the set's cards (all with square corners) discoverd in the 1980s keeps these cards easily found in hobby circles. It is worth mentioning that some hobbyists consider square-corner cards to be fakes since the original cards were distributed with rounded corners and the warehouse find may not have been legitimate.

Note: The signatures on each card will sometimes have the player's name spelled incorrectly. The checklist below spells the players' names as they appear.

(1) Rex Barney
(2) Larry Berra
(3) Ewell Blackwell
(4) Lou Boudreau
(5) Ralph Branca
(6) Harry Brecheen
(7) Primo Carnera (Boxer)
(8) Marcel Cerdan (Boxer)
(9) Dom DiMaggio
(10) Joe DiMaggio
(11) Bobbie Doerr
(12) Bruce Edwards
(131) Bob Elliott
(14) Del Ennis
(15) Bob Feller
(16) Carl Furillo
(17) Cid Gordon
(18) Joe Gordon
(19) Joe Hatten
(20) Gil Hodges
(21) Tommy Holmes
(22) Larry Janson
(23) Sheldon Jones
(24) Edwin Joost
(25) Charlie Keller
(26) Ken Keitner
(27) Buddy Kerr
(28) Ralph Kiner
(29) Jake LaMotta (Boxer)
(30) John Lindell
(31) Whitey Lockman
(32) Joe Louis (Boxer)
(33) Willard Marshall
(34) Johnny Mize
(35) Stan Musial
(36) Andy Pafko
(37) Johnny Pesky
(38) Pee Wee Reese
(39) Phil Rizzuto
(40) Aaron Robinson
(41) Jackie Robinson
(42) John Sain
(43) Enos Slaughter
(44) Vern Stephens
(45) George Tebbetts
(46) Bob Thomson
(47) Johnny Vandermeer
(48) Ted Williams