I like stuff...

....that's new to me and makes me go digging through Google to learn more about it.

Take for example this item...

It's a 1952 Star Cal decal made by the Meyercord Company of Chicago. (Note: the above is a scan of my decal, the rest of these images, except those of the back of it, were found on the net. I'm sure I set a personal record for using 'borrowed' images in a post but I did it in the interest of research).

Meyercord manufactured decals of all sorts and many of the designs may look familiar.

These are pretty typical:

And they were used by crafty types on all sorts of everyday items:

And as part of a kids' craft book.

:


And in their catalog....

 you might find some of this....

...that (ahem) ended up on things like this:

But we are more interested in the baseball decals; Those came in two styles, single player and duos. They were issued in envelopes with a cellophane window so the subject(s) was visible.

I dug and dug and couldn't pin down anything on how these were sold. If anyone out there has any insight I'd appreciate it. I was lucky to find the Pierce/Fox for my collection. It was not in an envelope but is in pretty fine shape for a 62 year old decal sheet. There is apparently a single Pierce decal but I've only seen this one that features him and Nellie. Could be that another 'white whale' has breached the surface!

I ran this search on March 13 and found these things on B-I-Ns ranging from $20 to almost $1300. I saw a Pierce/Fox in the envelope for $80. I paid about a quarter of that for mine without the envelope.

Here is what the Pierce/Fox looks like as it was sold in 1952:

And the back of the envelope:

If you look at the Hodges/Reese envelope you can see that decals of movie and television stars were produced as well. I found some examples readily available.

Oh wow! I'd LOVE to have a Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis decal!

Finally some odds and ends that accumulated on my desktop while googling these things:

I found a vintage picture of a 'Meyercord Decal Shop'. Could be a kiosk set up in a department store. Hard to say for sure.

 Here is a snippet of a Time magazine article about the company president/founder. And a page from a catalog and a magazine ad.

The original Meyercord Building is still standing. It is now occupied by a Masonic Lodge.

Finally if you are curious here is the the back of my Star Cal Pierce/Fox.

And this is the text that is hard to read in the scan of the complete back:

This is the checklist of the 1952 Star Cal decals. These are the 'pairs' better known as the 'small' decals. Note that some list the same player as both parts of the pair. I thought at first it was a typo but apparently it's correct. (see below)

84a Allie Reynolds / Vic Raschi        New York Yankees

  84b Ed Lopat / Yogi Berra                New York Yankees

  84c Phil Rizzuto / Gerry Coleman New York Yankees

  85a Ted Williams / Ted Williams Boston Red Sox

  85b Dom DiMaggio / Mel Parnell Boston Red Sox

  85c Vern Stephens / Billy Goodman Boston Red Sox

  86a George Kell / Hal Newhouser Detroit Tigers

  86b Hoot Evers / Vic Wertz        Detroit Tigers

  86c Johnny Groth / Fred Hutchinson Detroit Tigers

  87a Eddie Robinson / Eddie Robinson Chicago White Sox

  87b Chico Carrasquel / Minnie Minoso Chicago White Sox

  87c Billy Pierce / Nellie Fox       Chicago White Sox

  87d Al Zarilla / Jim Busby                Chicago White Sox

  88a Bob Lemon / Jim Hegan        Cleveland Indians

  88b Larry Doby / Bob Feller        Cleveland Indians

  88c Dale Mitchell / Al Rosen        Cleveland Indians

  89a Ned Garver / Ned Garver        St. Louis Browns

  89b Ferris Fain / Gus Zernial       Philadelphia Athletics

  89c Richie Ashburn / Richie Ashburn        Philadelphia Phillies

  89d Ralph Kiner / Ralph Kiner       Pittsburgh Pirates

  90a Willie Mays / Monte Irvin       New York Giants

  90b Larry Jansen / Sal Maglie      New York Giants

  90c Bobby Thomson / Alvin Dark      New York Giants

  91a Gil Hodges / Pee Wee Reese      Brooklyn Dodgers

  91b Roy Campanella / Jackie Robinson     Brooklyn Dodgers

  91c Duke Snider / Preacher Roe      Brooklyn Dodgers

  92a Paul Cavarretta / Dutch Leonard     Chicago Cubs

  92b Randy Jackson / Eddie Miksis     Chicago Cubs

  92c Bob Rush / Hank Sauer     Chicago Cubs

  93a Stan Musial / Stan Musial     St. Louis Cardinals

  93b Red Schoendienst / Enos Slaughter    St. Louis Cardinals

  93c Cliff Chambers / Wally Westlake     St. Louis Cardinals

And the checklist for the 'large', single player decals. The duplicate names listed are, I assume, two seperate versions of the same player. Some, but not all, correspond with the pairs of the same player in the small set.

70A Allie Reynolds

70B Ed Lopat

70C Yogi Berra

70D Vic Raschi

70E Jerry Coleman

70F Phil Rizzuto

70G Mickey Mantle

71A Mel Parnell

71C Ted Williams

71C Ted Williams

71D Vern Stephens

71E Billy Goodman

71F Dom DiMaggio

71G Dick Gernert

71H Hoot Evers

71H Hoot Evers

72A George Kell

72B Hal Newhouser

72D Vic Wertz

72E Fred Hutchinson

72F Johnny Groth

73A Al Zarilla

73B Billy Pierce

73C Eddie Robinson

73D Chico Carrasquel

73E Minnie Minoso

73F Jim Busby

73G Nellie Fox

73H Sam Mele

74A Larry Doby

74B Al Rosen

74C Bob Lemon

74D Jim Hegan

74E Bob Feller

74F Dale Mitchell

75A Ned Garver

76A Gus Zernial

76B Ferris Fain

76C Bobby Shantz

77A Richie Ashburn

77B Ralph Kiner

77C Curt Simmons

78A Bobby Thomson

78B Alvin Dark

78C Sal Maglie

78D Larry Jansen

78E Willie Mays

78F Monte Irvin

78G Whitey Lockman

79A Gil Hodges

79B Pee Wee Reese

79C Roy Campanella

79D Don Newcombe

79E Duke Snider

79F Preacher Roe

79G Jackie Robinson

80A Eddie Miksis

80B Dutch Leonard

80C Randy Jackson

80D Bob Rush

80E Hank Sauer

80F Phil Cavarretta

80G Warren Hacker

81A Red Schoendienst

81B Wally Westlake

81C Cliff Chambers

81D Enos Slaughter

81E Stan Musial

81E Stan Musial

81G Jerry Staley