DATE SHOT: 1934-35 PRINT DATE: 1960's SUBJECT: Jocko Conlan PHOTOGRAPHER: George Burke APPROXIMATE SIZE: 5"x7" ORIGINAL or REPRINT: Type 2 Original - Printed from the original negative, but in a later period COMMENTS / CONDITION: A bit of history on this photo: George Burke was the photographer who took the original photo of the player, producing the original negative. Following Burke's death in 1951, George Brace inherited or obtained Burke's archive of negatives from which he continued to produce prints as well as continuing to photograph players himself and add to the archives. At some point, Brace became friends with Jim Rowe who was also an avid baseball photographer and who, like Brace, marketed images of old-time and current players through various hobby publications and outlets for autographs and general collecting. Brace loaned Rowe a large number of Burke's negatives to use in producing his photos (incidentally, the negatives were never returned to Brace or his daughter, which would become a point of contention later on, but that's another story), and the black-bordered photos that I am currently listing were first produced by Rowe in the 1960's from those George Burke negatives loaned to him by George Brace. Technically, each would be considered a 1st Generation (developed from the original negative) Type II (developed during a later period) photo. Though I am unsure of their original intended purpose, they have the appearance of being proofs, and the full margins of the negative can be seen on each which yields some interesting information as to Burke's filing system. Whether these were actually proofs, or were intended to be cropped down to the more traditional 4"x6" dimensions of Burke's photographs, or were simply Rowe making use of the more conventional 5"x7" size without using an enlarger, I do not know. Whatever their intended purpose, the superiority of Burke's talent is evident as the contrast and clarity of these photos is much better than those typically seen from Rowe who appears to have been more concerned with the quantity of players in his catalog of available images than the quality of the images themselves (with the exception of the Burke images, of course). It is also interesting to note that, in addition to several oft-repeated images of stars and future Hall of Famers, there are a number of little-known players included in this collection for whom few photographic images exist. In general, wear to the photos is minor and is confined to the edges and corners, leaving the central image unblemished. George Burke was the undisputed master of baseball photography for two decades, and his images are always a pleasure to work with. These are a bit larger than his usual 4''x6'' photos, and though I have seen examples of these "proofs" a few times elsewhere, are much harder to come by than the smaller prints of his images. Please see the scans of each photo for further details. For the sake of time, the backs of the photos have not been scanned as they are all blank-backed and, with the exception of the player's hand-written name (in Rowe's hand), are free from any markings, stampings or watermarks. BIO: John Bertrand Conlan was born in 1899 in Chicago, IL and died in 1989 in Scottsdale, AZ. He played major league baseball from 1934 to 1935 as outfielder for the Chicago White Sox, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. In 1935, Conlan was presented with an unusual opportunity. During a game against the St. Louis Browns, umpire Red Ormsby fell ill due to the heat. In those days, only two umpires covered typical regular-season games, and a player with a reputation for honesty might be pressed into service if one umpire became incapacitated. Conlan was asked to fill in, and took to it well. The following year Conlan made the transition from player to umpire complete, beginning in the minor leagues. Conlan umpired in the National League from 1941 to 1965, officiating in five World Series (1945, 1950, 1954, 1957 and 1961) and six All-Star Games (1943, 1947, 1950, 1953, 1958 and 1962). He also umpired in the playoff series to decide the NL's regular-season champions in 1951, 1959 and 1962. He was the home plate umpire when Gil Hodges hit four home runs on August 31, 1950; he also umpired in the April 30, 1961 game in which Willie Mays hit four home runs. He retired after the 1964 season, but returned to work as a substitute umpire for 17 games in 1965. Conlan was known for several trademarks: Instead of a regular dress tie like most umpires of the day wore, Conlan wore a natty bow tie for his career. Conlan was also known for making "out" calls with his left hand, instead of his right. Finally, Conlan was the last National League umpire allowed to wear the outside chest protector, instead of the inside protector that all other NL umpires were using by then. Conlan's name was mentioned several times in a fictitious baseball game celebrated in the 1962 song "The Los Angeles Dodgers," recorded by Danny Kaye. The song only referred to Conlan by his last name, with the presumption that the listener would know he was referring to the famous umpire. His son John Bertrand Conlan served as a U.S. Representative from Arizona from 1973 to 1977. George C. Burke was born in 1874 in Pennington Gap, VA and died in 1951 in Chicago, IL. A case of mistaken identity made by the Chicago Cubs resulted in George Burke becoming the official photographer for the Chicago Cubs. In 1929, Cubs manager Joe McCarthy and Gabby Hartnett sought out the ballclub's previous photographer. They could only remember his last name, Burke, so they looked him up in the phone book. A listing leapt out at them: studio photographer George C. Burke, whose office was near Wrigley Field. Thus began the baseball photography career of George Burke, who had no prior sports experience whatsoever, and thus ended the career of photographer Francis Burke - the Cubs' time-honored official cameraman and an unwitting victim of mistaken identity. To undertake his new "big league" endeavor, Burke hired the young (age 15) baseball-knowledgeable George Brace as his assistant, and the two soon became a Chicago institution. Ever-present at Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park, Burke and Brace shot not only for the Cubs, but also for the White Sox and football's Chicago Bears. They also endeavored to amass a complete portfolio of player portraits - a daunting task made possible by the fact that Chicago was the only city with both an American League and a National League franchise from 1929 all the way until Brace's retirement in 1993. As the official photographer for the Chicago Cubs, Burke quickly became renowned for his candid pre-game photos and thought-provoking portrait depictions, and his posed portraits and action photos were published in The Sporting News, Who's Who in the Major Leagues, and Baseball Digest as well as other publications, and provided the necessary photos for numerous 1930's and later baseball card and premium issues. SKU: GB4410
Item: GB4410
|