page_title: Bowman Gum
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bowman Gum / History
caption_attribution_description: English: 1953 Bowman Color baseball card of Ralph Kiner of the Pittsburgh Pirates #80. PD-not-renewed.
context_page_description: The Bowman Gum Company was a Philadelphia-based manufacturer of bubble gum and trading cards in the period surrounding World War II. It was founded by Jacob Warren Bowman in 1927.
  Bowman was mostly notable for its baseball cards, which were highly popular in the 1940s, until the brand was acquired by Topps in 1956. Bowman also produced American football and basketball cards.
  Nowadays, Topps commercialises a line of baseball cards under the "Bowman" name after resurrecting the brand in 1989.
context_section_description: Jacob Warren Bowman, an American chewing gum salesman, started his own company, Gum, Inc. in Philadelphia in 1927. Gum, Inc. started producing Blony bubble gum which immediately became the top selling penny bubble gum in the United States in 1929.
  The Blony trademark was registered by Bowman on January 13, 1931 (filed June 30, 1930).  In 1937, Blony had 60 percent of the sales of bubble gum sold in the U.S., largely due to the fact that, weighing 210 grains, it was the largest piece of bubble gum sold for a penny.  With the advertisement "Three Big BITES for a penny", Blony made Gum, Inc. "the biggest firm in the U. S. catering exclusively to the penny gum trade" according to a 1937 Time magazine article. By then, Gum, Inc. occupied five floors and the basement of a building on Woodland Avenue in Philadelphia.
  Blony gum came with color trading cards on various topics. A non-sports example, the 1938 series, Horrors of War featured 288 cards detailing various contemporary conflicts. The motto "To know the HORRORS OF WAR is to want PEACE" appeared on each card, but children nicknamed the series "War Gum".
  Franklin V. Canning became a partner with Bowman in 1930. Canning, a New York druggist who supplied the pink bubble gum base material to Gum, Inc., also provided working capital in return for 250 shares, half of the company stock. A subsidiary of the Wrigley Company developed a better gum base in 1932, which sold for less than Canning's base.  President Bowman demanded that Canning reduce the price of the gum base, which resulted in altercations between the two, and ended in Bowman being ousted from the company in 1936.
  In July 1937, Bowman returned to the company after a long, bitter legal battle which ended in the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court upholding his reinstatement as president of the company. Gum, Inc. had earnings of $49,000 on sales estimated at about $800,000 in the first six months of 1937. In September 1937, Bowman's estranged second wife, Ruth, filed a suit against Bowman for part ownership of Gum, Inc., claiming a verbal agreement to a half-interest in his holdings.
  Bowman expanded its business when the company started to produce trading cards in the 1930s. The first releases by Bowman were non-sports topics, but the company soon entered to the sports market with its baseball cards of 1939. The company produced a series of cards known as the "Play Ball" sets each year from 1939 to 1941. Production halted after the United States as wartime paper rations were enacted and the company did not return to making trading cards until 1948, then under the Bowman name.
  After the World War II Bowman emerged with its 1948 baseball card set, which became highly popular. That same year, Bowman also released its first American football card set of 108 cards, and its first basketball cards set.
  By then, Bowman was competing against Leaf Candy Company, which left the marketplace in 1950, that year Bowman sales of baseball cards alone was $1 million. For a few years, Bowman was the leading producer of baseball cards, but was soon overtaken by rival company Topps Chewing Gum. Bowman produced baseball cards until 1955.
  After a period in which the two fought to sign players to exclusive contracts for their cards, Topps bought out Bowman in 1956 for $200,000.
  In 1989, the Bowman brand name was resurrected by Topps to use on some of its subsidiary sports card sets. In recent years, the Bowman company has become known as the top brand for rookie cards.
caption: 1953 Bowman Color baseball card of Ralph Kiner
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