Pennant Fever
EXAMINING 20th CENTURY FELT NOVELTY COMPANIES AND THEIR PRODUCTS
Locations: 7824 S. Clyde Ave. (ca. 1920s); 8000 S. Chicago Ave. (ca. 1930s); then 7984 S. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL (ca. 1940s - present). Founded: 1916 Closed: N/A Maker’s mark: “W.G. NEWBOULD CO.” stamped on the reverse side of pennants from the late 1920s, early 1930s; and initials “WGN” secreted within original artwork throughout the 1940s, 50s, 60s,; and “WGN FLAG CO.” as a footer in the 1970s. COMPANY HISTORYHe was considered “the ultimate salesman”. First, it was newspapers. Then, pencils. One day in 1916 he was walking along a Chicago street when a vendor sold him a hand held American flag. Minutes later he re-sold it to another buyer--for twice what he paid for it! This sale convinced a young William G. Newbould to start a flag business. Within a decade, that flag business expanded into felt pennants and other novelty items. And over the next five decades, WGN produced an impressive volume of high quality felt pennants representing colleges and professional sports teams situated all over the country. More than a century later that company is still in business as WGN Flag & Decorating Co. (No relationship to Superstation WGN, also of Chicago.) And while WGN no longer manufactures felt pennants, their business still centers on flags; they’re still operating on the same block in Chicago’s south side; and, the company founder and namesake’s great grandson is still running it as the family business it has always been--four generations later. W.G. Newbould, Sr. Born in Anderson, Indiana in 1895, William George Newbould spent much of his childhood in Lafayette, Indiana. By 1906, at age 11, he began hawking newspapers, pencils, and fruit to passengers aboard the many trains running daily between Lafayette and Chicago. He was a natural salesman. “He could sell a blind man a set of encyclopedias,” his grandson once recalled. As a child, he sold many different items. But, when he sold that first hand held flag, doubling his investment in minutes, the young entrepreneur resolved to cash in on this emerging industry. The flag business he launched that day started small. For the first several years it was run entirely out of his home, located at 7824 S. Clyde Ave., not far from their current location. And for the first several decades, the company never even incorporated. But the young salesman turned entrepreneur had good timing. Up to that point, there was not much interest in privately owned flags. This all changed when America entered World War I in 1917. With jingoist sentiment running at levels never before seen, private citizens began looking for new ways to express the sense of patriotism they had bottled up in them. And much like my generation did during the days following 9/11, these citizens rallied around the ultimate symbol of unity: our flag. Suddenly, everyone wanted to fly the stars and stripes. And Mr. Newbould and his company stood well positioned to satisfy that demand. WGN Flag & Decorating Co. In the years following the war Mr. Newbould was able to hire more employees. He married a young Irish-born immigrant named Margaret whom he had met while peddling his wares on the trains to/from Chicago. Together they had three children: William, Jr.; Edwin; and Mary Ellen. All would, in varying capacities, play roles in the young business that would become known as WGN Flag & Decorating Co. For example, Mrs. Newbould was the firm’s first seamstress. Sons William and Edwin would each manage the business at different times; but not before working their way up as janitors, first. Daughter Mary Ellen would eventually own the company. Mr. Newbould’s grandchildren, and even great grandchildren, would all follow similar paths. By the 1920s, times were good. The war was over. The economy was booming. WGN had sold a lot of flags and survived their first years in business; but, Mr. Newbould knew that flag demand would eventually plateau. To truly grow as a company, he needed to develop and sell new product lines. And if you’re already a successful flagmaker, the next logical thing to make are pennants. Felt pennants and banners had been growing in popularity amongst college students since the turn of the century. Mr. Newbould recognized this. And 93 miles east of Chicago lies the town South Bend, Indiana where he spotted an untapped marketplace where such products could be sold amidst a growing demand. WGN and the Notre Dame connection In 1925 Knute Rockne and his Notre Dame Fighting Irish burst on to the national scene after defeating Stanford in the Rose Bowl Game, thereby earning the university’s first of 11 national championships. Championships number two and three would follow by the decade’s end. Around 1927 Mr. Newbould, ever the salesman that he was, approached university officials with a proposal. The details remain unknown as the precise terms and conditions were never codified; but, Newbould left campus with a gentleman’s agreement, secured by a handshake, to serve as Notre Dame’s sole concessionaire for the indefinite future. Once again, Mr. Newbould’s timing was spot on: not only was Notre Dame quickly establishing itself as a college football powerhouse; but, plans for a new 50,000 seat stadium were in the works where WGN would be uniquely positioned to sell their novelty items in. It was a partnership that would serve both parties well and survive through the mid-1980s. Today, WGN is owned and run by Mr. Newbould’s great grandson, Carl “Gus” Porter III. Although his great grandfather passed away in 1985 when he was 5 years old, Gus has fond memories of the man. Moreover, he vividly recalls the “weekend ritual” that became a Notre Dame home football game for the family. Each Friday night before gameday the family began packing up several vehicles with pennants and other sports novelty items. Together they would make the short drive from Chicago to South Bend and check-in to a local hotel. The next morning, when everyone else was tailgating in the parking lot, Mr. Newbould and the family were busy stocking their central concession stand with the latest merchandise. “We always made sure we carried merchandise for the visiting team and their fans, too,” recalled Gus. This was an adaptation Mr. Newbould insisted upon; and it distinguished their operation from contemporary arenas and stadiums, where the inventory is more static. “If Syracuse was in town, we made sure we brought Syracuse stuff to sell to their fans,” added Gus. Indeed, Mr. Newbould would do anything to make a sale. One of his favorite sales tactics was to employ his grandchildren as souvenir vendors and parade them through the parking lots hawking WGN merchandise. (Child labor laws were a bit more relaxed back in those days.) In a normal operation, all merchandise deemed below standards was discarded--never sold. Not so for Mr. Newbould. If a pennant or pinback had a defect, Newbould would simply dispatch his youngest grandchild to try and sell it. “I was four years old, and I remember walking the parking lot trying to sell this stuff, relying on my cute-kid-factor more than anything else,” explained Gus. And the sales only became easier as the tailgaters consumed more alcohol. “I can vividly recall the smell of beer that came with the customers I would target,” Gus remembered. In the mid-1980s Notre Dame finally ended its relationship with WGN as its stadium concessionaire. Much had changed since the 1920s when Mr. Newbould first approached the university: sports licensing; overseas competition; even declining demand for felt novelty items. But, among these considerations, the principal reason for the change had more to do with the rise of the college bookstore than anything else. At Notre Dame, and at other college campuses, the campus bookstore had grown in importance. Once reserved just for text book sales, by the 1980s, college bookstores functioned more like a big box store selling students everything from clothes to school supplies, even food. It was a niche marketplace that had evolved into a multi-million dollar industry. In the late 1920s, stadiums became ideal locations for concessionaires to operate in; and, by the 1980s, the same had become true for college bookstores. Facing this economic reality, Notre Dame consolidated all of its campus retail centers, including souvenir merchandise sold in the stadium, with its bookstore--and then awarded the bookstore concession to another company.
Other sports pennants by WGN WGN’s earliest pennants were made for and sold at Notre Dame. Not surprisingly these pennants represented the majority of pennants churned out by the company through the 1950s. But, as early as the 1930s, they began making pennants for local professional sports teams, e.g., Chicago Bears and Cardinals (NFL); Chicago White Sox (AL) and Chicago Cubs (NL); and the Chicago Black Hawks (NHL). This makes logical sense given how easy it was to recycle pennant artwork from one team to the next. By about 1950, however, it appears WGN expanded its pennant product line well beyond Chicagoland. After mostly focusing on local teams, WGN began making pennants for Major League Baseball. Not just the Chicago White Sox and Cubs; for the first time in company history, WGN was making pennants for all 16 American and National League teams situated throughout the country. This move put WGN in step with other leading pennant manufacturers of the day, such as Trench, ADFLAG, and Keezer--all of which were making baseball pennants for national consumption by the 1950s. This initial batch of baseball pennants by WGN featured a distinctive formula: each team's city name was written across the tail of the pennant; and somewhere between or within this lettering appeared a player or two performing a baseball move. On the same pennant's head appeared a cartoonish figure intended to resemble each team's mascot (if they had one). All pennants from this series were monochrome. I call this series, "Player-in-the-name" and here's a small sampling of what these handsome pennants looked like: [Pennant Fever wishes to acknowledge reader Greg M. for discovering this Player-in-the-name series; and supplying pictures of same.] Apparently WGN's initial foray into the national pennant market was a success. By the latter half of 1950s WGN offered a second batch of American and National League baseball pennants. It appears this second generation of pennants were made between 1958 and 1969. Unlike the above "Player-in-the-name" series, these pennants were nearly all multi-colored using vibrant Day-Glo screen printer's ink. Here’s a sample of what this offering looked like: Around this same time, WGN began producing professional football pennants. It appears most of these were made pre-1967, i.e., before the NFL-AFL merger; and for strictly NFL teams. Here’s what they looked like: Among these NFL pennants produced by WGN, some of the most sought after are those commemorating the Super Bowl. From at least Super Bowl II in 1968 through the mid 1970s, WGN produced a combination of pennants for the big game; one for each of the two teams; and a “dueling pennant” featuring both team names thereon. I suspect these were made in limited runs and only sold at the game itself. For this reason, they are scarcely available today and will typically fetch a hefty price on the secondary market when they do come up for sale. They all generally looked like this: The 1960s marked a period of rapid growth and expansion for WGN. Much had changed since the company’s formation a half century earlier. It all started with a single concession stand at Notre Dame Stadium and a stack of souvenir pennants. Then came pennants for the other local teams in the Chicago market. And by the end of the 1960s, WGN was making pennants on a national scale for Major League Baseball and the National Football League. And then it all stopped. By 1970, WGN abruptly stopped making sports pennants for anyone but Notre Dame. Licensing and the end of an era To understand why, you need only understand one term: licensing. As has been well documented in each of my previous posts, colleges and professional sports teams once never bothered to copyright their names, slogans or to trademark their logos, seals, or insignia. Intellectual property like this was simply overlooked by owners who instead focused on payroll, attendance, and maybe how their team was doing in the standings. This all began to change in the 1960s. By the end of the decade, college conferences and professional sports leagues asserted their rights over such property to the fullest extent of the law. This is all the more evident by the widespread use of each league’s logo on pennants themselves, which became commonplace by 1970. And you will note that none of WGN’s MLB or NFL pennants from the latter half of the 1960s bear any indications on them that they were officially licensed merchandise. Like so many other pennant manufacturers, this was the end of the road for WGN and sports pennants. Licenses to make college or professional sports pennants were expensive and therefore difficult to obtain. Had they obtained one, they would have been obligated to make pennants for all of the teams in that league--even the small market ones that were more difficult to sell. Bottom line: making sports pennants became only profitable for the biggest pennant manufacturers, which WGN was not. The above notwithstanding, WGN did continue making Notre Dame pennants through the late 1970s. As the school’s sole stadium concessionaire, Notre Dame apparently had no objections to WGN’s continued use of their intellectual property. Why would they? Notre Dame was still profiting off every pennant Mr. Newbould and his family sold. During the final years of the WGN-Notre Dame partnership it appears WGN was selling fewer pennants than ever before. This was due to many circumstances; but, most notably: falling demand. The fact is felt pennants had fallen out of vogue by the early 1980s in favor of other novelty items that could be made much cheaper, e.g., foam fingers. Demand became so low WGN’s own concession stand at Notre Dame Stadium began selling another pennant maker’s Notre Dame pennants because it was no longer profitable to make them in small production runs. By the mid-1980s WGN was a much different company. Thanks in part to licensing requirements, falling demand, and the end of WGN’s concession business at Notre Dame, the company shifted its focus back to making flags, flag pole installation and repair, and making decorative banners. After all, these parts of their business had been their bread and butter since the company’s inception. But WGN was a different company in yet another very significant way: in 1985, Mr. Newbould, the company’s founder and namesake, passed away at age 90. His wife, Margaret, the company’s original seamstress, had passed away three years earlier. Both remained involved in the company until the end of their lives. It was time for another generation to lead. Family owned Since the company’s inception Mr. Newbould’s fingers were all over every aspect of WGN Flag & Decorating Co. But, to be clear: it was not a one man band. Mr. Newbould used every available family member’s labor in every aspect of the business. According to a 1940 US Census record, that year the Newbould family lived in an apartment above the business at 8000 S. Chicago Ave. (next door to the present day site of WGN). Mr. Newbould (46) is listed as the head of household. His eldest son, William, Jr. (25) and youngest son, Edwin (20) both appear as cohabitants. All three reportedly worked in the flag manufacturing industry; however, Mr. Newbould’s position was simply described as “Salesman”. William, Jr. on the other hand was listed as “Manager”. And little brother Edwin: “Janitor work”. Sometimes it pays to be first. As Mr. Newbould aged, others assumed greater roles in running the company. First it was William, Jr. We know he was running the company by 1940 at age 25. He died in the 1960s. That’s when Edwin finally got a turn to run things. When Mr. Newbould passed in 1985, the company was inherited by his surviving daughter: Mary Ellen Porter. She ran the company until her son, Carl Porter II, took over in 1987 after giving up a career in the steel industry. His son, Carl “Gus” Porter III took over in 2004. Gus is Mr. Newbould’s great grandson. As such he represents the fourth generation of family ownership in the WGN story. Locations One of the most amazing things about WGN is that the 100+ year old company has mostly remained in the same place for the entirety of its existence. This fact lies in stark contrast to other felt novelty makers documented earlier on this site. Chicago Pennant Co., for example, was in business for around 70 years. They relocated some 10 times during their existence. Advertising Flag Co. (ADFLAG) has been around since 1936. They are currently in their eighth different location. All three companies made felt pennants and all three began in Chicago. But only WGN was able to stay where they started. The formal beginning of the business began inside a two-story building located at 8000 S. Chicago Ave. Flag production and sales took place on the ground floor. The second floor above housed an apartment that served as home for the Newbould family. It was here that Mr. and Mrs. Newbould lived and raised their three children. One of the reasons WGN was able to stay in the same location for so long was the availability of neighboring land to expand into. As the business outgrew the first floor of their original building, they simply began acquiring the buildings next door. By 1940, after purchasing the two buildings in between, they acquired the property three doors down located at 7984 S. Chicago Ave. Today, this building at 7984 S. Chicago Ave. functions as WGN’s retail store and office. Don’t mistake it for a church! Although it looks like a small chapel, it was built in 1890 as a lamp factory, of all things. The garage-like building next door is where custom flags and decorative banners are now produced. The original building that doubled as the Newbould family home is now occupied by a roofing company and no longer used by WGN. WGN today Today WGN’s business centers on the things that got them started more than 100 years ago: flags. Today, much of their business involves production of custom flags. They also manufacture a variety of international flags. But, they are probably best known for their production of Chicago municipal flags--one of the best and most recognizable municipal flags around. In addition to flag production, they also operate a retail store where many of their flags can be purchased. They also provide a variety of services related to flags. They repair flags. They install flag poles. They even perform flag disposal services! And then there’s decorating. WGN will make custom signs, banners, and flags for any occasion--everything from car dealerships to funeral services for fallen police officers. But, of all the decorations they have made over the past century, there’s perhaps nothing finer than those hanging from the rafters in Chicago’s United Center--all of which were manufactured by WGN. [Writer’s note: I’d like to thank Gus Porter for taking the time to speak with me about his company’s wonderful history; and, for sharing so many amusing anecdotes about his family for use in this post.] KEY PRODUCTSWGN made a lot of felt pennants between the 1920s and the 1970s. They made other novelty items, but it appears that their felt novelty products were limited solely to pennants. They made no felt banners, felt pillow cases, nor felt arm bands other pennant makers commonly offered. With that said, their pennants consistently exemplified the following characteristics over the decades:
Finally, it appears that the majority of WGN’s pennants were monochrome through the 1940s. Sometime around 1950 they began making polychromatic pennants. And by the late 1950s, their color graphics took on an identity of their own! Day-Glo color palette Perhaps the most defining characteristic of WGN pennants from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s was the color of these graphics. If you’re ever uncertain whether a given pennant came from WGN versus, say, ADFLAG--check for color. The fact is both of these Chicago pennant manufacturers made similar products during the same time frame. Even knowledgeable collectors will struggle to tell the difference. ADFLAG’s pennants remained largely monochrome through the 1950s and early 1960s. When they did issue polychromatic pennants, the colors were limited; and what colors they did use were dull. WGN’s coloring, on the other hand, was best described as “vibrant” (but perhaps “intense” also works). “Striking”, “electric”, and “fluorescent” all come to mind, too. I have heard other collectors describe this coloring as “Day-Glo”--a term that refers to the Cleveland-based company that first invented and manufactured fluorescent paints back in the 1940s. It’s entirely possible that WGN actually used Day-Glo brand paint when screening their pennants; but, I have not been able to confirm this. I do know that Day-Glo paint was made available via a license plan to silk screeners, like WGN, as you can see in this vintage ad. Typically, WGN used a three-color paint scheme on these pennants: yellow, kelly green, and either terracotta or pink. When placed against a dark felt background, these colors really popped. Here’s a few examples: With colors this vibrant, it’s hard to remember that these pennants are a half century old! To be fair: not every collector appreciates these Day-Glo pennants today. Admittedly, some turned out better than others. The limited color palette occasionally forced WGN to depict certain player uniforms in some rather unauthentic color schemes. (Pretty sure the Cleveland Browns never wore a kelly green helmet!) And, it should be noted that WGN was not the only manufacturer of pennants featuring these bright color palettes in the 1960s. Other felt novelty manufacturers, such as HANCO of New York City, followed WGN’s lead and began selling National and American League baseball pennant sets with similarly “Colorful” graphics, a description that certainly held true. But, of the many “Colorful” pennants being offered throughout the decade by pennant makers, WGN’s stand out as the most recognizable today. Special event pennants Another type of product WGN was known for was the special event pennant, i.e., a pennant made to commemorate a specific occasion, such as the All Star Game, the World Series, a college bowl game, or the Super Bowl. Undoubtedly these were produced for and sold at the events themselves. Consequently, many of these were monochromatic--especially the World Series ones--a design characteristic that was necessary given the limited time they had to make these before the event commenced. I already covered WGN’s Super Bowl pennants above. Here’s a sampling of my other favorite special event pennants by WGN: As concerns the above examples, note that many of these events took place in Chicago; or else not too far therefrom. MAKER’S MARKS, TEAM LIBRARY, DISTINCTIVE ARTWORK Unfortunately, WGN did not utilize a clear, consistent maker’s mark like their competitors at Chicago Pennant Co. did. They did, however, leave us a few clues as to their identity: secreted within some of their original artwork you may find the initials “W”, “G”, and “N”. They were not the only pennant manufacture to do something like this. You might recall in my previous post that ADFLAG did something like this, too. The majority of these hidden marks will be found on WGN’s Notre Dame pennants. It appears they only maintained this practice on pennants featuring original artwork made in the 1940s, 50s, and early 60s. Although it seemed mostly limited to Notre Dame pennants, you may find that other college pennants by WGN featuring the same artwork will have these initials, too. By the 1970s they ceased leaving these discreet marks behind. I know of one Notre Dame pennant, perhaps one of their last ever made, that has “WGN FLAG CO.” plainly written in the bottom left corner of the pennant, like a copyright footer. Strangely, they did that on this particular pennant and nowhere else.
I believe this pennant was likely made in the late 1920s or early 30s. Additionally, I think it was manufactured by Mr. and Mrs. Newbould, and perhaps with some help from their children. Further, it seems probable that it was manufactured in the basement of this home--which is where I am told the family preferred to screen their earliest felt pennants. For examples of the above described maker’s marks, have a look at the below Notre Dame pennants by WGN. These pennants span five decades and date back to the 1920s. As you look them over, note the evolution of the design styles when it comes to color composition, tassels, artwork, etc. Other teams covered below in the Team Library include the Bears, Cardinals, Cubs, White Sox, Bulls, and Black Hawks. Enjoy! University of Notre Dame Chicago Bears Chicago Cardinals Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Chicago Black Hawks Chicago Bulls Distinctive artwork repeatedly used by WGN Look for this distinctive punter on WGN’s earliest collegiate and professional football pennants. Sometimes he appears alone; but you may also find him on a football field, or with a stadium behind him. WGN utilized this running back throughout the 1940s. Typically they placed the player’s school’s initials on the front of his jersey. By the 1950s, WGN upgraded their running back to this guy, shown breaking not one but two tackles. This was the generic version of the above design. This player’s uniform colors could be easily altered to look like any team. Decorative flowers and a field goal post were added. Curiously, the initials "WGN" were removed. Note the interesting presence of stars surrounding the player’s head…. As you will soon see, this was a common characteristic of WGN’s artwork. This was the Super Bowl variant. On early versions an “S” appeared on the player’s chest. Unlike the above variations, this player is depicted taking a knee; and the angle of the stadium is different to accommodate the “SUPER BOWL” text. If this design looks familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen a similar arrangement consisting of three baseball players set against a backdrop of stars. That design was used by Trench on their baseball pennants of the 1950s. This was WGN’s response. It was used around the same time period. By the 1970s WGN adapted the above design into this one, wherein the text “No. 1 TEAM OF THE NATION” replaced the central football player. If ever you come across a team’s mascot bursting out of a football, you know you’re handling a WGN pennant… …and somewhere near that exploding football, you’ll likely see this cup. More often than not, this particular cup was used on WGN's Sugar Bowl pennants. If you’re handling a WGN hockey pennant, you might see the very same cup again--doubling as the Stanley Cup. Say, is this hockey player seeing stars, too? I call this the “bat skewered baseball”. Look for it on WGN baseball pennants from the latter half of the 1960s. Of course, if you’re going to skewer a baseball, be careful. There may just be a tiger inside waiting to pounce on you! And yes--even mascots can see stars! Here’s a typical scroll used by WGN on their scroll pennants. Unlike Trench’s scrolls, which were similar, WGN’s were not white; rather, the scroll was merely outlined in white, allowing the backfelt to provide the coloring of the scroll. Like Trench, WGN typically only listed each player’s last names, also in white. On polychromatic pennants, you might see the player names written in three different colors.
WGN pennants bearing G.B. Feld's mark
For more information on WGN Flag & Decorating Co., or to make a purchase from their online storefront, visit: www.wgnflag.com . For the most comprehensive online gallery of football pennants, including many featured in this post, visit: feltfootball.com . Note: All unquoted material on these pages is © 2019 K.R. Biebesheimer & Son. All rights reserved. Short excerpts may be used after written permission obtained and proper credit is given. ♦♦
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About me...I collect vintage pennants and banners. Soon after getting into this hobby, I became curious about the companies responsible for their production. I had to look hard, but eventually found a lot of interesting information on many of them, and their products. This site is my repository for that research. Periodically, I will dedicate a post to one of these featured manufacturers. I hope other collectors will find this information useful. Featured Content:
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