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Lot # 814: Bill Gallo Creates the Baseball "Super Star" Original TSN Cover Art (1962)

Category: Sports Fine Art

Starting Bid: $300.00

Bids: 1 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed

Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "Winter 2015 Catalog Auction",
which ran from 12/4/2015 9:00 AM to
1/8/2016 9:00 PM



A historically important piece, this is the first and original reference of the term "Superstar" as it refers to baseball. The term was first coined to describe Fred "Cyclone" Taylor, the hockey "Superstar," from the 1910s-1920s. It was later picked up by Andy Warhol in the mid-to-late 60s to describe the coterie of "actors" from his Electric Factory (most notably heiress Edie Sedgewick). Here, Bill Gallo, the Willard Mullin's heir apparent, unknowingly PREDATES Warhol by years using it to describe the passing "Super Stars" of the game: Mantle, Mays, Feller, Williams, Musial, etc. It is so early in fact, it primitively makes "Super Star" two words just as "Base Ball" called itself in the early days. Original pen and ink for the March 7, 1962, cover of The Sporting News, the headline reads "Fading Super Stars Dim Major Galaxy." This spectacular juxtaposition of imagery includes superior interpretations of the greatest players of any day. Measures 17x23" and is in EX-MT condition. Comes with the full issue of Sporting News which is high grade. Ironically, the cover has a double appeal in that it was (perhaps) unknowingly influenced by the classic Chesterfield advertisement (shown here) showing a similar phalanx of players in similar design. One of the great pieces of sports art.

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