Frank henry fleer biography

Dubble Bubble & Baseball Cards: Philadelphia’s Fleer Legacy

 

Once a Dubble Bubble, now a buncha rubber | Photo: Bradley Maule

When the Upper Deck Company launched its first series in 1989, it changed the baseball card industry. With a smiling face in rookie Ken Griffey Jr.—card #1 in the series—Upper Deck’s glossy finish, counterfeit-proof hologram logo, and superior design upped the ante for other baseball card manufacturers and monetized “bubble gum cards,” long a kids’ hobby. It would eventually spell the end for Philadelphia’s Fleer company, which had its roots in the 19th Century and closed its Olney factory in 1996, selling the last of what it owned in 2005. But Fleer also once changed the baseball card industry.

In 1980, Fleer scored a major victory over its longtime competitor, Brooklyn’s Topps Company, when it won an antitrust suit against Topps and the Major League Baseball Players Association. Breaking up Topps’ baseball card monopoly allowed Fleer to begin production on its first full baseball card set in

Frank H. Fleer

American confectioner (1860–1921)

Frank Henry Fleer (1860[1]—November 1, 1921) was an American confectioner who is thought to have developed the first bubble gum. Fleer founded the Frank H. Fleer Corporation in 1919 as a gum manufacturer. Fleer's original formulation, called Blibber-Blubber, was never marketed to the public. It was not until 1928 that Walter Diemer, an accountant in Fleer's company, was able to refine the formulation and became marketed by Fleer's company as Dubble Bubble.

Fleer's company also went on to be innovators in the baseball card business, adding trading cards in 1923.[2]

Death

Fleer died, aged 65, of a stroke at his Davidson County, North Carolina residence in 1921.[3] He is buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery Belmont Section, Lot 58 in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

References

Fleer Corporation

1120 Route 73
Mount Laurel, New Jersey 08054
U.S.A.
(609) 231-6200
Fax: (609) 727-9460

Private Subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc.
Incorporated:
1913
Employees: 500
Sales: $300 million (1994 est.)
SICs: 2675 Die-Cut Paper & Board; 2067 Chewing Gum; 2064 Candy & Other Confectionery Products

The Fleer Corporation holds a special position in the history and development of two quintessentially American activities: bubble gum and trading cards. After nearly seventy years, Fleer continues to manufacture more than four million pieces of its Dubble Bubble—the original bubble gum—each day. As one of the top three trading card companies, along with Topps and Donruss, Fleer sells about $300 million per year in sports and entertainment cards. Sports, including baseball, basketball, and football, account for roughly $225 million of these sales. Fleer also manufactures a line of cards tied in with parent company Marvel’s comic book heroes. Other card series bearing the Fleer name are Fleer Ultra MTV Animation, featuring the

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