Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Pet Cremer Olympia
Year	1936
Size	2 1/2″ x 3 1/4″
Images	Black and White
Type	Miscellaneous
Number in Set	144

1936 Pet Cremer Olympia Overview

The 1936 Pet Cremer set was one of several German issues that covered the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin. As was the case with others, it was a multi-sport set that covered games from the Olympics.

Numerous sports were profiled in the set, but the major American sports included were baseball, basketball, and hockey.

Hockey, by far, had the most representation of those sports. There were six hockey cards included compared to only one basketball and one baseball. In addition, while the U.S. was a big part of those Olympic games, they are only represented once among those eight cards as the basketball card features a game between the U.S. and Canada. The basketball card features Team USA’s star player, Joe Fortenberry reaching for the ball. Here’s a closer look at the few 1936 Olympic cards featuring basketball. Boxing and wrestling are also covered.

Americans are covered in other sports throughout the set, including track and field star Jesse Owens, who was included on a total of three cards.

One note is that these cards are commonly referred to as tobacco cards but that is not correct. Pet Cremer actually produced cleaning/soap and laundry products. Thus, these are best fit under the Miscellaneous Card header in the American Card Catalog.

Baseball

The baseball card is an interesting one. It features Japanese players who scheduled to play a demonstration game against the United States. The sport was not a fully recognized one at the games but Japan was to play against the Americans in an exhibition. However, they ended up not appearing. Japan did help bring the sport to Germany, however, showing up in the country prior to the Olympics.

The baseball card is a redux of sorts of one found in the 1932 Sanella set. That set was also a German release and included a card featuring an unknown Japanese catcher. As I covered here, the player shown on that card likely features Japanese Hall of Famer Jiro Kuji. This card features two Japanese catchers, both also unknown.

The catcher seen standing is wearing the same type of shin guards as found on the one from the Sanella set. That player could also be Kuji but no definitive link is known. The other catcher waiting for a pitch could be Nobuo Kura, who was a featured Japanese catcher on some of the team’s international efforts. Again, however, nothing is definitive.

1936 Pet Cremer Olympia Checklist

Below is a checklist of the cards from the four major American sports. In addition, here is a complete checklist of the entire set.

76. U.S. vs. Canada (Basketball)
112. Japanese Players (Baseball)
136. Canada Team (Hockey)
137. Rink (Hockey)
138. Japan Player (Hockey)
139. Game (Hockey)
141. British Team (Hockey)
142. German Team (Hockey)

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