1937-38 Dixie Lids Set (F7)

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

It’s in the Details

Title	Dixie Lids
Year	1937-38
Size	Lids either 2 1/4″, 2 7/16″, or 2 3/4″, and the premiums are 8″ x 10″
Images	Lids black and white and the premiums are color
Type	Food
Number in Set	48

1937-38 Dixie Lids and Premiums Overview

While Dixie Lids were later printed in the 1950s, the first versions of them were in the pre-war era.

In 1937 and 1938, the Dixie Cup Company printed specialty lids for various ice cream products. The lids featured a variety of famous people, including baseball players, football players, other athletes (among, tennis star Bill Tilden), and actors/actresses. In general, the more sought after and valuable ones are the issues featuring athletes. Because these were legitimately lids used on the tops of ice cream products, you are liable to find them in all kinds of shape – often, they are in poor condition.

Dixie actually began producing lids before 1937. However, those did not feature sports figures. Production on them continued beyond the pre-war era and into the 1950s. Collectors should also be aware that at least one reprint set of them have been printed.

Fronts of the kids included a black and white picture of the personality with his name and team around the edge. In addition to the player’s name, a short statement was added providing a little bit of information. Gabby Hartnett’s lid, for example, calls him a ‘Dynamic Catcher and Long Distance Hitter.’

In 1937, the company printed four baseball players – Charlie Gehringer, Gabby Hartnett, Carl Hubbell, and Joe Medwick. 1938 saw them print four more, including Hubbell again, Bob Feller, Jimmie Foxx, and Wally Moses. While Hubbell was included both years, his two lids are different. 1938 also included football stars Sammy Baugh and Bronko Nagurski.

While most of these are 2 1/4″ or 2 3/4″ in diameter, a third size, 2 7/16″, has also been spotted.

Backs

As these were used on a variety of ice cream products, the backs of them vary. All kinds of ice cream brand names are printed. In addition to the ice cream brands, the backs also contained the Dixie Lids logo/name.

Below are the 40+ backs I have seen but others are likely to exist. The list of brands here does not include other brands that were used in other years. Hoodsie, Sunfreze, and Velvet appear to be among the brands most seen. I have also seen a few blank ones but am unsure if those were printed blank or if they were skinned with the advertisement removed.

While most of the brands will not be names familiar to card collectors, Yuengling’s is one that was involved with other pre-war cards, sponsoring one of the four F50 ice cream baseball card issues.

Finally, a few backs are merely advertisements asking customers to keep the lids since the featured ‘interesting pictures’ on the other side.

Abbott’s Ice Cream
Agate’s Ice Cream
Bartholomay Ice Cream
Best’s Ice Cream
Borden’s Ice Cream
Breyers Ice Cream
Chapell Ice Cream
Cloverland Ice Cream
Dairy Lea Ice Cream
Deyo Ice Cream
Dixie (General Advertisement with no ice cream affiliation)
Fenn’s Ice Cream
Frechtling’s Ice Cream
Furnas Ice Cream
Hoffman’s Ice Cream
Hoodsie / Hood’s Ice Cream (Hoodsie)
Horns Supreme Ice Cream
Horton’s Ice Cream
Hydrox Ice Cream
Imperial Ice Cream
Lily Pure Ice Cream
Looney’s Ice Cream
Maloof Ice Cream
Marigold Ice Cream
Meadow Gold Ice Cream
Model Ice Cream
Mohawk Ice Cream
Pennsupreme Ice Cream
Philadelphia Dairy
Pine State Ice Cream
Pride Ice Cream
Reid’s Ice Cream
Roszell’s Ice Cream
Schwen’s Ice Cream
Sharpless Ice Cream
Starr Brothers
Steffen’s Frozen Cup
Sunfreze Ice Cream
Supplee Ice Cream
Tilly Ice Cream
Turnbull’s Ice Cream
Vander Bie’s Ice Cream
Velvet Brand Arctic
Velvet Ice Cream
Wiseman Farms
Yerdon’s Ice Cream
Yuengling’s Ice Cream

A final note about the backs is that some will be found with overprinted stamps that indicate the particular flavor. While rarer, no real premium is typically offered for those.

As you might suspect, some backs are rarer than others. Hoodsie’s, Velvet, and Sunfreze ice cream backs are among the more common. Here’s a closer look at the potential rarity for the various backs.

Larger Premiums & Album

In addition to the lids, the Dixie Cup Company produced 8X10 premium items for collectors. The large cardboard photos included the same players featured on the lids. Two premiums are pictured here – one of Medwick and one of Nagurski.

Some of the lids used an up close portrait picture of the same one shot used in the larger premiums. Others, like Gehringer, were different images.

Backs of the premiums were not blank. Instead, they included action shots of the player in question as well as a long biography. In addition, two holes were placed at the left of the premiums.

Many collectors have wondered why the holes were included. That is because a special album was made for them. Dixie offered a front and back cover called, “My Scrapbook of Stars.” The inside of the front cover had a place where a collector’s name and address were listed. The inside of the back cover showed collectors how to create their album by fastening the cover to the pages using string.

Interesting, the back cover also gave collectors other ideas if they did not want their pictures in a book. They recommended cutting off the part with the holes and framing the picture instead. They also recommended creating a homemade die-cut of sorts by simply cutting around the shape of the subject. This was not the first time that companies suggested this sort of ‘damage.’ Backs of the N228-5 Kinney cards printed in the late 1800s also encouraged collectors to cut out the pictures on their cards to create a die-cut.