This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/21/2024
[SPORTS ILLUSTRATED]. The First Six Issues of this Famous Sports Magazine, Plus an Original Pre-Publication Dummy Copy of the First Issue. Chicago: Time, Inc., 1954. 4tos. Profusely illustrated. 7 issues, including dummy copy. With original, intact, sheets of fold-out baseball cards in issues #1 and #2 present. Approximately 8 ¼ x 11 ½”. All issues in original staple-bound pictorial wrappers (general wear to wrappers, some issues with mailing labels, some minor chips, tears to edges, baseball card sheet in #2 is loose but present). Very good. In August of 1954, thousands put down 25 cents for a piece of history - the stated “First Issue” of a new and ultimately ground-breaking sports magazine called “Sports Illustrated.” What few, if any, realized is that previous to that newsstand appearance a couple “rough drafts” saw limited circulation under the now politically incorrect print industry term “Dummy.” The dummy issue is the second dummy issue produced (entitled “Dummy No. 2 April 16, 1954”); according to the publisher’s memo, this second attempt has various editorial changes. He also lays out the philosophy in creating a magazine dedicated to sports, which he states as a two-part answer to the question of “why?” “The first is simply that it had never been attempted before, and it became our purpose to give America its first national weekly of sport. The second is that the “season and climate” and need for such a publication seems most propitious for this adventure…” Dummy issue also has a different image on the front cover than was finally chosen for the actual First Issue.