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The Wrigley Field Scorecard Vendor: A History

The "fatman" vendor appeared on the back of the Wrigley Field scorecard from 1948 through 1971. Here are all the variations on the theme.

Many of you have said how much you have enjoyed the Wrigley Field scorecard covers designed by Otis Shepard (through 1962) and his successors.

Mentioned in the comments to one or more of the posts was the "fatman vendor" who appeared on the back of the scorecard from the late 1940s through 1971, when he was replaced by a "Cubby" vendor. The vendor is affectionately called the "fatman" because he appears to have sampled his wares probably more than he should have, and has a pretty chubby face as a result.

You'll notice that the vendor essentially looks the same through all the years; only the products and the images representing them changed, along with the ad copy accompanying them. It's an interesting look through ballpark vending history for more than two decades. When the Game in Cubs history series is complete, I'll post another gallery like this with all the scorecard covers.

I want to publicly thank Mike Bojanowski for scanning all the images; he has all these cards in his personal collection. Which brings me to a request: Mike has a nearly complete run of Cubs scorecards going back to the beginnings of Weeghman Park as the Cubs' home in 1916. He's missing only 1918 and 1920. If any of you have, or know someone who has, an original scorecard from either of those two years, Mike would be interested in acquiring it for his collection.

Enjoy the gallery. The year(s) each image was used is in the caption you can see by mousing over the image.