Collect this irreplaceable piece of baseball and Americana history—a 1941 full-page Joe DiMaggio Wheaties ad, hand-signed by “Joltin’ Joe”, still bound in its original Saturday Evening Post edition, and freshly framed! The 1941 baseball season was the historic year when DiMaggio slugged in his still-unsurpassed 56 game hitting streak.
Wheaties, the famous breakfast cereal, was actually created by accident in 1921 — the same year that New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert hired the Osborn Engineering Company to design what was to become Yankee Stadium. A mixture of wheat bran was unintentionally spilled onto a hot stove, and voila! — crispy flakes resulted.
The fortuitous event occurred at a Minnesota company named Washburn Crosby, later known as General Mills. A wheat-flake cereal was soon fashioned and sold as “Washburn’s Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes.” After a time, the cereal was more simply named Wheaties. Early on in Wheaties’ marketing, the cereal began an association with sports, and baseball in particular.
In 1927, Wheaties advertising appeared on a billboard at Nicollet Park, then home of the Minneapolis Millers minor league baseball team. The first slogan for the cereal became: “Wheaties — The Breakfast of Champions.”
Wheaties embarked on a prestigious endorsement campaign with star athletes, focussing on the strengthening and stamina-supporting qualities of the cereal, furthered by the athletic prowess of its star athlete endorsers. Joe DiMaggio appeared on the backs of Wheaties boxes and was featured in at least two magazine advertisements. First, in 1938, as a hitting and fielding sensation with the New York Yankees, he shared the ad’s spotlight with three other Wheaties celebrity athletes. By 1941, DiMaggio’s star shone so brightly that he was the solo celebrity athlete in the ad.
Joe DiMaggio’s 1941 full-page Wheaties ad is presented here, still bound in the full September 27, 1941 edition of The Saturday Evening Post, where it was the full-page back-cover advertisement.
Joe DiMaggio has penned his signature, centered directly below his image, and above the Wheaties slogan “Breakfast of Champions”. DiMaggio’s signature is large, clear, and penned in dark blue felt-tip.
This historic advertisement lauds Joe DiMaggio, highlighting, in the ad’s verbiage, his “consecutive game hitting rampage”. (The ad also offers, for the price of a 3-cent stamp, a Family sample package of Wheaties.)
Remarkably well-preserved for its age of 83 years, showing light wear commensurate with age, the full magazine has been placed gently within the matting of the frame, as shown in the auction photos, to avoid any impact to the integrity of the original magazine. Freshly framed in a substantial navy blue frame with two layers of white and navy blue matting; framed size measures 23-3/4" in height x 19-3/4" width x 1" depth.
The framed presentation comes accompanied by a full photographic Letter of Authenticity from James Spence Authentication (JSA), certifying the authenticity of Joe DiMaggio’s signature.
In addition to Joe DiMaggio’s famed 56-game hitting streak, DiMaggio was a three-time American League (AL) Most Valuable Player Award winner, and an All-Star in each of his 13 seasons. During his tenure with the Yankees, the club won ten American League pennants and nine World Series championships. His nine career World Series rings are second only to fellow Yankee Yogi Berra, who won ten. At the time of his retirement after the 1951 season, he ranked fifth in career home runs (361) and sixth in career slugging percentage (.579). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955 and was voted the sport's greatest living player in a poll taken during baseball's centennial year of 1969.
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