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Golden Age Collection
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18,204 posts in this topic

On 5/1/2019 at 11:01 AM, G.A.tor said:
On 5/1/2019 at 6:58 AM, RedFury said:

Page 2 and still here! :preach:

Page 1 and still here. 

And BZ posts on Facebook every so often , so he’s still kicking it large!

Looks like I am a step behind you guys as mines was Page 3 and still here.  

I imagine this is going to be the first thread on these boards to eventually hit the 1,000 millennium page mark.  :applause:

Definitely good news to hear that BZ is still keeping himself active.  (thumbsu

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On 2/27/2023 at 1:43 PM, sfcityduck said:

Anyone know how BZ is doing?  I saw he did some fresh posts on FB after a few years off.  Hope all is well.  This was one of the best threads ever. I really appreciated his insights and, of course, his collection.

 

 

Do you have a link to his FB posts?  I also miss his posts here.   Hope he's doing well.

 

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I will give you a story about something I think is near to his heart.  I discovered this while researching Dave Wigransky of Washington D.C. as I wanted to find out where his legendary collection went and to make sure that BZ's collection wasn't originally Wigransky's.

As you probably know, BZ once said that the 2,000+ lot of his most impressive books came to him after they were pulled from a garbage can by someone who sold them to him.  But, BZ learned who the original owner ("OO") was because his name and address was written in some of the books. And BZ once stated the OO had the initials "WTG."  In another post BZ stated he had several groups of books that came from OOs, and he rattled off some of the names including "Gilchrist."

BZ also said that the OO purchased his books from Campbell's Bros. in D.C. 

There was a William T. Gilchrist who the 1940 census shows lived in Central DC.  He was about 10 in 1940.  And in 1940:

  • William T. Gilchrist lived at 622 Massachusetts Ave. N.E., Washington D.C.;  
  • BZ said the Campbell Bros. where the comics were bought was at 8th & C, Washington D.C.;
  • There's a mere five minute walk between the house and the drugstore if you walk down 8th and around the corner to Mass. Ave; and 
  • BZ once said: "One day, approximately 20 years after purchasing the collection, ... my wife and I made a point to drive by the spot where Campbell Bros had been in business. Not surprisingly the store was long since gone, but decals advertising various 1930s/40s items were still on the windows. I took photographs of the storefront and then we walked around the corner to where the original owner of the comics had lived."
  • BZ said he walked over to the house of the OO (my recollection is it was a medical office) and was able to walk through it and get a sense of where the OO lived.

I'm guessing, though, that the books were discovered at a different address in 1970s.  BZ did not learn the OO's address from the seller who would have known where they came from.  And William T. Gilchrist died in Maryland in 1963 and his wife died in Maryland in 1973 (which would be consistent with the books being sold to BZ in the early 70s).

That's the back story on BZ's best books, I think.  Remember you read it here first!  (Recently an auctioneer borrowed from my thread on Wigransky without attribution for a lot description and so did a bookseller for a description of a HC book I was buying from him (no discount for providing the ad copy) - so I'm sensitive).

P.S.  What's amazing about that ad BZ took out selling books back around 1967 is that he was selling a Superman 1. At that point in time he hadn't picked up the Gilchrist collection yet. My impression is that his Supes 1 came from the Gilchrist lot, and what little I saw of it in the pic he posted (and the great copies of other early Supes) makes me think it was very nice. I get the impression he upgraded his Supes 1 several times.

The big mystery is does he have have an Action 1?  I would not bet that the man who owns the check paid to Shuster for his work on Action 1 does not have an Action 1.  I'd love to see his biggest books. The "lesser" books I've seen pictured on this site and elsewhere are just so impressive!  

 

Edited by sfcityduck
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On 2/28/2023 at 4:02 PM, sfcityduck said:

I will give you a story about something I think is near to his heart.  I discovered this while researching Dave Wigransky of Washington D.C. as I wanted to find out where his legendary collection went and to make sure that BZ's collection wasn't originally Wigransky's.

As you probably know, BZ once said that the 2,000+ lot of his most impressive books came to him after they were pulled from a garbage can by someone who sold them to him.  But, BZ learned who the original owner ("OO") was because his name and address was written in some of the books. And BZ once stated the OO had the initials "WTG."  In another post BZ stated he had several groups of books that came from OOs, and he rattled off some of the names including "Gilchrist."

BZ also said that the OO purchased his books from Campbell's Bros. in D.C. 

There was a William T. Gilchrist who the 1940 census shows lived in Central DC.  He was about 10 in 1940.  And in 1940:

  • William T. Gilchrist lived at 622 Massachusetts Ave. N.E., Washington D.C.;  
  • BZ said the Campbell Bros. where the comics were bought was at 8th & C, Washington D.C.;
  • There's a mere five minute walk between the house and the drugstore if you walk down 8th and around the corner to Mass. Ave; and 
  • BZ once said: "One day, approximately 20 years after purchasing the collection, ... my wife and I made a point to drive by the spot where Campbell Bros had been in business. Not surprisingly the store was long since gone, but decals advertising various 1930s/40s items were still on the windows. I took photographs of the storefront and then we walked around the corner to where the original owner of the comics had lived."
  • BZ said he walked over to the house of the OO (my recollection is it was a medical office) and was able to walk through it and get a sense of where the OO lived.

I'm guessing, though, that the books were discovered at a different address in 1970s.  BZ did not learn the OO's address from the seller who would have known where they came from.  And William T. Gilchrist died in Maryland in 1963 and his wife died in Maryland in 1973 (which would be consistent with the books being sold to BZ in the early 70s).

That's the back story on BZ's best books, I think.  Remember you read it here first!  (Recently an auctioneer borrowed from my thread on Wigransky without attribution for a lot description and so did a bookseller for a description of a HC book I was buying from him (no discount for providing the ad copy) - so I'm sensitive).

P.S.  What's amazing about that ad BZ took out selling books back around 1967 is that he was selling a Superman 1. At that point in time he hadn't picked up the Gilchrist collection yet. My impression is that his Supes 1 came from the Gilchrist lot, and what little I saw of it in the pic he posted (and the great copies of other early Supes) makes me think it was very nice. I get the impression he upgraded his Supes 1 several times.

The big mystery is does he have have an Action 1?  I would not bet that the man who owns the check paid to Shuster for his work on Action 1 does not have an Action 1.  I'd love to see his biggest books. The "lesser" books I've seen pictured on this site and elsewhere are just so impressive!  

 

I think he stated he had no Action 1. He did, however, have a Detective 27 and pictured it I believe. Was in the large purchase of books tied up with string and left out for the trash. 

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On 2/28/2023 at 4:47 PM, Robot Man said:

I think he stated he had no Action 1. He did, however, have a Detective 27 and pictured it I believe. Was in the large purchase of books tied up with string and left out for the trash. 

My recollection is he only said he didn't get an Action 1 in the Gilchrist books.  But he had a LOT of books that didn't come from that pick-up.  The guy rattled off literally four or five names of OOs for books that he's kept segregated by where he got them.  Given that he was a hardcore collector starting in the very early 60s, and he was smarter than the average collector in how he was going about getting books for his collecting and to deal, I think he certainly had opportunities to buy (or more likely trade) for an Action 1.  He was selling off a Superman 1, CA 1, All-Star 3 in an ad in 1967 (all big books back then), as well as lesser books like All-Winners 1, GL 1, Plastic Man 1, CM Jr. 1, Action 3 and 4, etc.  If he wanted an Action 1, he certainly could have got one.  I do remember seeing the D27, All-American 16, Pep run, Supes 1,  etc.  Somewhere there's a thread where someone saved as many pics as possible.

Edited by sfcityduck
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