Hockey Pictorial October 1959

Hockey Pictorial was a hockey magazine that ran from 1955 to 1980. Best known for their beautifully illustrated covers from the 50’s and 60’s. One of the greatest magazine cover made from Hockey Pictorial was the October 1959 issue that featured Montreal Canadiens legend Dickie Moore. What truly attracted me to this cover (aside from the great sketch of Mr.Moore) was the caption that reads “Dickie Moore: The Scoring Champ they don’t rate as a Super Star”. In Montreal’s golden era that included such legends as “Rocket” Richard,Beliveau,H.Richard,J.Plante,”Boom Boom” Geoffrion, D.Harvey its easy to forget NHL’s 1958 and 1959 scoring champion Dickie Moore. 

Late last year I had to opportunity to meet Mr.Moore at an autograph event held in Montreal (Hosted by AL. Collections) where I was able to get my 1959 issue of hockey pictorial autographed. Now I wanted something unique to go along with Moore’s John Hancock. I asked that he add his scoring title inscription.

Given the caption on the magazine and this inscription added to this piece, I believe this gave a unique and interesting feel to an already beautiful piece. The whole experience was a great one, Mr.Moore was truly a class act taking the time to take a photo with me as well as a photo signing one of my projects. This is one of my favorite pieces in my collection given that it includes the things I look for in sports memorabilia. Vintage,uniqueness and quality of the autograph.

Also I took the time to scan one of the articles from inside the magazine for those looking to reminisce on the golden era of the Montreal Canadiens.

The most expensive part of sports collecting....

As a avid sports collector my collection has grown to a tremendous size. A big part of having a nice collection is the display of you're pieces. I have been looking for a company who does good work for a long time and I do believe I have found them. Now getting something pro frame adds a great deal to a nice piece. I decided to try out this store with two of my favorite pieces. My duel signed Lafleur & Lapointe all star game photo as well as the team signed photo I spoke about it my "Festifan" post. The outcome was excellent, professional framing that will now be part of my collection forever.

Montreal Canadiens Team Signed Photo From Festifan.

Duel Signed Lafleur/Lapointe with Dryden.

As I mentioned in some of my results, the pieces I really love I send out to my frame guy right away. He really does great work and the turn around time is very quick. For the most part I bring my item there and leave it up to them on how things will be framed. The outcome is always great, take a look for yourselves.

Jean Beliveau frame from my "Class Act" post 

Dickie Moore & Gordie Howe frame

This truly has to be one of my favorites pieces to date. Dickie Moore was really kind of an unsung hero compared to some of the Canadiens legends of his time. As you may recall from my first post at the rantingrocket.com was of Dickie Moore. The Gordie Howe autograph was really a bonus, Ive never done a private signing since Ive started collecting but had to jump on the chance to complete this piece. It was more then I like to spend for autographs but well worth it. They both inscribed the photo with the years they won the Art Ross trophy (As the NHL scoring champion) as well as the year they were admitted into the hockey hall of fame.

Carey Price frame as mentioned in the "Carey Price 1st shutout" post

Not much more to say on this piece like I mentioned in my previous post I got this and brought it the day of to my framer to complete the piece.

Paul Henderson Jersey Tour

Let me start off by saying I should have a rule. Never ask for an autograph from a Toronto Maple Leaf! I went to the Henderson Jersey Tour in Montreal with hopes of getting the famous 72 summit series goal signed by Tretiak, Henderson and Cournoyer (all of which attended the event in Montreal). Right from the start the event set up was quite strange. I arrived about 30 minutes before the players were scheduled to arrive. There was a large crowd outside waiting in line, I asked one of the show handlers if they were waiting for the autograph session. The handler replied "Well their isn't an autograph session and no one here knows why these people are waiting outside." I went inside the venue and spoke to the manger who confirmed that there will be no autograph session but getting an autograph is possible if the players are willing.

By the time the players arrived the venue was filled beyond capacity, picture your living room with 500 people in it. Paul Henderson was the first to arrive and addressed the crowd by saying "I have not signed an autograph on this tour and I will not start today". Photo's with the players was the only thing that could be done. The irony here is everyone in the crowd wanted an autograph which would have been easier then taking photos as the place was beyond packed.

Photo of the crowd.

Lucky for me and most who came out for this event Cournoyer and Tretiak did sign for the fans.  After the way Henderson addressed the crowd I was no longer interested in his autograph (I heard he did end up signing for a few). Tretiak being one of my favorites I really wanted him on a Montreal Canadiens puck as he was drafted by Montreal but never made it over due to the issue with the USSR at the time. Yvan Cournoyer also was nice enough to sign a Montreal Forum project I started (which I posted in a previous post).

Here are the results from the event.

Tretiak signed puck.

Updated:Montreal Forum Project (Lafleur,Cournoyer,H.Richard)

To recap I never thought I'd want a auto from a leaf but made an exception for Henderson due to the Summit Series but this confirms it. Never again lol!

All Stars Dealers

After seeing countless auction and picker shows there is finally a reality show I can call my own. "All Star Dealers" is based solely on sports memorabilia. Although the show is lacking in detail. I would have preferred more insight on the sellers parting with their collectables, rather then seeing how much Grey Flannel Collectables are making. Still an interesting show for a memorabilia junkie such as myself. Take a look....

Carey Price 1st Shutout + P.K Subban Rookie Cards

Today I got a chance to go to the Canadiens practice facility to try and get Carey Price on the photo bellow. I have the ticket stub from Carey's 1st NHL shutout and wanted it framed with a photo. Waited about 15 minutes or so and Carey Price came out after practice and had no problem signing this for me and even included the "1st NHL shutout" inscription to the photo. Once I got it done I went straight to the framers to complete the piece.

Other players come out as well and felt it would be rude to send them off without wanting their auto so I also got this done.

On Photo-Rene Bourque,PK Subban,Chris Campoli,Erik Cole,Raph Diaz,Andreas Enqvist,Mike Blunden,Yan Weber,Alex Emelin,Josh Gorges

A week after my encounter with Carey Price I got to get PK Subann Rookie Cards autographed. I don't usually do cards, this was a first. Given the size of my collection I have decided to downsize. The facility was surprisingly packed today about 50+ people waiting after practice. When I see a crowd of this size I usually leave but PK came out as I got there. Luckily my girlfriend was able to obtain these for me (She's much better looking then me which has helped my collection a lot). I didn't try for anyone else as the place was a zoo.

As a bonus while organizing some stuff in my house I found some old ticket stubs from the Canadiens Stanley Cup playoffs of 09-10. I thought the tickets had a pretty original design I thought you guys might want to take a look. Sadly none of these games where attended by me. A friend was nice enough to keep the stubs for me. For the most part I use old stubs as bookmarks and things of that sort but given the history behind these ones I guess I'll just keep them stored away.

Bluejays Winter Tour

In all honesty one of the best run events I have ever attended. I arrived at the venue approximately 45 minutes prior to the event; to my surprise I was alone about five people back in the line which was great. Closer to the time of the event it started to fill up to around 75 people. Montreal isn't a big on baseball or Toronto (lol) but the turnout was decent. 

View from my spot in line as I arrived. Hardly a packed event.

Bluejays GM Alex Anthopoulos was just hanging out prior to the event, I got to chat with him for a few minutes. Extremely approachable even talked a little baseball with me. Most interestingly he mentioned that Prince Fielder was asking for Pujols money and he wasn't a option for the Jays. He was also nice enough to shoutout the rantingrocket for me.

 When the event got started it was run very smoothly (which is a change from most public signings) I was able to get two autographed baseballs  from Ace Ricky Romero and up and coming youngster Brett Lawrie. Both guys were really great and also took the time out to shout out Rantingrocket.com(will post later). Overall a great success happing with what I managed to get. 

Baseballs I got signed from the event.
To recap: Two Ricky Romero, Two Brett Lawrie, One Alex Anthopoulos all on baseballs.

Russel Martin IP

Russell Martin held a baseball clinic in Montreal today. I was only able to get to the clinic as it ended. In fact when I pulled up I could see kids leaving the building (Bad Sign). When I entered  I saw Martin taking photos with kids but explained to everyone that due to the amount of people he would not be signing anymore autographs.  Quite disappointed I stayed around just in case. He did a interview with a local sports station as the building cleared out. I was left with a one on one chance. Russell gladly agreed to sign my baseball however my pen died as he started to sign (Terrible Luck!). One of the older security people offerd me his pen and Russell was nice enough to go over his previous attempt. All and all very happy with the auto.