For over 45 years I have collected non-sports bubble gum cards and their related advertising dating from the 1930's and 1940's. One of the hardest complete sets from this era to obtain in high grade condition is a 288 card set from 1938 titled: "Horrors of War."

The "Horrors of War" set, produced in 1938 by Philadelphia-based Gum, Inc. (later named Bowman Gum Co.), produced a political furor unlike any other. Warren Bowman was the owner of Gum, Inc. and claimed that he wanted to "teach peace by exposing the horrors of war." These 288 baseball-card sized color cards, each depicting graphic & terrible scenes of war, were even utilized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a way to explain the terrors of war to the American public.

In my quest to put together an entire set I advertised in many publications and in time received a letter from a woman who claimed that she had an original "Horrors of War" BOX that the cards came in. After negotiating a price for the box, I paid her and several weeks later received in the mail the "Horrors of War" box. To my utter surprise, the "Horrors of War" BOX turned out to be the complete boxed set of the first 240 cards, in their original celephane packages, and in MINT unused condition !! When I negotiated the price with the former owner, I assumed that the box was empty and without any cards !!!!! Imagine my surprise when I first opened the package, felt the weight, and realized that it was filled with the first 240 original cards from the set.

I would later find out that the seller of the full box was the ex-wife of Warren Bowman, the owner of the bubble gum card company !! It turned out that the Bowman's son had put the set away in the 1940's and had decided to sell it when he was nearing retirement, 50 years later !!!

Nogooddeed