Sorting Out the Early 1960s York Peanut Butter Tumblers

In 1960-61 Canada Packers Limited first hockey offering through their subsidiary brand of “York”, issued 21 peanut butter- filled glass tumblers featuring NHL players.

York also released a second series of glasses dated to the following season, however, we believe the story arc may very well be adjusted along the way with a new hypothesis. So, let’s hop in the time machine, set the dial to 1961 and see how this all plays out.

By reviewing the notice above which features the Frank Mahovlich tumbler, we see that York had a vested interest in the success of this promotion.  They utilized TV spots along with advertising paraphernalia such as shelf strips, dump bins and cardboard displays resembling time clocks in the Toronto and Montreal arenas.

There were 19 Montreal Canadiens and 18 Toronto Maple Leaf players pictured on 5” x 7” photos along with 11 Montreal and 10 Toronto glass tumblers filled with peanut butter that measured 4 ½” x 2 5/8.” The “double-barreled” promotion was initiated just in time for the 1961 playoffs.  

Below is a list of the 21 players who were on the first series of tumblers. 

Dave Keon and Phil Goyette are the two most difficult to acquire from this first series. We believe York produced fewer of these two players, especially Dave Keon being in his first season while Phil Goyette had a lackluster season with only 7 goals and 4 assists.

It is clear to see that many well known names were not included in this 21-player series.  This surely must have met York with many complaints from collecting fans of the day.  This is where the arc of the story takes a turn and please bear with me as you and I may both be suffering from a bit of time travel jetlag, but here is my supposition and the rationale behind it.

Evidently, York estimated sales figures of each glass, something that was probably difficult to do. The question is, did the  star players get gobbled up faster than the more common players?  We believe this to be so. To supplement the lack availability of these stars, we believe York called upon Federal Glass, who produced their tumblers (Federal Glass has an “F” on the bottom of every glass) and requested additional orders be made of selected stars that had sold out.

Federal Glass, likely working on other projects, may not had have the to time to spare for York’s sudden supplemental order. Federal wasn’t the only gig in town, so York shopped around and offered the job to Dominion Glass.

The second series of hockey player tumblers have a “D” imprint on the bottom for Dominion Glass and measure 4 ¾” x 2 ½”, which are slightly taller but a tad narrower in width.  Also, the pictures are mounted lower on the glass from the top plus there is a slight color difference.

The 2^nd series of NHL glass tumblers has always been documented as 1961-62, although no advertisement for the glass tumblers has been found from that time frame. This is not unusual for some issues but as you can see, York produced a legion of advertisements for all of  their early promotions.

Starting in October, 1961 York issued 42 octagon hockey player cards under the lids of jars of peanut butter which ran throughout the hockey season. With the abundance of advertising for this card promotion and mail away album, why not a whisper whatsoever of glass tumblers?  Would York even run a glass promotion with this loaded card offering?  In 1960-61, York did couple the glass tumblers with the player photo offer.

At this point we believe that we can firmly state the second series of tumblers was just a continuation or an extension of the first-year release of 1960-61.

We don’t need the time machine to analyze our modern-day collecting community with over 20 years of documenting the survival rate. It is quite evident that some players’ tumblers were produced in larger quantities than others while other, less popular players were somewhat short printed.

There are only 11 players in what we consider to be the 2^nd series, which is made up of about half of the 1^st series subjects with four players being repeated.

The list above represents more of an appendage than a “set” within itself.  The Detroit Red Wings have been added to lineup of Canadiens and Leafs, which makes sense, they went to the 1961 Stanley Cup playoffs finals and boasted a trio of the league’s top hockey stars of the day.  

The 2^nd series glasses made by Dominion repeat two of the most popular players for the Canadiens with Jean Beliveau and Henri Richard. Also, the addition of Gilles Tremblay and Jean-Guy Talbot were overlooked in the first series, but are represented here. Talbot’s flat performance may have rendered his glass being the least produced as it is one of the toughest to find in this series but possibly tied with Dave Keon’s 1^st series glass in scarcity but more difficult than Phil Goyette. These three glasses are the most unyielding to find out of both series.

The Maple Leafs 2^nd series glasses repeat the two most popular stars, but the inclusion of Dave Keon is a surprise.  He was short printed in the 1^st series but York also put him in the 2^nd series. York’s initial production estimate for Keon may have been shortsighted as he finished up the season winning the Calder Trophy for the NHL’s Rookie of the Year.

 An oversight of two players from the 1st series Maple Leafs were Tim Horton and Dick Duff. Even my mother would have written a stern letter to York complaining why Duff was excluded from the debut series. Mom really liked him and even named her parakeet Duffie (sorry; “have time machine- will travel”, miss you mom!).

With a second series set of players from the two Canadian teams that has a shorter lineup and no real semblance of order (no goalies?) and no separate advertising, we think we have a good theory here proving the York tumblers were sort of a “living set” with roots in that first year of distribution rather than the long-time popular notion that it was a second set that dates to 1961-62.  Either way, I’m sure the peanut butter was delicious.