This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/11/2013
Maybe Life Magazine's editors knew where Mickey Mantle was headed in June 25, 1956, putting together a spectacular cover feature on the Yankee's young prodigy that included a full-color cover image and 19 black-and-white photos inside, basically everything from his batting grip and a Yankee Stadium panoramic detailing the flight of epic home runs to family photos with Merlyn, Mickey Jr. and David and even an advertising ditty with Mickey in his pajamas. Such was the growing fame of the young star on his way to being legendary. The legend was well intact by August 18, 1961 when Mantle appeared on the cover again, this time with Roger Maris as they chased Babe Ruth's single-season home run record. By the following April, Maris had the record, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor had Life's cover by virtue of some expensive film they were starring in, and Mickey (and Roger again) were featured in a magazine advertising insert that had special versions of that year's Post Cereal baseball cards and a full-page advertisement telling the youth of America just how to collect them all, including audacious pleas that they ask Mom to buy something called Grape Nuts Flakes. The final item in the lot, Life Magazine from July 30, 1965, now talked about "Mantle's Misery" and pictured an older but still dashing Mantle at age 33 and in his 15th year in New York. That issue and the first two from 1956 and 1961 present essentially Ex-Mt; the April 16, 1962 issue is closer to Excellent and has a couple of non-lethal creases that defer to Very Good, but thank heavens, the Mantle/Maris card insert is in Near-Mint condition!