This is an amazing companion piece to several other related lots from the Brooklyn Dodgers’ famed 1956 Tour of Japan, an even proven later to have added poignancy with the revelation that the club would abandon its Brooklyn roots following the 1957 season and relocate in Southern California. The Dodgers tuned up for the Japan games by playing three exhibition contests in Hawaii, one in Kahului, Maui and the final two in Honolulu. The Dodgers then left Honolulu on October 16 en route to Tokyo. They had a five-hour layover, due to a tire problem with their chartered plane, on Wake Island. Due to their delayed late-afternoon arrival in Japan, the Dodgers cut short a welcoming reception n at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport before a crowd of 3,000, mostly school-aged children, as they had to prepare to play the Central League Champions at Korakuen Stadium the next afternoon. Despite drizzle, some 100,000 enthusiastic onlookers lined the streets to watch the 67-person Dodger delegation in a 26-car motorcade travel from the airport though downtown Tokyo to the Imperial Hotel.
This lot features four typed and signed letters by Walter O’Malley or National League President Warren Giles, handwritten notes from O’Malley and Hall of Fame umpire Jocko Conlan and magazine and newsletter clippings from the historic event, including two pages of color photos from the legendary Sport Magazine in the spring of 1957. The first of three Giles letters on National League letterhead talks about broad plans for the upcoming tour, while the second and third letters detail passport information. All three are in superb condition, with sparkling signatures from the Hall of Fame executive. The O’Malley typewritten letter that is signed with his first name and was the form used to provide expense money to the players and staff. There is a handwritten O’Malley to Dodgers official Red Patterson about arrangements and two from Jocko Conlan with nice signatures talking about passport details. A two-page inter-club communication talks about insurance arrangements; an intriguing one-sentence text on Eastern Air Lines letterhead details a $21,917.94 price tag for the 66 people on a roundtrip ticket between New York and Los Angeles, with no apparent mention of any $25 surcharge for a first-checked bag.
Alongside on his own stationery is a note from O’Malley directing Patterson to cut a check in that amount. The final pieces are a two-page Dodgers Alumni newsletter with player quotes about the trip and a wonderful, six-page article from the May issue of the iconic Sport Magazine, which included 30 photographs from the tour, 14 of those in color. All these signed letters and magazine material are included in clear acetate pages in a notebook and all seem to be in Ex-Mt to Nr-Mt condition, problem-free and without incident, save only for the kind of normal wear on office materials. A roster page showing the 25 players, three coaches and manager Alston committed to the tour. As noted earlier, O’Malley had worked diligently to ensure that the lineup was without major defector, and indeed it ended up including the likes of Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Don Drysdale, Carl Erskine, Don Newcombe and Ralph Branca.
Full LOA from JSA. Pre-certified by PSA/DNA.