ANTIQUE POSTCARDS A PIECE OF HISTORY

By James Pluta
News editor

It took former La Grange resident and longtime businessman John Murray a long time to find a niche of his own -- a hobby away from the hustle and bustle of his family's party goods store on West Hillgrove Avenue -- and he eventually discovered what would become a passion of sorts.

"I grew up with parents who were avid antique collectors and in self-defense, I tried to find something I could collect myself," said the 74-year-old Murray, whose family ran Murray's Partytime Supplies from five different Hillgrove locations between 1951 and 2006 and who now collects -- and sells -- antique postcards.

"I collected early American brewery advertising, then I moved on to Chicago area postcards and restaurants," said Murray, a die-hard postcard collector for the past 25 years who for the past decade has become a dealer -- selling off duplicates of his personal collection numbering some 17,000 cards. "I still don't call myself a dealer."

However, he will be one of some 20 postcard and paper collectible dealers selling, in many cases, more than century-old collectibles at the Windy City Postcard Club's fall show, set for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24 at the Operating Engineer's Union Hall, 6200 Joliet Road in Countryside.

Admission to the fair is only $1, parking is free and plentiful and refreshments are available.

Murray, a colorful character who says he's always searching antique shows and stores, postcard shows and shops and estate sales to upgrade his collection just in case he comes across something new and better, is still amused at the origins of a card: where it came from and how old it is.

The first postcards in history allowed by the federal government to be mailed were produced around the time of Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893, he said. But it was not until 1908 that postcard senders could legally write messages on the blank backing of cards. The only writing allowed there was the recipient's address and a stamp.

"I still have a lot of my old brewery cards ... and those I love," he said. "I also love real photo cards. Right after the turn of the last century, the government was really pushing the postcards, and these itinerant photographers with box cameras were real popular. They'd go door-to-door and offer to take family photos and then printed them with postcard backs. Folks would only order like 10 of them, if that, and he destroyed the (photo engraving) plate."

That is a big part of the history and lore of postcards -- the first and quickest and cheapest forms of written communication after the Pony Express. In the beginning, postcards were a penny to mail, letters were two cents. And a penny meant something back then.

In addition to real photo cards depicting such scenes as family estates, street scenes, local events and disasters such as floods, fires, tornadoes and even such iconic topics as Nazi gatherings and Deep South lynchings, printed cards run the gamut from buildings and country scenes to famous and infamous people to such topics as Black Americana and circus freaks.

"Some," said Murray, "just like the art work; Victorian, modern or art deco."

Six years ago, Murray decided to give back to the communities that helped his business stay afloat for so many years by donating a rather large collection of La Grange, Hinsdale and Western Springs street scenes from his own stock.

"I gave the historical societies about 100 cards each taken by a single photographer (depicting) each intersection from all four directions all through the towns," he said. "Looking at them, you could literally find probably right where your house was."

He also donated about 100 cards to Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, including various shots of the old sanitarium and grounds, for its 75th anniversary.

"When I gave the cards to the La Grange Historical Society, some woman there said she thought she was going to cry," he said, recalling a time he presented a postcard to his grandmother that made her weep.

His grandparents' 17-room Western Springs home burned down in the early 1900s and was long considered the largest fire in village history. The water froze at the pumps and it was nearly impossible to fight.
,
"I grew up with my mother telling me the story ... and when I was in New York one year for the Metropolitan Show I was looking through New York cards when I found a real photo sent to (a small village near Syracuse), by a girl who turned out to be my mother's oldest sister," he recalled. "I couldn't believe it. Here was a card with a photo of the house before it burned. It was a gift from me for my grandmother's 90th birthday. That holds a special spot in my heart."

Another favorite card in his collection is from 1913 and depicts the ascension of a hot air balloon and a baseball scene in Tiedtville, the town next to where the Santa Fe Speedway in Willow Springs once stood and whose founder is buried in the historic cemetery at Lyonsville Congregational Church in Indian Head Park.

Murray, who has also lived in La Grange Park and Hinsdale, now resides in Indian Head Park.

Leader of the pack
Gene Palys of Countryside has been a postcard collector for many years and has been at the helm of the La Grange-based Windy City Postcard Club for the past two years.

The 55-member collectors club, founded 71 years ago by a group of Chicago area residents undoubtedly intrigued and interested in the lore and historical value of postcards, still hosts three shows and two auctions per year.

Though the organization, which boasts a president and board of directors, traces its roots to the north/northwest suburbs, collectors and dealers have traded, bought and sold postcards in Countryside for nearly 30 years.

Postcards are priced as low as 25 cents to as much as a hundred dollars apiece, depending on their perceived value and demand.

Palys, a Countryside resident since 1969, is also co-manager of the Suburban Collectors Club, which attracts dozens of collectors of postcards, stamps and first-day issue postal envelopes to its annual Supex event on Thanksgiving weekend at the same location.

Windy City, which never holds shows in the city of its nickname, draws postcard aficionados and curiosity seekers from all over the Midwest and sometimes across the country at the end of March, June and October. Auctions are held the last Thursday of May and September.

Palys, a retired 37-year engineer with Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont, specializes in cards from the western suburbs and says the most rare locally are street scenes of Summit-Argo, Justice and anything Brookfield outside of the world-famous zoo, of which there are many.

"It seems the zoo was the only (Brookfield entity) that put out cards" in huge quantities, he said, with the possible exception of rare images of businesses, railroad depots and streetcars.

La Grange photo processors and area printers, meanwhile, printed cards representing a lot more subjects, including schools, churches and businesses, as well as private printings of real photo cards depicting pioneer families, events and, in some cases, natural or man-made disasters.

"Historically its population was larger," he said, which made the possibilities so much more diverse. "But I really like the street scenes."

One of the most popular cards at shows are Halloween greeting cards, which were once eclipsed in demand by Santa Claus cards.

"They're following the footsteps of Santa Claus cards, which were big for at least 25 years before repros starting arriving from China and Japan which copied the designs of the originals; then they became less in demand," Palys said. "Now I am seeing a lot more copies of old Halloween cards."

Although the most valuable cards tend to be the rarest and oldest, a big dilemma is the lack of any kind of cataloging of all the cards in known existence.

"I like to explore new avenues, new cards ... and there is so much to learn," he said, adding people often ask for cards from their hometowns, schools they attended and tend to be older folks.

"We're not attracting young people, but we'd like to," he said. "It's hard to attract new collectors in general."

By the way, all ages are welcome to the show and children under the age of 12 -- future collectors, perhaps? -- are admitted free.