Famous Americans: A Blast(er) from the Past!

F I made a trip to the LCS over the weekend looking for supplies to store my cards into a more organized manner.  Instead, I walked out with more cards, but to be fair they were out of what I was looking for.  I didn't have much time, but I did grab a few Iowa Connections.

Tyrese Haliburton / Talen Horton Tucker / Allen Lazard : Iowa State

Doug McDermott / Joe Burrow: Ames

George Kittle : Iowa

Perhaps more interesting was a blaster box I picked up there. Not available at Target (as far as I know), it is 2021 Historical Autographs Famous Americans.  Historical Autographs is the company, Famous Americans is the set.  There are 330 cards in the set, the later third short printed.  Each base card has an Aurora parallel card #'d to 25, and an Alloy card out of 150.  Inserts include Movie Clip cards, Cut Autographs, Garment cards, Employee picks and Art Sketch cards.  

I was lucky enough to pull a film strip card:

Very neat card, with some more fun movies in the set like Lord of the Rings, Office Space and Space Jam.  I've never seen The Crucible, but I might have to now and pause the movie and do the Leonard DiCaprio pointing to the screen when this scene shows up.  Unfortunately, Winona Ryder and Daniel Day-Lewis do not have Iowa Connections.

In a set of 330 base (plus inserts that aren't in base), there are bound to be a few Iowa Connections in there.  Now, I haven't processed the autograph list.  Most are cut autos and less than 5-10 each, so they are not likely to be acquired by me.  But I did run through every other name in the checklist and came up with 18 Iowa Connections.  Not bad considering a large number of the set come from the years before Iowa even existed.  

Now, I would say the Mount Rushmore of "Famous" Iowans would include three Iowans for sure: Herbert Hoover, John Wayne and Bob Feller.  They neatly cover three areas (Politics/Hollywood/Sports).  After that, the 4th spot is less sure.  Dan Gable may be the most famous Iowan in Iowa, but not as much outside.  Shawn Johnson has her Olympic and Dancing with the Stars followings.  Elijah Wood, Tom Arnold, Ashton Kutcher, Cloris Leachman, and Donna Reed all have their niche followers.  Grant Wood's American Gothic is famous, but not sure how many people would know his name.  

The honorable nominees are Kurt Warner, Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Glenn Miller.  The fourth spot on the Mount Rushmore will be Johnny Carson.  

So of the four Mount Rushmore Famous Iowans, who made it into the Famous Americans set?  Only one, and that was John Wayne.  They didn't have every President in the list, and Hoover isn't the most famous of the presidents.  Plenty of baseball players, but most were before Bob Feller's time.  Johnny Carson was a miss, but they have stated that there will be more sets to come so fingers crossed.

So, the 18 Iowa Connections are as follows:

1. Samuel Kirkwood (Iowa City) - Secretary of the Interior
2. Robert Todd Lincoln (Mount Pleasant) - Secretary of War
3. Buffalo Bill (Le Claire) - Wild West Showman
4. Wyatt Earp (Pella) - Lawman
5. Cap Anson (Marshaltown) - Baseball player
6. George Washington Carver (Iowa State) - Agricultural Scientist
7. John Mott (Postville) - YMCA Leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner
8. Laura Ingalls Wilder (Burr Oak) - Author
9. Ding Darling (Sioux City) - Cartoonist and 2x Pulitzer Prize winner
10. Ralph Budd (Waterloo) - Railroad executive
11. Amelia Earhart (Des Moines) - Aviator
12. John Wayne (Winterset) - Actor
13. Sam Walton (Des Moines) - Founder of Wal-Mart
14. John Glenn (University of Iowa) - Astronaut
15. Walt Cunningham (Creston) - Astronaut
16. Elijah Wood (Cedar Rapids) - Actor Film Cel only
17. Ron Livingston (Cedar Rapids) - Actor Film Cel only
18. Frank Lloyd Wright (McGregor) - Architect Employee Picks only

I only found 2 of these in my blaster box.  Base versions of Cap Anson and Ralph Bud.  

I've thought about adding some other Iowa Connections to those who worked in Iowa for a bit, but I might be stretching my limits a bit when I start to consider if Jesse James counts (robbed a train in Iowa...its like his job...)

Overall, I enjoyed the variety in the checklist, and the film cel card was pretty neat.  If you are a flipper, I doubt you'd enjoy this box too much.  Hopefully I can find enough people out there that can trade me all the Iowa Connections from this set!