Parkhurst Products

Parkhurst Products of Toronto, Canada was a confectionery company that produced Parkies and Zip picture cards in the 1950s and 1960s. The company, led by a Mr. George Kennedy, primarily produced hand-size picture cards for ice hockey, but also produced them for baseball, Canadian football, wrestling and other subjects.

Over a 13-year period from 1951-52 to 1963-64, Parkhurst Products made 12 popular hockey sets, primarily targeted towards kids. A typical pack of Parkies or Zip hockey cards cost just five cents and included both a stick of gum and a stack of cards (usually four or five cards to a pack).

Bubble gum cards were popular in Canada and the United States in the 1930s, but they were all but forgotten in the 1940s because of war-time rations. Thanks to the 10-year gap between the 1940-41 O-Pee-Chee series and 1951-52 Parkies series, the new 1951-52 Parkies series featured the first popular cards for many of the game's heroes. The two biggest rookies (or rookie cards as they are known today) were legends Maurice Richard and Gordie Howe (both of whom had actually made their debuts in the 1940s).

For its first four seasons, the Parkies hockey series featured players from all six National Hockey League teams. The 1951-52 series was small (44.5 mm x 63.5 mm) and the 1952-53 series only slightly bigger (49.2 mm x 74.6 mm). Starting in 1953-54, the Parkies series was a comfortable size of 63.5 mm x 92.1 mm (originally marketed as "Giant" in comparison to the previous seasons).

In those early years, Parkhurst Products also made a small-size series of minor-league baseball cards in 1952, a small-size series of Canadian football cards in 1952, and two hand-size series of wrestling cards in 1954-55 and 1955-56. It also produced a small-size Photo-Magic series of Canadian football cards in 1956.

In 1955-56, the Parkies hockey series featured only the two Canadian teams: the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. The 1955-56 series included both modern players are retired Oldtime Greats from both teams. In 1956-57, no 'proper' Parkies hockey series was produced (although Photo Magic cards have surfaced in recent years).

Starting in 1957-58, Parkies went head to head with O-Pee-Chee hockey cards (produced in conjunction with Topps Chewing Gum). The Parkies hockey series still featured just the two Canadian teams, while the O-Pee-Chee/Topps series featured the NHL's four American teams. Parkies established a new, slightly trimmer card size of 61.9 mm x 92.1 mm; O-Pee-Chee used the newly established Topps standard size of 63.5 mm x 88.9 mm (2.5" x 3.5").

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