A niche segment of the hobby focuses on memorabilia from Mickey Mantle’s Holiday Inn in Joplin, Missouri; key fobs, postcards, matchbooks, receipts, and other hotel-issued ephemera tied to Mantle’s name and ownership.
In their June 2001 Fine Sports Auction, Mastro offered something materially different: ten different original photographs that had hung on the walls of the hotel itself.
The catalog described the group as ten original photos dated to the 1950s and 1960s, with eight of the ten featuring Mantle. Each photo was glued to cabinet board and framed. Notably, the frames retained the original screw holes from where they had been permanently mounted into the walls of the inn.
Unlike commonly encountered hotel souvenirs produced for guests, these were one-of-one display pieces, interior décor removed from the property by an enterprising employee.
Happy collecting!
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