Black and white photo of a baseball player with black text

Born in 1909, Stanley Camfield Hack, nicknamed "Smiling Stan," was a third baseman and manager in Major League Baseball. Hack played his entire career for the Chicago Cubs and was the top third baseman in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Hack is considered one of the greatest Cubs of all time, ranking second in games at third base, and also second in putouts, assists, and total chances, and third in double plays in National League history. Hack also led the National League in hits and stolen bases twice, and had a .301 batting average. 

Hack quickly became a popular player, and in 1935, fans were given mirrors with a picture of Stan on the back side, with the words, “Smile with Stan”. Unfortunately, the fans used the mirrors to reflect the sun into the eyes of the opposing team, and the mirrors were quickly banned from the stadium. After retiring from baseball, Hack became a minor league coach and batting coach from 1948-1966, and finally a restaurant manager with his second wife. Hack died at the age of 70 in 1979.

Read more about the History of Cubs Buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.

Black and white photo of a baseball player with black text.

Born in 1908, William “Billy” Frederick Jurges was a shortstop, manager, coach, and scout in Major League Baseball. Jurges played for the Chicago Cubs for his first eight seasons from 1931-1938, and later played seven more seasons for the New York Giants from 1939-1945. During his time with the Cubs, he played in three World Series, the Cubs winning in 1932, 1935, and 1938. From 1946-1947, Jurges was a player-coach for the Cubs, and later a coach for the Boston Red Sox and a baseball scout for many years. Jurges died in 1997 after a six-year battle with cancer at the age of 88.

Perhaps overshadowing his time in baseball was a strange event that happened in July, 1932 when Jurges’s ex-girlfriend, lounge singer Violet Valli, came to Jurges’s hotel room to confront him with a gun. She claimed her plan was to commit suicide, but Jurges intervened and took two bullets, one to his hand and another in the ribs. Valli was also shot in the hand, and the entire incident is said to be the inspiration for the book and film, The Natural, starring Robert Redford. Jurges didn’t press charges, and he returned to the Cubs after he recovered.

Read more about the History of Cubs Buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.

Black and white photo of a baseball player with black text

Born in 1911, George “Tuck” Stainback was a major league baseball outfielder for several teams, including the Chicago Cubs (1934–1937), St. Louis Cardinals (1938), Philadelphia Phillies (1938), Brooklyn Dodgers (1938–1939), Detroit Tigers (1940–1941), New York Yankees (1942–1945), and Philadelphia Athletics (1946). He competed in two World Series and finished his career with a btting average of .259. An LA native, Stainback returned to the area after retiring from baseball, and then became an executive for the Dodgers after they moved to LA in 1958. He developed group ticket sales and supervised the Dodgers’ Knothole program, which treated children to free baseball games. Stainback died in 1992 as the result of a stroke. 

Read more about the History of Cubs Buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.

A white background with red and blue text, and an image of the back of a person's head.

This button was for the Tom Murray clothing store in Chicago, which sold shirts, pants, jackets, hats, dresses, and other items. The "Meet me face to face" slogan encouraged potential customers to visit his shop in person. Murray was known as a successful advertiser whose campaigns were often imitated by competing shops, and who sometimes wrote ads in newspapers and clothing trade journals. He sold good-quality clothing at slightly lower prices than his competitors and was once known as "Ten-Dollar Tom." Murray's shop was in business from 1898-1915, when he closed it and started selling clothes by mail order.

One of Murray's most notable stunts was hiring a woman to paint his shop's outdoor sign in 1906. Since women were not allowed in such a job at that time, Alice DeBarry's sign-painting drew crowds and even caused traffic jams. Police made her stop painting and took her to the station. Murray posted DeBarry's bond and then employed her as a cashier in his shop.

White text outlined with black on a green background. Black text on illustration of a pioneer landscape with a tepee, wagon, and a man and woman in the foreground.  Two white milk jugs on left and right edge of button.

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Illustration of a a greyish truck with a person in blue riding in the back on a yellow ground with a person in the foreground and something brownish in the background

“There’s no place like home” is an idiom meaning that one prefers their own home, town, or city over any other place on earth. It is widely associated with the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, but in fact the expression became popular over one hundred years prior to this. It appears in the last lines of the song ‘Home, Sweet Home,’ written in 1823 by John Payne and Sir Henry Bishop for the opera Clari. Sung at the end of the first act, the song was met with thunderous applause during its first performance at London’s Covent Garden, and from then on became popular in the English-speaking world. 

The Stegmaier name and logo are emblazoned on a white background with a silver border; the lettering is red, white, and silver.

The Baer & Stegmaier Brewery was opened in 1857 on South Canal Street in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.  The brewery was founded by Charles Stegmaier and his father-in-law, George Baer. In 1863, it was renamed the C. Stegmaier & Son brewery and then finally became Stegmaier Brewing Company in 1897. From 1910 to 1913 Stegmaier Beer won eight gold medals from European beer expositions including those in Brussels, Paris, and Rome. In the early days of the brewery Charles Stegmaier would personally deliver each barrel of beer with a wagon drawn by a goat. In 1974, the Stegmaier label was sold to Lion, Inc. of Wilkes-Barre.

Yellow text on a blue circle on a white background. A brown Alaskan totem pole with a yellow star, blue flag with stars and a mountain in the middle of the blue circle. 

The Alaska Purchase Centennial was held in 1967 to commemorate the purchase of Alaska from Russia. The United States purchased Alaska on March 30th, 1867 for $7.2 million. The highlight of the celebration was the Alaska 67 Exposition, held from May 27th to September 10th of 1967, at Alaskaland, what is now Pioneer Park, in Fairbanks, Alaska. The main tourist attractions at Alaskaland showed historical Alaska exhibits that included a mining valley where visitors could pan for gold as well as models of Eskimo and Indian villages. Major events were also held in Juneau, Sitka, Anchorage, Kodiak, Nenana, and Skagway. Alaska’s state motto “North to the Future" was adopted in 1967 for the centennial.

Illustration of a pink frosted cake in the shape of an M with blue writing on the top and one blue lit candle. The cake sits on a white plate with blue circular edging. There is also a cut-out of the cake in the shape of an M that shows pink and beige layers.

This button was issued for the first anniversary of MTV in 1982. MTV stands for Music Television and is a cable channel that premiered on August 1, 1981. In its first several years, MTV primarily played music videos hosted by "VJs" or video jockeys. The first video shown on MTV was The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star."

Over the years MTV shifted toward more original programming primarily aimed at teenagers. By 2008, an average of just three hours of music videos were shown per day. MTV has aired video shows such as Total Request Live, the animated series Beavis and Butt-head and Daria, and concert shows MTV Unplugged and MTV First. One of MTV's most popular shows is the Video Music Awards, or VMAs.

Black text on a yellow semi circle background with a blue semi circle with two blue cars racing on a race track with a checkered flag. 

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) was constructed in 1909, and was the first automobile racetrack to be called a speedway. The IMS was the brainchild of Carl Graham Fisher, an Indiana native and auto parts and highway entrepreneur. Fisher envisioned the speedway after attending an automobile race in France, and based his design, at least in part, on England's Brooklands Motor Circuit. Fisher determined that Indianapolis would be a logical location for the speedway, primarily due to the city's proximity to the many car manufacturers based in Indiana. The first official event at the IMS was a helium balloon race in June, 1909; motorcycle and automobile races followed soon after. Currently, the IMS plays host to several major race events each year, including the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400.