Superheroes -- Real And Imagined -- Headline Hake's July 14-16 Auction Of Pop Culture, Historical And Sports Memorabilia

Superheroes -- Real And Imagined -- Headline Hake's July 14-16 Auction Of Pop Culture, Historical And Sports Memorabilia

YORK, Pa., July 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Superheroes aren't always the product of fantasy. Sometimes they're ordinary people who've gone on to achieve superhuman goals - like the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and baseball legend Martin Dihigo, the only man ever to be inducted in the Baseball Halls of Fame in the USA, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. With their unique legacies, Dihigo and King unquestionably deserve the title of "superhero" and the right to stand alongside Superman in Hake's Americana Auction #215, which closes for bidding July 14-16.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150714/236160
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150714/236161

Leading the historical mementos in the 2,600-lot auction is a 1958 first edition of Dr. King's Stride Toward Freedom, which the civil rights icon signed and gifted to US Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. A unique cultural artifact, it is consigned to the auction by the Warren family.

Martin Dihigo (Cuban, 1906-1971), whose plaque at Cooperstown describes the five-nation Hall of Famer as "the most versatile of all Negro League players," is considered one of the greatest two-way players in baseball history, right alongside Babe Ruth.

The auction includes a phenomenal family-consigned archive of Dihigo's Latin-American team photos and ephemera, and the collection of 1920s-era baseball cards the superstar collected as a teenager.

"Never before have we encountered a baseball player's archive that included his own boyhood collection of baseball cards," said Alex Winter, president of Hake's Americana.

Completing the triumvirate of superheroes is an extraordinary collection of Superman items amassed by the late Ken "Franco" Toscanini. The vast collection incorporates comics, premiums, licensed merchandise, movie promos, original art and other ultra-rare Superman memorabilia.

Highlights include a 1940 pictorial comic-rack topper, an original-release 1941-43 Paramount Pictures/Fleischer Cartoons linen-mounted Superman poster, and three items Winter says are "unlikely to be seen at auction again, because no collector would give them up." They are: a 1948 Superman movie serial standee - one of two known - with vivid graphics and a background image of Spider Lady; and Fleischer Studios original color model art for Superman and Lois Lane, with profuse artist's notations.

View the catalog and bid online at www.hakes.com. The first session closes on July 14; the second session concludes on July 16. July 15 is an interim day in which bidders can peruse the catalog and prepare for further bidding. Tel. 866-404-9800; email hakes@hakes.com.

Media contact: Alex Winter
866-404-9800

SOURCE Hake's Americana & Collectibles

Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150714/236160
http://photoarchive.ap.org/
Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150714/236161
http://photoarchive.ap.org/
Hake's Americana & Collectibles

Web Site: http://www.hakes.com


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