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Djinn42 t1_j9cul6t wrote

That's strange that customers had that reaction. It's still Lincoln either way.

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GrandmaPoses t1_j9d41o0 wrote

“I ordered a photo of Abraham Lincoln, not some beardless goon!”

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Cassius_Corodes t1_j9eqsm0 wrote

I think this is somewhat common with new technology. Some people just completely disconnect from common sense when some seemingly magical new tech is involved. They propably heard that the photo is like a completely accurate painting but since it clearly doesn't show the beard he now has, it's obviously a fraud and they want their money back.

It always reminds me of when Babbage was showing off his mechanical calculator and was asked if you could put in wrong numbers and still get the right result.

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1945BestYear t1_j9f6t3w wrote

Or that story about a mother trying to send a pie to her son by telegraph. Because if a machine is able to send a letter instantly, why couldn't it send a parcel too?

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Nappyheaded t1_j9fie8h wrote

And as we all know the parcel is too heavy to be carried by swallows

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becoming_a_crone t1_j9glblz wrote

Or someone wanting to send a confidential message via fax machine, so they put it in an envelope and faxed it like that.

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epochpenors t1_j9ddw46 wrote

If anything you’d think it would make the picture more valuable, considering they couldn’t take new ones of that style

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bolanrox t1_j9g9z9k wrote

these days yes. espeically the one where Milton had fuck face written on the bottom of Lincolns hat

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Landlubber77 t1_j9cnk7g wrote

He was forced to say Sorry for all the Trouble he caused when his Operation became a Monopoly.

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Loki-L OP t1_j9cldfo wrote

Relevant paragraph from Wikipedia:

>Bradley's ventures into the production of board games began with a large failure in his lithograph business. When he printed and sold an image of the little-known Republican presidential nominee Abraham Lincoln, Bradley initially met with great success. But a customer demanded his money back because the picture was not an accurate representation—Lincoln had decided to grow his distinctive beard after Bradley's print was published. Suddenly, the prints were worthless, and Bradley burned those remaining in his possession. Looking for a lucrative alternate project, Bradley found inspiration from an imported board game a friend gave him, concluding that he could produce and market a similar game to American consumers. In the winter of 1860, Bradley released The Checkered Game of Life.

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adamcoe t1_j9dyw81 wrote

How did they know he grew his beard if they didn't have a picture

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coffeepizzacake t1_j9h5vwj wrote

I’m not too sure at a general level what the most common way would be to find out something like that back then, but I believe in this particular case there’s actually a bit of interesting history on him deciding to grow the beard and the public learning about it:

>For that bit of history, we turn to Susannah Koerber, chief curator at the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, which holds The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, one of the country’s most important collections relating to Lincoln and his times. She said the story starts with an 11-year-old girl named Grace Bedell from Westfield, New York.

>Grace wrote to Lincoln on Oct. 15, 1860, and said, in part: “I have got four brothers, and a part of them will vote for you anyway, and if you will let your whiskers grow, I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you. You would look a great deal better, for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers, and they would tease their husbands to vote for you, and then you would be president.”

>Lincoln wrote back on Oct. 19, musing to young Grace about whiskers, “Having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?”

>Silly affection or not, later that fall and winter, Lincoln grew a beard. By January 13, 1861, the newly elected president had bearded up. Lincoln showed off his new face to the public when he left Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., on his famous train trip prior to his inauguration.

>In February 1861, his train stopped in New York, where Lincoln met young Grace Bedell. He told her, “You see, I let these whiskers grow for you, Grace.”

>Grace’s letter to Lincoln is part of the Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library; Lincoln’s response is in the Benjamin Shapell Family Manuscript Foundation collection. Both provide an interesting and unusual footnote to history, though one thing history is silent on is why Lincoln decided to grow a beard.

>“He may have been tired of shaving,” Koerber said. “He may have been considering it already. But he knew good political theater when he saw it.”

>As for those who keep track of presidential facial hair, it’s rare. Prior to Lincoln, John Quincy Adams had big, puffy sideburns. Martin Van Buren and Zachary Taylor had sideburns but not full beards.

full story

so it sounds like it was actually the first presidential beard, suggested and implemented potentially for political theatre, right around the inauguration, right as he was touring the country and one of the biggest faces in politics. And it’s still being talked about today, so I assume it was being talked about quite a bit back then, the exciting 1860s gossip that it was

I can imagine why people felt ripped off when he had this new epic beard and they had the crappy old version sold to them not weeks earlier

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WalkerBRiley t1_j9g0yy5 wrote

This is going to be a shocker to you, but people used to go to this place known as 'outside', to an area known as a 'venue', to see people on a thing called 'a stage'.

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adamcoe t1_j9gt1j3 wrote

This is going to be a shocker to you, but you don't have to be a condescending asshat. It's not like the guy was on tour and seen in public every damn day

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DisfavoredFlavored t1_j9f1cts wrote

Bradley: "Well, so much for the lithograph business, but I guess that's life...wait a second, I have a new idea!"

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ClownfishSoup t1_j9d0jfj wrote

It had never occurred to me that "Milton Bradley" was a guys name and not two last names.

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Loki-L OP t1_j9d13zf wrote

At least Parker Brothers were two brothers named Parker.

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KypDurron t1_j9d2dwl wrote

No, that was Parker's last name.

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toadhall81 t1_j9d61dl wrote

Mr Brothers? We are Mr Milton and Mr Bradley, how do you do

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stromm t1_j9cmmhe wrote

MB was like Disney.

He straight up stole other peoples intellectual property and inventions, rebranded and renamed them, and sold them himself.

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odaeyss t1_j9d6p62 wrote

Yeah but that was peak 1800s capitalism baybay! Dudes in tophats just gratuitously dunking on normal people because the law ain't shit. Thankfully tophats have gone out of style.

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DRScottt t1_j9cw0vg wrote

Bradley to Booth: Look it's not my fault he grew a beard if you have problem take it up with Lincoln.

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bolanrox t1_j9g9msm wrote

Geeze, this would be like telling Alec to complain to the director of Photography about something..

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skonevt t1_j9d6xn6 wrote

He was in the printing biz. I suppose that's something to do with making photos, but he even manufactured paper cutters. Look 'em up on Ebay. His familiarity with print production made board games a possible segue.

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KLAPT0N t1_j9dbfek wrote

Then he went on to play for the dodgers.

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JaxxisR t1_j9d6y96 wrote

I learned this from Drunk History.

Good times.

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DavidRandom t1_j9dud55 wrote

Just learned this on the podcast "Jackson Baly Spooks America".

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drifter100 t1_j9ef0ww wrote

when did he start playing baseball.

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FatherOften t1_j9fn1fs wrote

That is the perfect definition of a pain pivot in business!

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FourFurryCats t1_j9gozwu wrote

I saw this on the "Toys that Built America."

All of the variations of this show are pretty amazing.

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Alternative-Flan2869 t1_j9h53e7 wrote

So draw a beard and print over top. Or offer a discount on the second with a beard if you buy or bought the one without. Funny that a guy who sucked at this print game would go into a game business.

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kAlb98 t1_j9jgo96 wrote

I’d be selling the original rookie card

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ClownfishSoup t1_j9e7uxz wrote

He should have charged then ten cents for him to pencil in a beard.

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Lollerpwn t1_j9ec11k wrote

TIL that Milton Bradley isnt just an acid techno alias of Patrick Radomski

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Criminelis t1_j9ecm8c wrote

Beard games. Hehehehe

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xenocarp t1_j9el61k wrote

TIL, karen customers have been around since inception of this country

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