1898 The Ball Game (Primary) Produced by Edison. The first documented baseball film consists of clips of a New Jersey team playing an unnamed rival. Like Casey at the Bat filmed by Edison in the following year, this was a very short film shown mostly in peep shows. The Edison catalog provides the following description:
1899 Casey at the Bat (Primary) Produced by Edison. A very short film that borrowed the title of the poem, but little else. The film consists of a few swings of the bat, an argument with the umpire, and a spirited disagreement at home plate.
1903 The Game of Baseball (Primary) Set in 1902, the film is composed of newsreel style footage of a game between a Philadelphia and a Baltimore team. Distributed with featurette Crowd Leaving Athletic Base Ball Grounds.
1906 How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game (Primary) The office boy sneaks out of work to see the ball game only to find himself sitting next to his boss.
1906 Play Ball on the Beach (Primary) Produced by American Mutuscope/Biograph. A one-reeler about a women’s baseball game being umpired by a man.
1906 World Series Baseball Game (Primary) Produced by Selig/Polyscope. A documentary short containing highlights of the Cubs and White Sox Series.
1907 Christy Mathewson and The New York National League Team (Primary) Produced by Winthrop. A film that is a series of shots of Mathewson winding up and delivering pitches.
1907 How Jones Saw the Baseball Game (Primary) Produced by Lubin Films. A story line similar to How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game where subterfuge is used to attend a game.
1907 One Man Base Ball (Primary) Produced by Vitagraph. A one-reel film.
1908 Baseball Fan, The (Primary) Directed by Broncho Billy Anderson. Produced by Essanay. Tells the story of an intense baseball fan who tells his wife he has “important business.” The business, of course, is to attend a baseball game, but he discovers standing room only. So, a series of misadventues follow including a knot hole, the cops, a telegraph pole, being hit by a foul ball and getting mugged on his way home.
1908 World Championship Baseball (Primary) Produced by Essanay. The first theatrically released World Series film. Essanay also produced highlight films of the 1909-1912 World Series.
1909 His Last Game (Primary) Choctaw Bill Going is an ace pitcher. White gamblers plot to keep Bill from pitching through bribery, getting him drunk and when those tactics don’t work they kidnap him. Bill escapes, but not without one of the gamblers being shot and killed. Although convicted of murder, Bill is released from jail long enough to win the game. Bill is then taken away and executed just before the reprieve from the governor arrives. “The earliest-known dramatic photoplay relating to baseball” (Mote).
1910 Baseball, That’s All (Primary) Produced by Melies. A film about a fan lying to his boss, telling him he has a toothache so he can attend a baseball game. His obsession with baseball also puts his marriage at risk.
1910 Bumptious Plays Baseball (Primary) Produced by Edison. A film about a comic character who has trouble playing baseball.
1910 Slide, Kelly, Slide (Primary) Produced by Essanay. Based on the popular 1884 song by the same title.
1910 Take Me Out To The Ball Game (Primary) Written and directed by Gilbert M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson. A fan becomes so involved with the game (which ends in victory) that he leaves his wife at the ballpark.
1911 Baseball Bug (Primary) Produced by Thanhouser. A film about a store clerk who daydreams about being a pitching ace (Edelman). The wife of a conceited small-town player exposes his limited baseball abilities with the aid of Hall of Fame pitcher Chief Bender and two of his Philidelphia A’s teammates, Rube Oldring and Jack Coombs (Mote).
1911 Baseball in Bloomers (Primary) Starring William Garwood. No details available but the title is suggestive.
1911 Baseball Star from Bingville (Primary) Produced by Essanay. A one-reeler about the comedic antics of a chubby player, Bim McGuffrey, from a small town. The scout who discovered him puts him in a steam bath to shed some pounds. The scout forgets about Bim and when he finally remembers, Bim is down to 92 pounds.
1911 Hal Chase’s Home Run (Primary) Produced by Kalem. Starring big league player Hal Chase. Chase comes to the rescue of his friend, Tom, to win the pennant with a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth.
1912 Ball Play and the Bandit, The (Primary) One of 20 films featuring Harold Lockwood in 1912 (he appeared in a total of 120 films), this western drama played off two common themes in film: baseball and cowboys.
1912 Pennant Puzzle, The (Primary) Selig/Polyscope production. Starring John Lancaster. A one-reel film about a baseball fan’s obsessions with a baseball board puzzle involves the police, other fans, and players and managers on the field (Mote).
1913 Baseball (Primary) Directed and written by Bud Fisher. An animated short.
1913 The Baseball Umpire (Primary) A Majestic release.
1913 Baseball’s Peerless Leader (Primary) Directed by Leopold Wharton. Produced by Patheplay. Starring Frank Chance, Gwendolyn Pates and Ned Burton. A two-reel romantic drama starring Chance, the Chicago Cub’s famed first baseman (Mote).
1913
Breaking into the Big League (Primary)
Produced by Kalem. Starring John McGraw and Christy Mathewson. A two one-reeler
film featuring baseball greats.
1913 Casey at the Bat (Primary) Directed and written by James Young. Produced by Vitagraph. Starring Harry T. Morey, Norma Talmadge, Harry Northrup, and Kate Price. A one-reel rendition of the popular poem.
1913 A Short-Stops Double (Primary) Produced by Selig/Polyscope.Written by Arthur P. Hankins. Starring major leaguer Frank “Home Run” Baker.
1914 Baseball Fans of Fanville, The (Primary) Produced by Joker Co. Starring William Franey.
1914 Giants-White Sox World Tour, The (Primary) Produced by Electric Film Co. A fan decides to tag along with the two teams as they tour around the world. This film purports to be the first “feature length” baseball film, although Little Sunset (1915) is usually credited with that honor. There were two release dates: May 7 and August 20.
1914 “Home Run” Baker’s Double (Primary) Directed and written by Kenean Buel. Starring Frank “Home Run” Baker, Marguerite Courtot, Henry Hallam, Ben Ross, and Helen Lindroth. Produced by Kalem. A two-reel film.
1914 Love and Base Ball (Primary) Produced by Bison. Starring Christy Mathewson. A two-reel melodramatic baseball romance.
1915 Little Sunset (Primary) Written by Charles E. van Loan. Produced by Bosworth Inc. Starring Hobart Bosworth, Gordon Griffith, Rhea Hines, Joe Ray, and Marshall Stedman. Considered the first baseball feature film, at about forty minutes in length (four reels). A dramatic vehicle for actor Hobart Bosworth, who plays Gus Bergstrom, an outfielder for a minor league team. Gordon Griffith plays the title character, the team mascot and Bergstrom’s biggest fan. Also features pro baseball players of the Apaches, members of the Pacific Coast League.
1915 Right Off The Bat (Primary) Directed by Hugh Reticker. Written by Albert S. LeVino. Produced by Arrow Film Companies. Starring Mike Donlin, Roy Hauck, Henry Grady, Fran Bourke, Doris Farrington, and Harry Six. A drama about a pitcher who refuses to take a bribe from a gambler to lose a big game. The main character is Mike Donlin, who played with Baltimore, and the real Mike Donlin plays himself as an adult, though the story is purely fiction, not biographical. John McGraw, Giants manager, is also cast in the film.
1915 Spit Ball Sadie (Primary) Directed by Hal Roach. Starring Harold Lloyd, Gene Marsh, and Eleanor Whitney. Produced by Pathe Exchange/Rolin Film. A one-reel film in which Harold disguises himself as “Spit Ball Sadie” to join an all-female team. His ruse is discovered and he barely escapes the wrath of the female players.
1915 World’s Championship Baseball Series (Primary) World Series Film Co.
1916 Casey at the Bat (Primary) Directed by Lloyd Ingraham. Written by William Wing and Ernest Lawrence Thayer. Produced by Fine Arts Film. Starring Kate Toncray, Mae Giraci, Carl Stockdale, William Brown, and DeWolfe Hopper. DeWolfe Hopper plays Casey in an extended plot stretching the original poem to about fifty minutes, though the story retains the basic premise of the Ernest Lawrence Thayer poem. (Note: IMDB.com lists the date for this version of Casey at the Bat as 1912.)
1916 Kill the Umpire (Primary) Directed by Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran. Written by Ben Cohn. Produced by Universal Film Manufacturing/Nestor. Starring Eddie Lyons, Eileen Sedgwick, Lee Moran, and Mina Cunard. A one-reel film.
1916 Love, Dynamite and Baseballs (Primary) A Mutual release about a pitcher who conspires with criminals.
1916 Fable of the Kid Who Shifted His Ideals to Golf and Finally Became a Baseball Fan and Took the Only Known Cure, The (Secondary) Written by George Ade. No description available, but the title is fairly inclusive, if not the longest title of any baseball film.
1916 Somewhere In Georgia (Primary) Directed by George Ridgwell. Written by Grantland Rice and Lillian Case Russell. Produced by Sunbeam Motion Pictures Corporation. Starring Ty Cobb, Ned Burton, Edward Boulden, William Corbett, and Elsie MacLeod. Ty Cobb plays a dramatic role taking him from bank employee to the Detroit Tigers. He wins the game and the girl in the end.
1916 World Series Games, Boston vs. Brooklyn, The (Primary) Produced by William N. Selig/Polyscope. A four-reel production.
1916/1917
Baseball Bill (Primary) Produced by
Universal. A series of one-reelers with titles such as Baseball
Bill, Baseball Madness, The Black Nine, Broadway Bill, Box of Tricks, and Strike One.
1917 Baseball Revue of 1917, The (Primary) Directed by Tom McEvoy. Produced by Athletic Feature Films.
1917 Bobby Bumps’ World Serious (Primary) Directed by Earl Hurd. A comedy short.
1917 Bush Leaguer, The (Primary) Produced by William N. Selig. Starring Lee Morris, John Lancaster, and William Hutchinson. A one-reeler in which a pitcher exerts hypnotic powers over opposing batters (Mote).
1917 Her First Game (Primary) Produced by Metro. This film tells the story of a husband and wife going to a baseball game at the Polo Grounds in New York.
1917
Mudville (Primary) Produced by William N.
Selig. A response to Universal’s Baseball Bill,
this series of comedy shorts included the Bush
Leaguer, Baseball Madness, and
Baseball at Mudville.
1917 One Touch of Nature (Primary) Directed by Edward Griffith. Written by Peter Kyne. Produced by Thomas A. Edison Inc. Starring John Drew Bennett, Viola Cain, John J. McGraw, Edward O’Conner, and Helen Strickland. Bill Cosgrove (Bennett) is an Ivy League baseball player from a wealthy family signed up by John McGraw (playing himself) to play for the Giants. Some Giants players appear. Cosgrove’s baseball career reunites him with his estranged father.
1917 Over the Fence (Primary) Directed by Harold Lloyd. Produced by Pathe. Starring Bebe Daniels, Harold Lloyd and James Darsie Lloyd. A story about two tailors who end up with tickets to a baseball game as the premise for Lloyd’s antics.
1917 Pinch Hitter, The (Primary) Directed by Victor Schertzinger. Written by C. Gardner Sullivan. Produced by New York Motion Picture Corporation. Starring Charles Ray, Sylvia Breamer, Joseph Dowling, Jerome Strom, and Darrell Foss. A young man, Joel Parker (Ray), is depicted as a rather slow student and, since he’s also an incompetent athlete, is made mascot of the baseball team. In true Hollywood style, he’s called in to play in The Big Game when a player is hurt. He pinch hits to win the game and his girlfriend.
1917 Play Ball (Primary) Produced by Jaxon Film Co. A one-reeler about an office clerk daydreaming about his baseball exploits.
1917 Shut Out In the 9th (Primary) Directed by E.H. Griffith. A two-reeler story from Edison’s company about young boys coming of age through baseball. Jimmy and Spike deal with a police officer who tries to end their game of catch and tease a boy who doesn’t know how to hit. They lose the crucial game, but end up discovering girls.
1917 Three Strikes You’re Out (Primary) Directed by William C. Nolan. Produced by International Film Service/Education Film Corporation of America. A one-reel “Happy Hooligan” animation.
1918 Home Run Ambrose (Primary) Produced by L-Ko Motion Picture Kompany. Featured the stocky Mack Swain as Home Run Ambrose.
1919 Baseball: An Analysis of Motion (Primary) A documentary using slow motion photography to analyze the movement of players and the ball. The New York Times review (1919) concluded: “While the picture, because of its novelty, was received yesterday with the laughter of surprise, the process by which it was made will certainly be of value in the serious study of motion.”
1919 Better Times (Secondary) Directed and written by King Vidor. Produced by Brentwood Film Corporation. Starring Zasu Pitts, David Butler, Jack McDonald, William DeVaull, and Hugh Fay. Peter Van Slantyne (Butler) shows up at a health resort with orders to restrict his diet and take it easy. The new proprietress, Nancy Scroggs (Pitts) encourages him to exercise and eat what he wants. Peter disappears after receiving a telegram Nancy believes to be from a suitor. Nancy’s father dies, she takes the inheritance and goes to finishing school. She ends up at a ball game where, of course, Peter is playing. Peter leaps into the bleachers and is reunited with Nancy. The telegram was not from another lady, but from the ball team.
1919 Busher, The (Primary) Directed by Jerome Storm. Written by Earle Snell and R. Cecil Smith. Produced by Thomas H. Ince Corporation. Starring Charles Ray, Colleen Moore, John Gilbert, Jay Moorley, and Otto Hoffman. Another Charles Ray vehicle. Here he’s pitcher Ben Harding playing for a small town team that beats a major league team. He signs up with the big league team but his ego gets too big and he almost loses his girl and the respect of his family. He redeems himself back home when he becomes the hero of his original team.
1919 Fair and Warmer (Primary) Directed by Henry Otto. Written by June Mathis and Avery Hopwood. Produced by Metro Pictures/Screen Classics. Starring May Allison, Pell Trenton, Eugene Pallette, and Christine Mayo. A six-reel film recounting the misadventures of a female baseball player.
1919 Home Run Bill (Primary) Produced by Universal Film Manufacturing. A one-reel production starring Billy Mason.
1919 Muggsy (Primary) Directed by Sherwood MacDonald. Starring Jackie Saunders. Baseball is a key word associated with this film, along with gender-disguise and misogyny.
1920 Babe Ruth Instructional Films (Primary) This series of films contains scenes from actual games. The episodes include “How Babe Ruth Makes a Homerun,” and “Play Ball with Babe Ruth.”
1920 Casey at the Bat (Primary) John Franklin Meyer.
1920 Dud’s Home Run (Primary) Directed and written by Us Fellers. Produced by J. R. Bray/US Fellers. An animated short.
1920 Headin’ Home
(Primary) Directed by Lawrence Windom. Written by Arthur “Bugs” Baer.
Produced by Kessell and Baumann. Starring Babe Ruth, Ruth Taylor, William Sheer,
Margaret Seddon, and Frances Victory. Babe
Ruth stars as “Babe,” who wants to play ball with the local team, but they
just don’t think he’s the kind of guy for them.
In his spare time he makes his own bats to help his game and get him a
spot on a competing team. After
some trials and tribulations in baseball and love, he ultimately becomes the
hero of his hometown team.
c. 1920 Homerun Hawkins (Primary) A kids team is scheduled to play in a championship game. Misadventures complicate the plot and what makes this “The oddest baseball film of the silent era, if not all time” (Edelman) is that the local merchants who sponsored the making of the film have their products more than prominently displayed in the film. The boys purchase a “Schuster Home Run Special” bat, for example, to win the game.
1920 Play Ball (Primary) An animated short directed and animated by Frank Moser. Produced by J.R. Bray/Paramount.
c. 1920 You Know Me Al (Primary) A film series consisting of The Busher Breaks In, The Busher Comes Back, The Busher Abroad, and The Home Run Smash.
1921 As The World Rolls On (Primary) Produced by Andlauer Productions. Starring Jack Johnston and Blanche Thompson. Jack Johnston, an outstanding black athlete (boxing), playing himself, enables a black gang member to escape his “fate” by teaching him to box and play baseball. Blanche ultimately ends up playing for the Kansas City Monarchs. This film was screened in “colored” movie houses.
1921 Play Ball (Primary) An animated short directed, written and animated by Julian Ollendorff. A Julian Ollendorff/Educational Pictures production.
1922 Felix Saves the Day (Primary) Directed by Otto Messmer. Produced by Pat Sullivan. A one reel animation in which Felix the Cat is the “good luck” mascot for the New York Yankees.
1923 Giants vs. Yanks (Secondary/Tertiary) Directed by Robert McGown. Written by Hal Roach. Produced by Hal Roach Studio. Starring Joe Cobb, Jackie Condon, Jack Davis, Mickey Daniels, and Dick Gilbert. An Our Gang/Little Rascals comedy in which baseball is used instead of football or boxing. The kids play for the Giants but the big game is held up as they scheme to get out of their household chores. After the game begins, they are soon distracted by a litter of puppies and other high-jinx.
1923 Pinch Hitter, The (Primary) Produced by Tri-Stone/Kay-Bee. A remake of the 1917 version of The Pinch Hitter.
1923 Stepping Fast (Tertiary) Directed by Joseph Franz. Written by Bernard McConville. Produced by Fox Film Corporation. Starring Claire Adams, Tom Guise, Edward Jobson, Donald MacDonald, and Tom Mix. Western star Tom Mix dons a baseball mitt in one scene.
1923 Trifling With Honor (Secondary) Directed by Harry Pollard. Written by Frank Beresford. Produced by Universal Pictures. Starring Rockliffe Fellows, Fritzi Ridgeway, Buddy Messiger, Hayden Stevenson, and Emmett King. Rockliffe Fellows plays the Gas Pipe Kid, a man on the verge of becoming a two-time loser who escapes before he’s put back in prison. He takes a new name and chooses baseball as his game. He becomes a baseball idol but the bad guys threaten to reveal his identity unless he conspires with them to lose a game. Knowing he may wind up back in prison, he comes clean and the bad guys get caught. The one-time “Gas House Kid” is set free to continue to inspire future, clean living ballplayers.
1924 Battling Orioles, The (Primary) Directed by Fred Guiol and Ted Wilde. Written by Hal Roach. Produced by Hal Roach Studios. Starring Glenn Tyron, Blanche Mehaffey, John Prince, Noah Young, and Sam Lufkin. A one-hour comedy about the Baltimore Orioles who are still playing 50 years after their 1874 championship year. A grandson of one of the team members, played by Tommy Roosevelt Tucker, becomes the star pitcher. Complications set in when crooks enter the story and the old timers have to save the day.
1924
Hit and Run (Primary) Directed by Edward Sedgwick. Written by Raymond Shrock.
Produced by Universal Pictures. Starring Hoot Gibson, Marion Harlan, Cyril Ring,
Harold Goodwin, and DeWitt Jennings. This
is a western movie with cowboy star Hoot Gibson playing a local slugger, Swat
Anderson, who escapes his kidnappers, saves his girl western style, and then
clobbers a home run to win the big game.
1924 Life’s Greatest Game (Primary) Directed by Emory Johnson. Written by Emilie Johnson. Produced by Emory Johnson Productions. Starring Tom Santschi, Jane Thomas, Johnnie Walker, David Kirby, and Gertrude Olmsted. Tom Santschi plays Jack Donovan, a happily married man who plays ball for the Chicago Cubs in 1906. He refuses to throw a game so, in retribution, a gambler ruins the Donovan’s marriage. The complicated story is resolved when Donovan’s son shows up years later to pitch for the New York Giants then managed by Donovan. Father, son, and family are finally united.
1925 Butter Fingers (Primary) Directed by Del Lord. A Pathe/Mack Sennet production. Starring Billy Bevan. A two reel comedy in which a batted baseball lands in a barrel of tar and wreaks havoc on a game fixed by gamblers (Mote).
1925 Pinch Hitter, The (Primary) Directed by Joseph Henabery. Written by C. Garner Sullivan. Produced by Oscar Price. Starring Glenn Hunter, Constance Bennett, Jack Drumier, Reginald Sheffield, and Antrin Short. Remake of the 1917/1923 film by the same title. The college mascot hits the crucial home run.
1925
Play Ball
(Primary) (a.k.a. Betrayed) Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennett. Written by Frank Leon
Smith. Produced by Pathe. Starring Allene Ray, J. Barney Sherry, Walter Miller,
Mary Milnor, and Wally Oettel. A ten episode, two-reel installment serial, about
a Giants rookie whose romantic involvement with the daughter of a wealthy
businessman leads to all sorts of intrigue. Includes titles such as The
Decoy Wire, Face to Face, Home
Plate Wedding, Into Segundo’s Hands, Mission of Hate, The Showdown, To the
Rescue, and Double Peril.
1926 Around the Bases (Primary) Directed by Wesley Ruggles. Written by Carl Laemmle, Jr. Produced by Universal Pictures. Starring George Lewis, Eddie Phillips, Dorothy Gulliver and Andy Devine (uncredited). A two reel release.
1926 Fighting Hearts (Serial) Directed by Ralph Ceder. Written by Sam Hellman. Produced by Film Booking Offices of America. Starring Alberta Vaughn, Al Cooke, Kit Guard and Larry Kent. “Baseball” and “serial” are the only key words associated with this serial on IMDB.com.
1926 New Klondike, The (Primary) Directed by Lewis Milestone. Written by Thomas Geraghety. Produced by Famous Players-Laskey Corp. Starring Thomas Meighan, Lila Lee, Paul Kelly, Hallie Manning, and Robert Craig. A mixture of baseball and real estate misdeals in Florida featuring a minor league pitcher (Meighan) who loses his job and is ripped off by the manager in cahoots with a shyster land developer.
1926 One Minute to Play (Primary) Directed by Sam Wood. Written by Byron Morgan. Produced by R-C Pictures. Starring Harold Grange, Mary McAllister, Charles Ogle, George Wilson, and Ben Hendricks.
1926 Out Of The West (Primary) Directed by Robert DeLacey. Written by Wyndham Gittens. Produced by Robertson-Cole Pictures Corp. Starring L.J. O’Connor, Ethan Laidlaw, Gertrude Claire, Bernice Welch, and Tom Tyler. A baseball western with Tom Tyler playing Tom Hanley, the star of an amateur baseball team owned by a local rancher that is competing with a team owned by an unscrupulous rancher who stoops to dirty tricks to win. There’s a girl, a big game, and a major league contract at stake for Hanley. He settles for ranch life with his gal.
1926 Young April (Secondary) Directed by Donald Crisp. Written by Egerton Castle and Douglas Doty. Produced by DeMille Pictures. Starring Joseph Schildkraut, Rudolph Schildkraut, Bessie Love, Bryant Washburn, and Clarence Gledart. Victoria Sax (Love) is an orphan who discovers she is a Grand Dutchess and ordered to return to Belgravis. She refuses and the film establishes her Americanism as she plays softball with her school mates.
1927 Alice in the Big League (Primary) Directed by Walt Disney. Produced by Winkler Pictures/R-C Pictures. A one reel animated short where Alice (Alice in Wonderland) attempts to umpire a big league baseball game where the animals begin to take exception to her bad calls.
1927 Batter Up (Primary) Directed by Stephen Roberts. Produced by Jack White/Mermaid Comedies/Educational Film Exchanges. A two-reel comedy (Mote). Note: the filmographies for neither Roberts nor White mention this film, released in August, 1927.
1927 Babe Comes Home
(Primary) Directed by Ted Wilde. Written by Gerald Beaumont and Louise Stevens.
Produced by Wid Gunning/First National. Starring Babe Ruth, Anna Nilsson, Louise
Fazeda, Ethel Shannon, and Arthur Stone. A
film about a timely baseball topic: should baseball players chew tobacco?
Babe Ruth stars as Babe Dugan, the tobacco-chewing ballplayer who falls
in love with a sweet young girl who tries to break him of the tobacco habit.
After the wedding they split up over the chaw in the cheek, but in the
climatic moment of the big game, she shows up and gives him a plug of tobacco.
Of course he hits a grand slam homer and the couple reunites.
The “Babe” concedes and gives up chewing tobacco. Some have reported
that all prints of this film were destroyed in a fire in 1929.
1927 Bush Leaguer, The (Primary) Directed by Howard Bretherton. Written by Harvey Gates and Charles Saxton. Produced by Warner Bros. Starring Monte Blue, Clyde Cook, Leila Hyams, William Demarest, and Richard Tucker. A star pitcher for a local ball club, Specs White (Blue) is lured into a contract with the Los Angeles Angels because it will help him support his first love, the invention of a highly efficient gas pump. He falls in love with Alice Hobbs (Hyams), the owner of the ball club. The bad guys tell her he’s taking bribes so she tries to break off their romance. However, heroic Specs exposes the real culprits and saves his romance. He also hits the winning home run in a big game and sells his invention.
1927 Casey at the Bat (Primary)
Directed by Monte Brice. Written by Monte Brice and Jules Furthman. Produced by
Hector Turnbull/Famous Players-Lasky Corp/Paramount Pictures. Starring Wallace
Beery, Ford Sterling, Zasu Pitts, Sterling Hollaway, and Iris Stuart. Casey
(Wallace Beery) is a local junk dealer in Centerville. He is scouted for the New
York Giants. Casey strikes out in the big game, but the ball is found to be a
trick ball and the game replayed.
1927 College
(Secondary) Directed by James Horne. Written by Bryan Foy and Carl Harbaugh.
Produced by Joseph Schenck/United Artists. Starring Buster Keaton, Anne
Cornwall, Flora Bromleg, Harold Goodwin, and Snitz Edwards.
Ronald's high school valedictory address praises books and condemns
sports. His girlfriend Mary makes it clear that she prefers an athletic man. So
Keaton pursues baseball and track and field as he begins his college career.
1927 Catch-As-Catch Can (Secondary) Directed by Charles Hutchinson. Written by L.V. Jefferson. Produced by Gotham Productions. Starring William Fairbanks, Jack Blossom, Rose Blossom, Larry Shannon, and Walter Shumway. A manager of an amateur baseball team(Fairbanks) is unjustly fired on a charge of complicity in a game-fixing scandal. He becomes a reporter and not only exposes the bad guys, but collars them and becomes the police chief.
1927 Slide, Kelly, Slide (Primary) Directed by Edward Sedgewick. Written by Joseph Farnham and A.P Younger. Produced by MGM. Starring William Haines, Sally O’Neil, Harry Carey, Frank Coghlan, and Karl Dane. Kelley is a brash, hot-shot rookie pitcher with the Yankees. After alienating everyone on the team including the bat boy, Kelly is removed from the World Series lineup, so he quits. When the team runs out of pitchers, the bat boy is sent to retrieve Kelly, but the boy is hit by a car. A remorseful Kelly shows up just in time to save the game and slide in to home safely for the winning run. Note: a film short by the same title was released by Essanay in 1910. Slide, Kelly, Slide was the most popular song/poem (1884) baseball artifact until replaced by the growing popularity of Casey at the Bat.
1928 Cameraman, The (Secondary) Directed by Edward Sedgwick. Written by Clyde Bruckman. Produced by Buster Keaton/MGM. Starring Buster Keaton, Marceline Day, Harold Goodwin, Sydney Bracey, and Harry Gribbon. Luke Shannon is a newsreel cameraman. He wants to work for MGM, to be near a beautiful office worker, among other reasons. After many foibles, he finds himself with his camera in the middle of major events, including baseball. He goes to Yankee Stadium to film the game only to find that the Yankees are playing in St. Louis. So, he sets up the camera and pantomimes the entire game from pitching to hitting making a double play.
1928
Speedy (Primary) Directed by Ted Wilde. Written by Albert Demond. Produced
by Paramount Pictures. Starring Harold Lloyd, Ann Christy, Bert Woodruff, Brooks
Benedict, and Babe Ruth. Lloyd plays a comic common man possessed by baseball.
His obsession leads him from job to job (his girl notes that any job he
gets must be within phoning distance of Yankee Stadium).
As a cabbie, Lloyd drops Babe Ruth off at Yankee Stadium and Lloyd
decides to stay for the game.
1928 Warming Up (Primary) Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. Written by Ray Harris. Produced by Paramount Pictures. Starring Richard Dix, Jean Arthur, Claude King, Philo McCullough, and Billy Kent. Richard Dix and Jean Arthur are the stars in this baseball film about a pitcher, Bert Tolliver, who, while trying out for a big league team is hazed a bit and believes McRae, one of the players has hexed him. But Mary, the pretty daughter of the Green Sox owner, discovers him at the local park where the pitcher is running a knock-down-a-kewpie-doll concession attracting customers by demonstrating his amazing pitching accuracy. When it’s time to play the last game of the series, the manager is forced by circumstances to let Bert pitch. As he faces McRae, Mary signals him of her love. The inspired Bert strikes out McRae, ending the “jinx” and winning the series for the Green Sox.
1929 Ball Park (Primary) Directed by Paul Terry. Produced by Paul Terry/Pathe Exchange. A one reel animation featuring a slugger ape and a fearful umpire.
1929 Clancey At The Bat (Primary) Directed by Earle Rodney. Produced by Mack Sennett . Starring Andy Clyde, Henry Gribbon, Earle Rodney and Patsy O’Leary. An early sound film that features Gribbon as an over-the-hill baseball player.
1929 Fast Company (Primary) Directed by A. Edward Sutherland. Written by Walter Butterfield and Joseph Mankiewicz. Produced by Paramount Pictures. Starring Evelyn Brent, Jack Oakie, Richard Gallagher, Sam Hardy, and Arthur Housman. The first talkie baseball film, but also released as a silent film. The winning run of the World Series is scored by our hero, Elmer “Hurry” Kane, who’s been losing too many games and is thought to be in league with gamblers. He’s really having love problems. When his girl appears at the stadium to cheer him on, it triggers the swat that wins the game.
1929 Schoolday Love (Primary). Produced by Educational Films. A comedy short featuring a group of monkeys playing baseball and a dog as the umpire.
1930 Anna
Christie
(Tertiary) Directed by Clarence Brown. Written by Francine Marion. Produced by
MGM. Starring Greta Garbo and Charles Bickford. It has been 15 years since Chris
has sent 5-year-old Anna to live with relatives in St. Paul, and now she is
coming back. Anna needs rest and a place to stay so Chris moves Marthy off his
barge. One night, going down the coast, they rescue three survivors of a sinking
boat. The big strong Scot, named Matt, takes a liking to Anna and they go to
Coney Island when they get back to land. While at a carnival, Bickford threw
baseballs at two targets. He had been taunted by onlookers for not being a
“Babe Ruth.”
1930 Hot Curves (Primary) Directed by Norman Taurog. Written by Frank Mortimer and Benny Rubin. Produced by Tiffany Productions. Starring Benny Rubin, Rex Lease, Alice Day, Pert Kelton, and John Ince. An early talkie in which a young lady turns the head of star ballplayer Jim Dolan. However, the Pittsburgh Cougars manage to win the big game anyway.
1930 They Learned About Women (Primary) Directed by Jack Conway and Sam Wood. Written by Arthur ‘Bugs” Baer, Sarah Mason, and A.P. Younger. Produced by MGM. Starring Gus Van, Joe Schenck, Bessie Love, J.C. Nugent, and Benny Rubin. Two vaudevillians of the day, Gus Van and Joseph Schenck, star with Bessie Love in a musical precursor to Take Me Out to the Ball Game. The vaudevillians play ball and perform in vaudeville.
1930 Up The River (Secondary) Directed by John Ford. Written by Maurine Dallas Watkins. Produced by William Fox/Fox Film Corp. Starring Spencer Tracy, Claire Luce, Warren Hymer, Humphrey Bogart, and William Collier. Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart are prison inmates in this comedy directed by John Ford. Once released, Tracy and Hymer break back into jail to help their team beat another prison team.
1930 Young Man of Manhattan (Secondary) Directed by Monta Bell. Written by Katherine Brush and Daniel Reed. Produced by Monta Bell/Paramount-Publix. Starring Norman Foster, Claudette Colbert, Ginger Rogers and Charles Ruggles. Two flappers (Colbert and Rogers) try to get their newspaper reporter boyfriends to pay attention to them. One of the reporters is sent to St. Louis to cover the World Series.
1931 Play Ball (Primary) Directed by Mannie Davis and John Foster. Produced by Van Beuren Studio/RKO-Pathe. An animated short directed.
1931 Slide, Speedy, Slide (Primary) Directed by Babe Stafford. Written by John A. Waldron. Produced by Mack Sennett. Starring Daphne Pollard, Wake Boteler, and Tom Dugan. An eighteen minute film whose title is derived from the 1844 song, “Slide, Kelly, Slide.”
1932
Babe Ruth Baseball Series (Primary)
Produced by Universal Pictures. Starring Babe Ruth. A series of one-reel films
that included Just Pals, Fancy Curves,
Slide, Babe, Slide, Perfect Control, and
Over the Fence.
1932 Ball Game, The (Primary) Directed by John Foster and George Rufle. Produced by Van Beuren Corp. A one reel animated short in which insects engage in a comical baseball game.
1932
Fireman Save My Child (Primary) Directed by Lloyd Bacon. Written by Arthur
Caesar and Ray Enright. Produced by First National Pictures. Starring Curtis
Benton, Lilian Bon, Frederick Burton, Richard Carl, and George Ernst. A Joe E.
Brown comedy romp with Brown as an inventor, fireman and baseball player in his
small home town. He gets an offer to play for a big team; he hopes to get more
money for his inventions. But he is invited to present his invention to a
fire-extinguisher company at the same time he is supposed to play. Somehow, he
is able to do both. The baseball player as inventor occurred earlier in the film
The Bush Leaguer (1927).
1932 Loud Mouth, The (Secondary) Directed by Del Lord. Produced by Mack Sennett. Produced by Paramount Pictures. Starring Ray Cooke, Marjorie Ken, and Franklin Pangborn. This comedy short is the basis for both The Heckler (1940) and Mr. Noisy (1946), and features a boisterous fan whose antics throws off baseball great Swat Butler. Pangborn’s character also vies for the Swat’s girlfriend.
1932 Play Ball (Primary) An animated short directed by Frank Moser, written by Paul Terry. Produced by Terrytoons/Educational Film Exchanges. (See 1937 release by same title and production credits.)
1932 Stealin’ Home (Primary) Written by Ralph Cedar. Produced by Rufftown Comedies/RKO. Starring James Gleason, Eddie Gribbon and Mae Busch. A two reel story of a small-town pitcher and his misadventures.
1932 Too Many Women (Primary) Directed by Anthony Mack and Lloyd French. Produced by MGM/Hal Roach Studios. Starring Mickey Daniels, Grady Sutton, Gordon Douglas, Mary Korman, Harry Bernard, and Tiny Sandford. A two-reel film in which a star pitcher’s baseball abilities decline when his sweetheart marries another man.
1933 Elmer The Great
(Primary) Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Written by George Cohan and Tom Geraghty.
Produced by Warner Bros. Starring Joe E. Brown, Patricia Ellis, Frank McHugh,
Claire Dodd, and Preston Foster. Another Joe E. Brown baseball comedy (see, Fireman
Save My Child, 1932). Elmer is
a naïve country boy who becomes a baseball star, but gets tangled up with
crooks at the same time. He does not want to leave Gentryville, because Nellie
is the one he loves. Even when the Chicago Cubs comes for him, he goes only
because Nellie spurns him on. As always, Elmer is the king of batters and he
wins game after game. When Nellie comes to see Elmer in Chicago, she sees him
kissing another woman and wants nothing to do with him anymore. So he goes to a
gambling club, where he does not know that the chips are money. He finds that he
owes the gamblers $5000 and they make him sign a note for it. Sad at losing
Nellie, mad at his teammates and in debt to the gamblers, Elmer disappears, but
reappears just in time to win the game and marry Nellie.
1933 Play Ball (Primary) Directed and animated by Ub Iwerks. Produced by Ub Iwerks/MGM/Celebrity Productions. A one-reel “Willie Whopper” animation in which Babe Ruth is caricatured.
1934 Buddy’s Bearcats (Primary) Directed by Jack King. Produced by Warner Bros. A one-reel animation in which Joe E. Brown is caricatured as the play-by-play announcer for a baseball game between the Battling Bruisers and Buddy’s Bearcats.
1934 Death on the Diamond (Primary) Directed by Edward Sedgewick. Written by Cortland Fitzsimmons and Joseph Sherman. Produced by Lucian Hubbard/MGM. Starring Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Ted Healy, and C. Henry Gordon. Pop Clark is about to lose his baseball team, unless they can win the pennant so he can pay off debts. He hires ace player Larry Kelly to ensure the victory. As well as rival teams, mobsters are trying to prevent the wins, and as the pennant race nears the end, Pop's star players begin to be killed, on and off the field. The plot traces Larry’s romance to Pop's daughter and his desire to win enough games, all-the-while trying to stop a murderer.
1934
Dizzy and Daffy (Primary)
Produced by Warner Bros. Starring Jerome Dean, Paul Dean and Shemp Howard. A
two-reel comedy features a game between the Farmer White Sox and the Shanty Town
No Sox. Dizzy and Daffy graduate to play for the St. Louis Cardinals who beat
the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. Visual humor abounds, such as a pitch so
fast it deflates the umpire’s chest protector, or so fast that it burns the
catcher’s glove.
1934 I’ll Fix It (Secondary) Directed by Roy William Neill. Written by Ethel Hill and Dorothy Howell. Produced by Columbia Pictures. Starring Jack Holt, Mona Barrie, Jimmy Butler, Winnie Lightner, and Edward Brophy. Jack Holt as the town boss has a younger brother who is captain of the school baseball team. He is disqualified from playing because his academics are not up to snuff and Holt tries to use his influence to get him back on the team.
1935 Alibi Ike (Primary)
Directed by Ray Enright. Written by William Wister Haines. Produced by Edward
Chodorov/Warner Bros. Starring Joe E. Brown, Olivia de Havilland, Ruth Donnelly,
Roscoe Harris, and William Frawley. A
version of Fast Company (1929). A Ring
Lardner story was the basis of this comedy about Francis X. Farrell, a.k.a.
Alibi Ike, who tells tall tales to make excuses. Another story of a ballplayer
accused of cheating, getting involved with the bad guys and miraculously
extricating himself.
1935 Donkey Baseball (Primary) Directed by John Waters. Produced by MGM. This mini-documentary chronicles the 1930’s trend to play baseball while riding donkeys.
1935
Night At The Opera, A (Secondary) Directed by Sam Wood. Written by James
Kevin McGuiness and George Kauffman. Produced by Miguel Necoechea and Irving
Thalberg/MGM. Starring Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, and
Allan Jones. The Marx Brothers
challenge high society. Two lovers in the opera are prevented from being
together by the man's lack of acceptance as an operatic tenor. Pulling several
typical Marx Brothers' stunts, they arrange for the normal tenor to be absent so
that the young lover can get his chance. In one scene, an orchestra is playing
an overture, but the Marx brothers slip in the music to “Take Me Out To The
Ballgame.” When the orchestra begins to play the song, the brothers break into
a game of catch over the heads of the orchestra. Harpo uses a violin as a bat,
Groucho sells peanuts and Chico pitches.
1935 One Run Elmer (Primary) Directed by Buster Keaton. Written by Glen Lambert. Produced by Educational Pictures. Starring Buster Keaton and Lona Andre. A 20 minute short showcasing Buster Keaton playing a gas station owner/baseball player. Although this is a sound picture, most of the humor is sight gags. For example, the catcher places gum on Keaton’s bat and the ball sticks to the bat. But predictably, Elmer hits the winning homer in the ninth.
1935 Swell-Head, The (Primary) Directed by Ben Stoloff. Written by William Jacobs. Produced by Columbia Pictures. Starring Wallace Ford, Dickie Moore, and Barbara Kent. A conceited ballplayer, Terry (Ford), is brought back to reality by a fastball hitting him in the head causing blindness. Eventually he regains his sight and his girl.
1936 Adventures of Frank Merriwell, The (Secondary) Directed by Lew Landers and Clifford Smith. Written by Basil Dickey and Maurice Geraghty. Produced by Henry Macrae/MCA Universal Pictures. Starring Donald Briggs, Jean Rogers, John “Dusty” King, Ben Hewlett, and House Peters. A 12-episode serial in which scholastic sports star Frank Merriwell leaves school to search for his missing father. His adventures involve a mysterious inscription on a ring, buried treasure, kidnapping and Indian raids. He saves his father and returns to school just in time to win a decisive baseball game with his remarkable pitching and hitting.
1936 Black Legion (Tertiary) Directed by Archie Mayo. Written by Robert Lord. Produced by Robert Lord and Hal B. Willis/Vitagraph/Warner Bros. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Erin O’Brien Moore, Ann Sheridan, and Helen Flint. Frank Taylor joins the "pro-American" Black Legion when he loses his chance at a foreman’s job to a foreign-born man. The organization is a sort of Ku Klux Klan in the industrial sphere. Frank has troubles with his wife over this and causes serious trouble when he tells all to his best friend Ed Jackson. Buddy Taylor, Frank’s son, in contrast to his father, is portrayed as a baseball loving all-American boy.
1936 Boulevardier From The Bronx (Primary) Directed by Fritz Freleng. Produced by Warner Bros. An animated short. The Chicago Giants, led by rooster pitcher Dizzy Dan, are playing the Hicksville team. Dan arrives in Hicksville and sings the title song while eyeing local pitcher’s girl. Showboat Dan throws two strikes so hard his catcher is thrown backwards; the turtle catcher uses a stovepipe to send the third strike back to Dan. A Giant batter hits the ball; the Hicksville pitcher loses it in a hailstorm of balls. The Giant batter, a weiner dog, manages to touch two bases at once, thus stretching his hit into a homer. Dan, showboating, lets two strikes go by, then when he hits, preens a while before running, but he still makes his run. Bottom of the ninth, 3-0, 2 outs, Hicksville pitcher Claude at bat. Arrogantly, Dan has walked three batters just to get to him, so bases are loaded. After missing a fast ball and a slow ball, Claude hits his grand-slam homer and keeps his girl, laughing in Dan's face (Jon Reeves).
1936 Softball Game (Primary) Directed and produced by Walter Lantz/Universal Pictures. A one-reel “Oswald the Rabbit” animation.
1937 Home Run on the Keys (Primary) Produced by Vitaphone/Warner Bros. Starring Babe Ruth. A musical short starring Babe Ruth as himself and Zez Confrey as himself (who is also credited with the music). Features the Babe as a house guest recounting his great baseball moments.
1937 Girls Can Play (Primary) Directed by Lambert Hillyer. Written by Albert DeMond and Lambert Hillyer. Produced by Irving Briskin and Ralph Cohn/Columbia Pictures. Starring Julie Bishop, Charles Quigley, Rita Hayworth, John Gallaudet, and Patricia Farr. A comedy short that tells the story of a drugstore owner (Gallaudet), who organizes a women’s softball team as a front for selling liquor. Gallaudet murders Hayworth because she knew too much. Amid the softball action, the reporter (Quigley) unravels the crime.
1937 Gracie at the Bat (Primary) (a.k.a. Slide, Nellie, Slide) Directed by Del Lord. Produced by Columbia Pictures. Starring Andy Clyde, Vernon Dent, Ann Doran, Eddie Fetherston, and Bess Flowers. A women’s softball team being coached by “Pop,” a former ballplayer, who has to contend with players more concerned with their make-up and romances than playing ball. Gracie, however, is both a pitcher who throws smoke and a hitter who slugs the winning home run in the crucial game. The working title of Slide, Nellie, Slide is derived from the 1844 song Slide, Kelly, Slide.
1937 Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (Tertiary) Directed by Charles Reisner. Written by Harry Sauber. Produced by Charles Reisner/Republic Pictures. Starring Phil Regan, Leo Carrillo, Ann Dvorak, Tamara Geva, James Gleason and Joe DiMaggio. In one scene DiMaggio auditions as a singer who is comedically off-key. When asked if he’s a tenor or a bass, DiMaggio replies that he plays center field (Edelman). Joe DiMaggio delivers a humorous lecture on baseball with the aid of newsreel clips (Mote).
1937 Play Ball (Primary) An animated short directed by Frank Moser. Produced by Terrytoon/Educational Film Exchanges. This has the same title and credits as the 1932 version. There are, however, two distinct release dates.
1937 Twisker
Pitcher, The (Primary)
Directed by Dave Fleischer. Produced by Fleischer Studios/Paramount Pictures. A
Popeye baseball cartoon. Bluto's Bears play Popeye's Pirates, and both Bluto and
Popeye have girlfriends cheering them on. As they take the field, Popeye drops
his spinach. Bluto eats it and then refills the can with grass. Popeye's team,
with Popeye batting first, strikes out. Bluto's team, with Bluto batting fourth,
gets three singles; Popeye eats his "spinach" (to no avail, of
course), and Bluto gets a grand slam homer. Last inning: Bluto's team leads
21-0, Popeye at bat. Bluto's first pitch turns invisible. The second pitch
hovers just before the plate. The third pitch turns all kinds of loops at the
plate; Popeye has struck out. For some reason, Popeye then takes the mound.
After another hit, Popeye plants some spinach seeds, and eats the quick-growing
plant. He then throws two quick strikes (which he catches himself), then
catching the hit ball himself, and so on, forcind an extra inning and winning
the game 22-21. (Jon Reeves)
1938 Brother Rat (Secondary) Directed by William Keighley. Written by Fred Finklehoffe and Rich Macauley. Produced by George Abbott and Robert Lord/First National Pictures/Warner Bros. Starring Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, Johnnie Davis, Jan Bryan, Eddie Albert, and Ronald Reagan. The story of three buddies at the Virginia Military Institute. Eddie Albert (in his screen debut) is VMI’s star pitcher. In an opening scene he is seen pitching to his roommate and catcher (Reagan). In the championship game againt the Cavaliers, Bing Edwards (Albert) who is secretly married, is distracted when he learns he is to be a father. He loads the bases, gives up a grand slam and is hit in the head by a grounder.
1938 Opening Day (Secondary) Directed by Roy Rowland. Produced by MGM. Starring Robert Benchley, Harland Briggs, and John Butler. Because the mayor of Sneeversport is in Italy, the city treasurer Benchley is called upon to throw out the ball for the first baseball game at the new Sneeversport Municipal Park. He delivers a speech that shows he knows very little about baseball.
1938 Rawhide
(Tertiary) Directed by Ray Taylor. Written by Daniel Jarret and Jack Natteford.
Produced by Sol Lesser/Principal Productions/20th Century Fox.
Starring Smith Ballew, Lou Gehrig, Evalyn Knapp, Arthur Loft, and Cy Kendall.
Baseball superstar Gehrig is one of several ranchers being coerced by a
bunch of bandits. His sister and her lawyer/lover organize the ranchers.
Saunders, with his Cattlemen's Protective Agency is running roughshod
over the ranchers. Lawyer Larry Kimball is fighting him, but needs a rancher who
will stand up with him against Saunders. He finds him when Lou Gehrig retires
from baseball to take up ranching. Lou expects to relax on his ranch, but
quickly joins Larry in the fight.
1939 Barnyard Baseball (Primary) Directed by Mannie Davis and Connie Rasinski. Produced by 20th Century Fox/Terrytoon. A one-reel animated short.
1939 Hollywood Hobbies (Secondary) Directed by George Sidney. Written by Morley Amsterdam. Produced by MGM. In this ten minute short, two out-of-towners take an automobile tour of Hollywood to see the private lives of some celebrities. They (and we) see Reginald Denny at his model airplane factory; Clark Cable at his farm; and Robert Young, Allan Jones and Irene Hervey at their horse stables. The visit ends at a celebrity baseball game, where they see the proverbial "galaxy of stars." (David Glagovsky)
1940 Brother Rat and a Baby (Secondary) Directed by Ray Enright. Written by Earl Baldwin and Fred Finklehoffe. Produced by Robert Lord and Hal B. Willis/First National Pictures/Warner Bros. Starring Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, Jane Bryan, Eddie Albert, and Jane Wyman. Eddie Albert’s second outing as Bing Edwards. He plays a high school coach who is a finalist for the Virginia Military Institute varsity baseball coaching position. This film was remade in 1952 as the musical About Face.
1940 Foul Ball Player, The (Primary) Directed by David Fleisher. Produced by Max Fleisher/Paramount Pictures. A one-reel animation.
1940 Great McGinty, The (Tertiary) Directed and written by Preston Sturges. Produced by Paul Jones/Paramount Pictures. Starring Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angeles, Akim Tamiroff, William Demarest, and Allyn Joslyn. Preston Sturges’ comedy about politics has a one-minute and forty-six second scene where Brian Donlevy, as mayor, uses references to going to a ballgame and a photograph of a baseball crowd to shake down a bribe from a bus line owner.
1940 Heckler, The (Primary) Directed by Del Lord. Written by John Grey. Produced by Charley Chase and Hugh McCollum/Columbia Pictures. Starring Charley Chase, Bruce Bennett, Richard Fiske, Stanley Brown, and Don Beddoe. A comedy short about a rude fan who is so disruptive that he throws the Green Sox star player, Ole Margarine, off his game during the World Series. The heckler is so effective that gamblers encourage him and bet accordingly. Ole Margarine and his manager sneak into the heckler’s bedroom and put ice on his chest. The next morning the heckler is too hoarse to heckle and Ole belts a home run. Derived from The Loud Mouth (1932).
1940 Knute Rockne, All American (Tertiary) Directed by Lloyd Bacon. Written by Robert Buckner. Produced by Robert Fellows/Warner Bros. Starring Pat O’Brien, Gale Page, Ronald Reagan, Donald Crisp, and Albert Basserman. Reagan, portraying George Gipp, is shown pounding a baseball in his glove, when O’Brien, portraying Rockne, approaches him and tries to persuade Gipp to come out for football (after seeing Gipp punt a ball beyond the trees). Gipp reluctantly agrees, though he professes that baseball is his preference.
1940 One Night in the Tropics (Secondary/Tertiary) Directed by A. Edward Sutherland. Written by Earl Derr Biggers and Kathryn Scola. Produced by Leonard Spigelgass/Universal Pictures. Starring Allan Jones, Nancy Kelly, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, and Robert Cummings. The music is by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, and the comedy is provided by a cast that includes Bud Abbott and Lou Costello performing a short version of their “Who’s on First?” routine for the first time in a Hollywood movie. The complete “Who’s on First?” routine is performed in The Naughty Nineties (1945).
1940 Porky’s Baseball Broadcast (Primary) Directed by Friz Freleng. Written by Ben Hardaway. Produced by Leon Schlesinger Studios/Warner Bros. This animated short is about the Giants vs. the Red Sox in the final game of the World Series, and Porky's doing play-by-play for the radio audience. The umpire is blind; the bat boy is, literally, a bat, and the catcher's a fast-talking turtle. The Giants pitcher is literally a giant. And, of course, as with any New York-Boston matchup, the Giants win.
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