Shieber: How the office boy saw the ball game in 1906
From SABR member Tom Shieber at Baseball Research on March 17, 2013:
On August 16th, 1906, the New York Dramatic Mirror published the following short note:
The ball players of the New York and Pittsburgh teams of the National League, it is announced, will attend Thursday night’s performance on the New York Theatre Roof, occupying the boxes. A new motion picture film, called “How the Office Boy Saw the Game,” will be shown.
As it turns out, the announcement was a bit late, as the event actually took place the previous Thursday, August 9th. Just hours after the Giants topped the Pirates 6-0 in the opening game of a four-game series at the Polo Grounds, the entourage of players made their way to the magnificent theater at Broadway and 45th Street.
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There, as part of a special “Baseball Night,” the Giants and Pirates saw a one-act musical entitled “Seeing New York,” enjoyed the celebrated harmonies of Aubrey Pringle, Harry Sylvester, Poodles Jones, and Frank Morrell, better known as “THAT Quartet,” and took in a number of other vaudeville skits before viewing the short film that starred members of both clubs.
The movie, fully titled “How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game,” likely had a running time of around 13 or 14 minutes. However, all that remains today is a hodge-podge amounting to some five minutes of footage. Thankfully, the little that has been preserved is readily available on the web at fandor.com, and on a two-DVD set of selected early baseball silent movies titled “Reel Baseball.”
Read the full article here: http://baseballresearcher.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-office-boy-saw-ball-game.html
Originally published: March 18, 2013. Last Updated: March 18, 2013.