Jackson: Dem Bums, from World War II to outer space
From SABR member Frank Jackson at The Hardball Times on August 16, 2018:
The inquisitor is a burnoose-clad peddler (“razor blades…collar buttons…shoelaces”) in a souk! Improbably, he admits that he is actually a native of Brooklyn.Talk about straining credibility! All is explained at the end of the movie when he is identified as a military intelligence operative.
The scene is from A Yank in Libya, a 1942 B movie, so the characters are doubtless discussing the 1941 World Series, the one made famous by Mickey Owen’s dropped third strike. The writers could not have known that the dialogue would have remained timely after the 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953 and 1956 seasons. Only in 1955 would it have been inappropriate.
In this 2018 season, the Dodgers are wearing a uniform patch commemorating their 60th anniversary in Los Angeles. But thanks to the accessibility of old movies and television shows, the unique relationship between Brooklyn, its baseball team and popular culture is not lost.
References to the Brooklyn Dodgers occur in the most unlikely places, in old movies that take place nowhere near Brooklyn and have nothing to do with baseball–and they persist even in the post-Brooklyn era. But the golden age of such references was from Pearl Harbor through the mid-1950s.
Read the full article here: https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/dem-bums-from-world-war-ii-to-outer-space/
- Related link: Get your free e-book edition of SABR’s From Spring Training to Screen Test: Baseball Players Turned Actors
Originally published: August 17, 2018. Last Updated: August 17, 2018.