Agate Type

negro leagues on film

 

Hollywood hopefuls: Bruce Petway, Jack Johnson, Sam Crawford

 

Archivists at the University of Georgia have uncovered what seems to be the earliest known footage of African Americans playing baseball, dating from 1917.  It’s not professional or even semi-professional, but rather a game between two plantation teams in rural Georgia.

There are at least a couple of examples of actual Negro league teams being filmed around this time.  As I wrote a couple of years ago, on opening day at Giants Park in St. Louis in 1919, there were plans to film a game between the St. Louis Giants and the Mexico (Mo.) Grays, a white semipro team.  Although the game was rained out, it was played the next day (May 12, 1919).  If this film was shot, it hasn’t surfaced anywhere, so far as I can tell.

But even more intriguing than the Georgia film or the possible St. Louis Giants footage is another film project that came to fruition in 1921.

In April of that year, the news emerged that former world heavyweight champion Jack Johnson had agreed to make a movie for the Kansas City-based Andlauer Film Company:

(Kansas City Star, April 3, 1921, p. 20)

Although the Andlauer Company is often said to have been black-owned, that seems not to have been the case.  Founded by William Anthony “Billy” Andlauer, a (white) movie theater manager, photographer, and filmmaker, the company would become best-known for industrial, technical, and educational films of mostly local interest.  The Jack Johnson project may well have been the studio’s only foray into black-cast films for black audiences, at least as far as I’ve seen.  It was originally called The Heart of Jack Johnson, but was later retitled As the World Rolls On.

The New York Times article above refers to the film, saying that it contained “footage of an all-black Kansas team in the background.”  In fact, As the World Rolls On featured footage of actual NNL games involving the Kansas City Monarchs, Detroit Stars, and Chicago American Giants.  The games are integrated into the plot, and Negro league players, notably Sam Crawford, Bruce Petway, and Cristóbal Torriente, had roles in the film.

As the World Rolls On was extremely ambitious, especially for a race film at the time.  A detailed plot summary appeared in the Chicago Defender (August 20, 1921, p. 7).  An “industrious youth” named Joe Walker, who is “subject to sudden heart attacks,” vies for the hand of Molly, loyal assistant to the respected physician Dr. Saunders.  His romantic rival is the vicious bully Tom Atkins, who leads a gang of hooligans and enjoys beating up on the “weaker, smaller” Joe.  During one such beatdown, the former heavyweight champ Jack Johnson just happens to be nearby, taking his two nieces for a walk and lecturing them on frontier history in front of the Cyrus E. Dallin statue The Scout, in Kansas City’s Penn Valley Park.

Johnson, hearing the disturbance, rushes to help Joe.  He easily dispatches the assailants—being Jack Johnson and all—and leaves them “all stretched out motionless on the ground, due to the whipping Johnson has given them.”  There follows a Karate Kid sequence in which Johnson takes on Joe Walker as his protégé and sparring partner.  He gets Joe to quit smoking and teaches him “physical and breathing exercises.”  In the course of all this the ex-champ “displays his powerful superhuman strength and scientific boxing ability.”  Joe, meanwhile, “becomes a healthy man and an athlete.”

And now baseball enters the picture:

“About this time the National Colored League baseball games are in progress at the ball park.  In a game between the Kansas City Monarchs and the Detroit Stars (actual scenes) Sam Crawford, captain of the Monarchs, sprains his arm and finds himself in a tight place owing to illness and injuries to his pitching staff.  He does not know how the game can be completed without a pitcher.  Accidentally glancing in one of the boxes, to his pleasant surprise he sees Joe with Molly.  Knowing Joe’s ability as an amateur pitcher, he appeals to Joe to finish the game.  Joe agrees, puts on a uniform, pitches a wonderful game and knocks a home run in the ninth inning which wins the game.

“The Elks’ lodge of which Joe is a member is so enthusiastic over Joe’s triumph that the members invite him as the honored guest to a reception given the following Sunday at the ball park.  The Chicago Giants are the Monarchs’ opponents (actual scenes).  During this reception Nelson Crews, editor of the leading Colored publication, presents the Monarch players with silver monogramed [sic] buckles and belts on behalf of the Elks.”

Nelson Crews was the editor of the Kansas City Sun; it’s actually Rube Foster’s American Giants, not Joe Green’s Chicago Giants, who appear in the film.  The plot continues with romance, conspiracy, a trial scene, gunfire, and more fighting before Joe finally vanquishes Tom and marries Molly.  Jack Johnson provides his blessing and a thousand-dollar check for the newlyweds.

A piece in the Baltimore Afro-American (December 9, 1921, p. 5) provides a little more information about the film’s baseball content:

“This picture was made by W. A. Andlauer in Kansas City early in September of this year.  Besides an all-star cast of colored actors, Johnson is supported by the famous Negro big league teams with Rube Foster and his Chicago Giants, Sam Crawford and his Kansas City Monarchs, and the Detroit Stars.”

Along with Jack Johnson,  Blanche Thompson (Molly), and Reed Thomas (Joe Walker), cast listings also include Sam Crawford, Bruce Petway, Rube Foster, and “Torrientti”—Cristóbal Torriente, touted as “the Black Babe Ruth” in one ad for the movie—all playing themselves.

We can narrow down the possibilities for which games feature in the film.  It so happens that both the Detroit Stars and the Chicago American Giants visited Kansas City only once in 1921.  The Stars played a five-game series there, starting on July 23.  The Monarchs swept the series, with Sam Crawford securing complete-game victories in the first game (a 5 to 1 win on July 23) and the last (5 to 2 on July 26).  Since the plot involves Crawford pitching, it seems like a good bet that footage was shot in one or both of those games.

The American Giants played six games in Kansas City from September 3 through September 8, taking four of them.

According to sources at the UCLA Special Collections Library, “following the film’s early showings, Andlauer added 500 feet of baseball footage and ‘made one reel all baseball and parades taking all of the shots pertaining to players and parades out of the story’ to make a one-reel supplement.  Andlauer wrote, ‘This makes the action better and we know improves the film’.”

(New York Age, September 10, 1921)

As the World Rolls On was released on September 10, 1921, and played all over the country, including New York, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Richmond, Baltimore, Louisville, Dallas, and Philadelphia, well into 1922.  Oddly enough, it was apparently never shown in Chicago, despite the appearance of Rube Foster and the American Giants.

Today, as far as I’m aware, there are no extant prints of As the World Rolls On, which is an enormous shame.  From a baseball perspective, this was an astonishing document of Negro league history, a real treasure.  What wouldn’t you give to see actual footage of these teams—not mention watch Sam Crawford, Rube Foster, or Bruce Petway act in a movie?

I was able to find one final clue that might be useful to anyone trying to track down a copy of the film.  In November 1923, Andlauer Film Productions placed an ad in the Chicago Defender trying to sell three prints of the film, along with title cards and other materials (it was a silent film, of course), for $850.

(Chicago Defender, November 24, 1923, p. 6)

UPDATE 3:26 pm  I created a separate page with the entire plot summary of As the World Rolls On from the Chicago Defender (August 20, 1921, p. 7).

habana’s american players, 1911

On November 19, 1911, six African American baseball players arrived in Havana, Cuba, to play for the newly re-organized Habana Base Ball Club.  They posed for this photograph, printed in the Havana newspaper El Mundo on November 20, 1911.

Standing, L to R: Pete Hill, John Henry Lloyd, Grant “Home Run” Johnson, Walter Ball
Seated: Bruce Petway, Cyclone Joe Williams, Bill Pettus.

Although the quality of the image above is quite poor (having been printed, microfilmed, and finally scanned), if anyone ever comes up with an actual print of this photograph, it might turn out to be quite valuable.  You’re looking at a previously unknown (or little-known) image that includes three Hall of Famers plus three other very notable Negro league players.

Of the six players, five actually appeared for Habana during the 1911-12 winter season; the sixth, Walter Ball, returned to the United States on January 16, 1912, not having pitched an inning, as far as I can tell.  Here he is, on the passenger list of the S.S. Chalmette, bound for New Orleans:

bruce petway, DH

On July 26, 1913, in a game between the Chicago American Giants and the Cuban Stars in Detroit’s Mack Park, Bruce Petway pinch-hit for starting pitcher Rube Foster in the seventh inning.  Dicta Johnson entered to pitch in the eighth—and when the number 9 spot in the lineup came up again in the bottom of the ninth, out came Petway again, this time hitting for Johnson.  Petway singled both times, though his efforts came in vain as the American Giants lost 8 to 5.

The phenomenon of “courtesy runners” in the major leagues as late as the 1950s is well-known, and I’ve seen a number of Negro league examples, too.  But I don’t think I’ve heard about too many “courtesy hitters,” at least before 1973.

(Detroit Free Press, July 27, 1913, p. 18)

the first african american players on baseball cards

Nit-picking time.  This fine article about the lefthanded pitcher Jimmy Claxton, the mixed-race native of British Columbia who managed to sneak across the color line briefly with the Oakland Oaks in 1916 by passing as Indian, says that Claxton was the “first black man on a baseball card” (a claim echoed in the B-R Bullpen).  Tom Hawthorn’s brief SABR biography of Claxton calls him “the first African-American baseball player to be depicted on a baseball card.”  Claxton’s brief time with the Oaks coincided with the Zeenut candy company’s schedule for putting together its PCL card set that spring, and so he wound up on this now (relatively) famous card:




But I think this claim ought to be adjusted to read, “first African-American player on an American baseball card.”  Because the first black men on baseball cards were in the Cabañas card set of 1909, printed in Cuba to commemorate the Detroit Tigers’ visit to Havana that fall, and two of them were Americans: Pete Hill and Bruce Petway.

Then a year later Punch Cigarros put out a set of cards that included, in addition to the many players of Afro-Cuban heritage, Hill and Petway again, along with John Henry Lloyd and possibly Grant Johnson (though this last one is unconfirmed; evidently no examples have been found).

 
All these predate the Zeenut Claxton card, though that still gets priority among American baseball cards.

Also, check out my friend Gary Cieradkowski’s Jimmy Claxton card.  And, of course, our amazing Pete Hill Card Set!

the wrong philadelphia giants

I recently ran across this photo, supposedly of the 1906 Philadelphia Giants, which was auctioned off back in 2006:


Here’s the conclusion of the catalog description:

“As for the detailing of the pictured elements, we identify [white sportswriter and Giants owner Walter] Schlichter, and Sol White likely sits to his immediate left. Rube Foster, we believe is the tallest player standing in the back row. The caption, ‘Season 1906’, was not applied to this print but, instead, to the original. This photo is a splendid rendering of a highly successful independent, Black baseball team that only anticipated the coming of the Negro Leagues - and one showcasing the Hall of Famer, Rube Foster, at the peak of his playing career.”

Despite the authoritative prose, nearly everything said here is completely wrong.  True, it is the Philadelphia Giants, and that is Schlichter at the center of the photo.  But neither Rube Foster nor Sol White is in the photo, which is readily apparent if you’ve ever seen any photos of them.  Another star of the ’06 Giants, Pete Hill, is missing, too. 

It’s not, however, a photo of complete nobodies.  Standing at the far right is Danny McClellan, who played with the Giants through the 1910 season.  Standing at the far left is Spottswood Poles, which tells us something.  Poles joined the Philadelphia Giants in mid-season 1909, and played the 1910 season with the club, before jumping to the Lincoln Giants in 1911.  So we’ve narrowed down the possible years to 1909 and 1910, when McClellan and Poles were on the Philadelphia Giants.

As it happens, I’ve located another photograph that shows a Giants team of a very similar vintage, this time with most of the players identified.

Poles and McClellan are seated to the right of Schlichter.  Standing second from left is Bill “Bonehead” Pierce, who played for the Philadelphia Giants only in 1910.  Next to him, standing in the center, is Jesse Barber, who played with the Giants in 1909 and 1910 before defecting to the American Giants in 1911.  Next is Lee Wade and then Fisher (no first name known), both of whom pitched for the Giants in 1909 and 1910 only.

I can’t match everybody in the two photos for certain, with the exception of Schlichter, Poles,  McClellan, Fisher (standing second from left in the first photo), and the two guys in front, who I believe are the same in both pictures: on the left Bill Francis and on the right William “Knucks” James, both of whom left the Giants after the 1910 season.

But there are a couple of interesting differences I’ve left for last.  Consider first the guy sitting to the left of Schlichter in the original photo. 

I believe he’s Bruce Petway:

Petway played for the Philadelphia Giants in 1908 and 1909.

Next consider the guy standing second from right (between the false Rube Foster and Danny McClellan).

Look anything like this guy?

 

The regular shortstop on the 1909 Philadelphia Giants was none other than John Henry Lloyd.  In 1910 he was signed away by Rube Foster for his Leland Giants, and I don’t believe he is in the second photo.

So my conclusion is that the original photo above was mistakenly identified as the 1906 Philadelphia Giants.  In fact, it’s really the 1909 Philadelphia Giants.  The second photo, meanwhile, shows the 1910 Giants (note that Knucks James is still wearing his uniform from the previous year).

The first photo absolutely does not include Rube Foster, who was touted by the seller as the photograph’s main selling feature, or Sol White, who at the time of the auction (October 19, 2006) had been Foster’s companion in the Hall of Fame for only a few months.  But the photo does show the Hall of Famer John Henry Lloyd, plus noted players Spot Poles and Bruce Petway. So maybe it was worth the price it went for.

Incidentally, here are the actual 1906 Philadelphia Giants, from their manager Sol White’s book:

 

UPDATE 1/13/2013 Bill Mullins has found the 1909 Philadelphia Giants photo published in the New York Press (September 12, 1909), with a caption identifying all the players.