Gary Cooper, Lou Gehrig and The Mystery of Reversing The Film

The New York Times published an article on February 9, 2013 based off of research conducted by Tom Shieber that he posted on his web site, that disputes a long held belief about the classic Lou Gehrig film, The Pride of The Yankees (1942).

Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig (note the signature on the bat)

It had been reported for many years that the filming of the baseball action scenes were for the most part printed in reverse to accommodate righty Gary Cooper, who could not convincingly portray the left-handed Lou Gehrig.

We reported how the film was reversed in a previous post. But now Shieber has seemingly proven that Cooper did most of the scenes left-handed, without a reversal of the film when it was printed.

Interestingly Gary Cooper himself said in a 1956 Saturday Evening Post print interview that he could not do the action scenes left-handed, and the film had been reversed.

After you read Shieber’s full article, which makes a lot of sense, and watch the film, will you be convinced that Cooper did most of the film left-handed? I am.