Tag Archives: 1950s

Brooklyn Dodgers Begin 1955 With A Long Winning Streak

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Dodgers Shortstop Pee Wee Reese Counts Down The Wins To A Perfect Season

Brooklyn, NY – The undefeated Brooklyn Dodgers tonight equaled the Major League record of nine consecutive games won at the start of a season, by defeating Philadelphia 3 to 2. The only remaining member of the 1940 Dodger team which also won its first nine games of the season, captain Pee Wee Reese, prepares to draw a line through number 146 after tonight’s win. Looking on is Walt Alston. The mark was first set by the Giants in 1918 and the St. Louis Browns also won their first nine in 1944. photo: International News Photo – Herb Scharfman 4/20/1955

The Brooklyn Dodgers would go on to set a new record winning their tenth consecutive game the following day, beating Philadelphia 14-4. The Dodgers finally lost a game on April 22 to The New York Giants. Continue reading →

Baseball’s First Electronic Ball – Strike Machine – 1950

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Branch Rickey Inspects An Automatic Umpire, Electronic Ball Strike Indicator

Newest Dodger
Vero Beach, FL –  (L-R) Branch Rickey, Dodger President, Dick Shea, electronics engineer from General Electric, umpire Bill Stewart and Fresco Thompson scout for the Dodger system. They are looking over Rickey’s newest pet – a mechanical umpire that calls balls and strikes and gives speed of pitch over the plate.It is worked by means of a magic eye. It won’t replace the human umpire because it can’t operate at night. photo: Gunther-Keystone 3/15/1950

The machine pictured above was called the “cross-eyed electronic umpire.” It was claimed the machine “could call balls and strikes closer than any normally endowed arbiter.”

Always the innovator, Branch Rickey said, “I expect it to be of definite value in determining the abilities of young pitchers since the machine also will establish the velocity of a fast ball as well as to show beyond question whether the ball is in or outside the strike zone.”

But Rickey also emphasized that he machine was “not intended now or ever to replace manual umpiring in actual games.” Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #172 – Humphrey Bogart Lauren Bacall & Son Stevie

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Lauren Bacall & Son Stevie Visit Humphrey Bogart On The Set – 1951

Bogy, Baby & Boy
Humphrey Bogart’s wife, Lauren Bacall, known to the public as “Baby”, and their son Stevie, pay Bogart a visit on the set at 20th Century-Fox where he is starring in the newspaper story, “Deadline U.S.A.” Little Stevie takes an active interest in movie production, since he plans to be a movie star like his daddy when he grows up. credit: 20th Century-Fox December 27, 1951

When Humphrey Bogart made Deadline U.S.A. for 20th Century-Fox he was on loan from Warner Bros. to Fox. Maybe that is why the Fox publicity department did not care if they spelled Bogart’s nickname, “Bogey” correctly or not. In September of 1953 Bogart finally ended his long association with Warner Bros. having previously formed his own production company, Santana Productions to make independent productions including six films with Columbia Pictures between 1949 – 1951.

Steohen Humphrey Bogart (born January 6, 1949) did not follow in his father’s footsteps. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #170 – Marilyn Monroe Prepares For Monkey Business

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Marilyn Monroe “Neighborhood Champion” Laces Up Roller Skates For Monkey Business

Hollywood press hoopla at work here.

This is the improbable news slug originally accompanying this publicity photograph: Continue reading →

When Coffee Jumped From 10 Cents To 15 Cents A Cup

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Americans Perplexed By A 15 Cent Cup Of Coffee – 1954

Go into the supermarket and examine just about any product. You will notice shrinking packaging and products. You are getting less and paying more.

Tropicana orange juice just shrunk again – from 64 ounces to 59 ounces to 52 ounces and now 46 ounces. Coffee is sold in a pound can, but contains about 11.3 ounces of product.

In 1954 the price of coffee was rising, and the answer was not shrink the cup, but raise the price. A 50% price hike to be exact, from ten cents to fifteen cents.

Even after World War II many places still sold a nickel cup of coffee.

The original news slug reads: Continue reading →

“The Catch” By Willie Mays An Alternate View

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Willie Mays 1954 World Series Catch As Seen From Center Field

Willie Mays died June 18, 2024 at the age of 93. The accolades and remembrances will pour in over the next few days. We’ll let two photos and a video serve as a microcosm of a brilliant career that writers will try to summarize but will undoubtedly fall short.

Mays was that good.

If Willie Mays was not the all around best baseball player of all-time he certainly ranks as one of the top five.

The above view of Mays’ 1954 World Series catch was taken by United Press photographer Sid Birns.

The original news slug says: Continue reading →

Yankees Billy Martin & Browns Clint Courtney Get Into A Brawl

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Billy Martin And Clint Courtney Fight At Yankee Stadium 1952

Yankees second baseman Alfred Manuel “Billy” Martin had a tough childhood growing up in Berkeley, California. A small boy with a large nose, Billy was picked on by the other kids. Billy learned to fight back and hit hard and never back down. But it would cost Martin. He was thrown off his high school basketball and baseball teams for fighting.

Martin’s toughness carried over to the major leagues, fighting players such as Cubs pitcher Jim Brewer, Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall and others who he felt had  provoked him. Martin’s most famous fights were with Clint Courtney, a fiery scrapper and the first major league catcher to wear eyeglasses.

This photo above shows their first confrontation, as the news slug describes:

Cut-Up On The Diamond
New York: After a heated exchange of punches, Clint Courtney (right) and Billy Martin of the Yanks continue their brawl in close-quarter action as Joe Collins (41) rushes to break up the fracas. The Brownie catcher, claiming he had been tagged hard on the head, charged at Martin after being thrown out at second base on an attempted steal in the 8th inning of the July 12th game at the stadium. Courtney was ejected from the game after the fight was broken up, but Martin was allowed to remain. Yanks scored a 5-4 victory. photo: Arthur Rickerby United Press International 7-12-1952

Though it’s not mentioned in the news slug, Yankees starting pitcher Allie Reynolds knocked Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #162 – Ricardo Montalban & Audrey Totter

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Ricardo Montalban and Audrey Totter Dine At Romanoff’s – 1951

INSIDE HOLLYWOOD by Nat Dallinger (week ending July 13 1951)
Audrey Totter is an attentive listener as Ricardo Montalban related a story during a dinner at Romanoff’s, in Beverly Hills. A radio actress before embarking on a screen career, Audrey once worked as a door-to-door saleslady for a wax concern. After a highly successful career in radio, she received offers from the New York stage and Hollywood. Selecting the latter, this blue-eyed blonde has won top starring roles for herself in numerous motion pictures. Romantically she is expected to become the bride of film producer Armand Deutsch. photo: Nat Dallinger for King Features Syndicate

Nat Dallinger would capture Hollywood celebrities in candid moments for his syndicated photo column Inside Hollywood.

Audrey Totter (1917-2013) never became a Hollywood star of the first magnitude but appeared steadily in films throughout the 1940s and early 50s. Continue reading →

Ronald Reagan Talks About Getting A Pitching Lesson From Bob Lemon

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Cleveland Indians Star Bob Lemon Teaches Pitching To Ronald Reagan – 1952

Bob Lemon And Ronald Reagan Reminisce 30 Years After Making A Movie Together

Pitching For Pictures
Hollywood, Calif. – Bob Lemon, (left) star hurler of the Cleveland Indians, goes through some mound paces with actor Ronald Reagan, who’ll play the famed Grover Cleveland Alexander in a film now in production. Lemon, who also has a part in the film, was hired to give Reagan a few tips on pitching style. credit: United Press (1/28/52)

The subject has the makings of a fine dramatic movie. The Winning Team (1952) starring future President Ronald Reagan along with Doris Day is Continue reading →

The Terrible Truth – Marijuana Use Leads To Being A Junkie 1951

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73 Years Ago American Teens Were Warned About The Dangers Of Pot

In the pantheon of anti-drug films The Terrible Truth (1951), a ten minute short, holds a special place in my heart.

Not because of its low production values. Not because its message is totally alarmist. But akin to many stag films of the same period, Continue reading →