Tag Archives: 1950s

Game 1 Of The 1957 World Series Yankees vs. Braves

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Action At Second Base, Fifty Five Years Ago Today

Don’t let anyone tell you that the players of yesteryear weren’t as good as today’s players.

They were.

And they played as hard then as they do now. Considering an average player’s salary was around $15,000, the World Series provided extra lucrative income for ballplayers, many of  whom worked at regular jobs in the off season. The winning player’s share of the 1957 World Series was $8,924, the losing player’s share was $5,606.

This news photograph captures the Milwaukee Braves Wes Covington sliding hard into second base to break-up a double play. The news photo is captioned as follows:

Got One, Trying For Two

NEW YORK: New York Yankees second baseman Jerry Coleman leaps to get off the ball (lower center) to first after putting out sliding Milwaukee Braves’ Wes Covington on a force play at second in the fifth inning of the first World Series game of 1957 here at Yankee Stadium October 2nd. Bill McKinley umpires.  McDougald took Crandall’s bouncer and threw to Coleman. The Yanks missed a double play when Elston Howard dropped Coleman’s throw for an error. The Yanks took this opener, 3-1.

United Press Photo      10/2/57

The Braves would end up coming back to win the Series in seven games. Braves right-handed ace Lew Burdette won three games.

1955 World Series The Brooklyn Dodgers Win Game 3 Behind Johnny Podres

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Johnny Podres, The Birthday Boy, Wins A Critical Game 3

This news photograph’s caption reads as follows:

NEW YORK; SEPT. 30 — VICTORY ON HIS BIRTHDAY

Johnny Podres kicks, fires and follows through — with eyes on ground — during third World Series game against New York Yankees at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn today. Johnny celebrated his 23rd birthday with an 8-3 victory over the American League champs. Slender lefty thus put Dodgers back into contention for Series. (AP wirephoto)

The New York Yankees looked like they were on their way to beating their crosstown rivals the Brooklyn Dodgers once again in another World Series. The Yankees had taken the first two games of the 1955 World Series by scores of 6-5 and 4-2. Continue reading →

Billy Martin, Mickey Mantle Prepare For The 1952 World Series

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Martin, Mantle Prepare Series Strategy

60 years ago, the World Series started on the first day of October. This year the World Series will begin October 24!

Here is another one of these great baseball news photographs. This one is from UPI dated September 30 1952. The caption reads: Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #16 – Sophia Loren & Jayne Mansfield

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When Legends Meet – Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield

One of the more infamous publicity incidents in Hollywood history captured in photographs, took place on April 12, 1957 at a party held at Romanoff’s Restaurant, 240 South Rodeo Drive, to welcome Sophia Loren to Hollywood.

Loren, the Italian beauty, was sitting at a table with gossip columnist Louella Parsons and film star Clifton Webb.

Then Jayne Mansfield walked in. Continue reading →

The Dangers And Lures Of New York City In 1957

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Stay Out of the Parks At Night!

From the New York City Guide And Almanac 1957 – 1958

This vintage book is a great snapshot of New York City in the late 1950’s. I wish they would have printed this annually, but it was published for only one year by New York University Press in conjunction with The Daily News. It is 378 pages chock-full of fascinating facts and figures. The paperback version was originally 85 cents, while the hardcover version would set you back $2.75.  There are a few copies of this out of print gem for sale on abebooks.com ranging from$8.00 – $14.00. A veritable bargain.

Here is a snippet on crime from pages 197 – 198:

Traps for the Unwary

New York City is full of traps for the unwary visitor. It is doubtful if there are proportionately more crooks and criminals in New York than any other large city, but the metropolis is so large that the total is impressive. The bait generally used is greed, and the victims are most often people who regard themselves as sophisticated. Most effective traps for the unwary:

Auctioneers: Dishonest “auction stores” especially in the mid-town sections, where salesmen pretend to auction off “amazing” bargains, which often are samples of “flash goods” turned out for the carnival trade. Articles of genuine value are knocked down to stooges in the crowd, who later return them to be used again. The stranger who obtains a “bargain” is likely to find that a cheap duplicate was substituted during the process of wrapping up his purchase. He usually discovers that he has actually bought a garish gold-washed watch that will not run or an impressive pipe set made of celluloid. These shops should not be confused with operations of reputable auctioneers who preside over genuine sales which are usually advertised in honest fashion.

Confidence Men: Most of these offer money-making machines or counterfeit currency. They also offer to share rewards for well-filled pocketbooks lying on the pavement and “found” by the con man and the victim simultaneously. Continue reading →

Lou Sleater, Detroit Tigers 1957

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Getting Ready For The Game

Lou Sleater turns 86 on September 8, 2012. The St. Louis native pitched for some very bad teams such as the Browns, Senators and Athletics during a major league career which stretched intermittently from 1950 until 1958. His career record was 12-18.

In this photograph, Sleater is warming up before a game at a virtually empty Tiger Stadium in May of 1957 when he was with Detroit.

One personal highlight in his career came on May 30, 1957. Sleater pitched an inning of  Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #13 – Betty Grable & Marilyn Monroe

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Candid Photographs of Marilyn Monroe

Instead of the typical movie publicity or glamor photographs of Marilyn Monroe, we thought we’d highlight three photographs that show Marilyn in a bit of a different light.

Betty Grable and her How To Marry A Millionaire (1953) co-star Marilyn Monroe emerge from a Hollywood restaurant. Grable who was 20th Century Fox’s blond bombshell for most of the 1940’s was being “replaced” by Monroe. Grable was relieved as she was getting tired of fighting with Daryl F. Zanuck, Fox’s studio chief. Supposedly she told Marilyn privately, “Honey, I’ve had my time in the spotlight, now it’s your turn!”

Marilyn takes a break and kneels on the steps of a brownstone while filming Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch (1955).  A portion of the film was shot on location in New York City. The brownstone where the lead character, Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) lives with Marilyn subletting the apartment above him, is located at 164 East 61st Street. The building is still there, though somewhat modified.

Marilyn Monroe with a very dour looking Joe DiMaggio in Florida in 1961. Monroe was visiting DiMaggio, who was a special instructor to the New York Yankees during spring training. After their nine month marriage ended in divorce in 1954, the couple remained friends and got closer as the years passed. There were rumors that Monroe and DiMaggio were contemplating remarrying one another when Monroe passed away in 1962.

Bill Moose Skowron Dies at 81 – An Appreciation of a Kind Man

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Casey Stengel and Bill “Moose” Skowron

Bill “Moose” Skowron died today, April 27, 2012 of congestive heart failure in Arligton Heights, IL.

In this news photograph above, the caption says, “Bill Moose Skowron reports for his first day, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, September 19.”

The only problem with this is that Moose’s first game was April 13, 1954 and it was not at Comiskey Park.  And the Yankees did not play in Chicago on September 19, 1954.

So what is the answer to this problem? Continue reading →

Walter Alston Managing

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Dodgers Manager Goes Through Various Emotions – 1955

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the Los Angeles Dodgers playing at Dodgers Stadium. For the first fifteen of those years at Chavez Ravine, the manager was Walter Alston who was most notably retained by the Dodgers management on a series of one year contracts throughout his career.

Alston started managing the Dodgers in 1954 when they were still in Brooklyn and retired after the 1976 season at the age of  64. During that time Alston won seven NL pennants and four world championships.

This news composite photograph shows Alston managing on June 16, 1955 in Brooklyn against the Cincinnati Reds. Alston shouldn’t have worried so much. After the Reds tied the game 4-4 in the top of the ninth, the Dodgers won the game 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th on a Duke Snider solo homerun, his second homer of the game. Clem Labine picked up his 9th win and the attendance was 6,655.

The Brooklyn Dodgers won only one World Series while in Brooklyn.  1955 would see Alston and the Dodgers defeat the hated New York Yankees in seven thrilling World Series games, sending all of Brooklyn into a delirious state of happiness.

Walter Alston was inducted to the Baseball Hall-of Fame in 1983 and died in 1984 at the age of 72.

When Ballplayers Spent Time With The Fans

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Bobby Thomson and A Young Fan

Sure it’s just a posed publicity photo, but there was a time when ballplayers actually did interact with fans.  At the New York Giants’ spring training home in Phoenix, Arizona,  Bobby Thomson demonstrates to a little cowboy, Dennis Filan age five, the proper way to grip a baseball bat on March 6, 1953.

Thomson, who will forever occupy a spot in every Giants fans heart for hitting the most famous homerun in baseball history the  “shot heard ’round the world” in 1951, was typical of  many ballplayers before astronomical salaries became the norm for baseball.  These players spent time among the fans.

Not only that, most players worked other jobs in the off-season to make ends meet. They lived among regular people, who went to the ballgames and had daily interactions with them. In New York and many other major league cities, most players took public transportation or walked to the ballpark from their homes. The players were an integral part of the community they played in.

It’s one of the reasons baseball is so screwed up today. Continue reading →