Celebrating Baseball Heroes of the Past

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Stan Musial’s 3,000th hit at Wrigley Field and Babe Ruth’s first spring training with the Boston Braves are among the historic news clips Block Cinema will screen this summer during a special event on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus.

The footage will be screened during “Rare Baseball Films: The Newsreels,” presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 27 by the University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at 40 Arts Circle Drive.

The two-hour program will include commentary organized and hosted by David Filipi, film and video curator at Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts. Filipi will introduce each selection of newsreel clips, which he culled from a large selection of footage from the Hearst Metrotone News Collection at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Special thanks goes to Todd Wiener and Steven Hill of the UCLA Film and Television Archive for their assistance with the program.

For the eighth consecutive year, Chicago-area baseball fans will have a chance to view footage of some of baseball’s greatest heroes. The clips will include Sandy Koufax’s retirement press conference, Jackie Robinson relaxing at home with his family, Joe Dimaggio discussing baseball abroad, a promotion featuring Hollywood film and television actress June Allyson at Comiskey Park, and more.

“Before television became a fixture in people’s homes, theatrical newsreels, which were shown before every feature film in neighborhood movie theaters, were one of the few ways for fans to actually see players from around the country in action,” Filipi said.

Admission is $6 for the general public; and $4 for Block Museum members, Northwestern University faculty, staff and students with valid WildCARD ID, students from other schools with valid college or university ID and seniors 65 years and older.