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KINO INTERNATIONAL RELEASES THE 2-DISC SET BASEBALL FILMS OF THE SILENT ERA (1899 - 1926).
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It is with great pleasure that Kino International is set to release the 2-disc collection BASEBALL FILMS OF THE SILENT ERA (1899 - 1926) for the first time on DVD. Featuring stars Babe Ruth, John McGraw, Colleen Moore, Charles Ray and Felix the Cat, this collection of early - and in many cases, extremely rare - baseball films contains two feature films and 11 shorts made between 1899 and 1926.
Set to prebook on March 6, 2007, with a SRP of $29.95, Kino's 2-disc BASEBALL FILMS OF THE SILENT ERA will be available to the general public on April 3, just in time for opening day.
Produced by baseball fanatic, and Kino International's Director of Non-Theatrical sales, Jessica Rosner, BASEBALL FILMS OF THE SILENT ERA comes with freshly mastered transfers - and newly composed scores - for all 13 films in the series. Offering a rare look into early twentieth century American lifestyles and values, this unprecedented collection also stands as a unique historical representation of baseball in the first 30 years of American cinema.
As an exclusive extra, this Kino DVD brings a 2,000-word essay written by Rob Edelman, the author of Great Baseball Films and Baseball on the Web (which Amazon.com cited as one of the Top Ten Internet books of 1998).
Headlining this 2-disc collection are newly remastered and scored versions of two important early baseball features: HEADIN' HOME (1920), spotlighting a young, shockingly svelte Babe Ruth in his first motion picture starring role. HEADIN' was produced by the New York Yankees, and has the real life rough and tumble orphan from Baltimore playing a shy small town boy devoted to his mother and sister. THE BUSHER (1919), a delightful comedy-drama featuring silent cinema star Charles Ray as another small town boy with a talent for baseball, but this time around, he is an arrogant know-it-all who gets his comeuppance when his trip to the big leagues proves less than successful.
Kino's BASEBALL DVD also contains an 18-minute excerpt from ONE TOUCH OF NATURE (1917), featuring famed New York Giants manager John J. McGraw playing himself - not as the obsessive bad-tempered perfectionist he was in real life but as a kindly man who nurtures his players.
The two western shorts, HIS LAST GAME and THE BALL PLAYER AND THE BANDIT (both from the Library of Congress Motion Picture Archive) present a fascinating look at baseball's impact throughout the United States. HIS LAST GAME features a star Indian pitcher who literally risks his life to bring his team a victory while BALL PLAYER AND THE BANDIT shows the unique use of a baseball in capturing a masked villain.
The three comedy shorts (HEARTS AND DIAMONDS, BUTTER FINGERS, and HAPPY DAYS) use baseball as the subject for inspired slapstick. The comedy ranges from the famous roly poly star John Bunny running the bases until he has to be carried across home plate in a wheel barrel to rabbits ducking in and out of the outfield.
The two "versions" of CASEY AT THE BAT have nothing in common but the title. The 1899 CASEY AT THE BAT OR THE FATE OF THE ROTTEN UMPIRE, in which players decide to beat up a bad umpire, is one the first baseball-themed movies ever made; it was shot on the lawn of Thomas Edison's West Orange New Jersey estate.
The 1922 CASEY AT THE BAT is an early experimental sound short in which famed stage actor DeWolf Hopper is filmed reciting the poem (which he had been doing since 1899) in what can only be described a most bizarre interpretation.
Here is a complete of all films (over 4 hours of footage) found on the 2-disc collection BASEBALL FILMS OF THE SILENT ERA (1899 - 1926):
DVD 1
- Headin' Home (1920)
featuring Babe Ruth - 73 Min.
- Kinogram (UNDATED)
featuring Babe Ruth - 1 Min.
- His Last Game (1909) - 12 Min.
- The Ball Player and the Bandit (1912)
featuring Harold Lockwood - 12 Min.
DVD 2
- The Busher (1919)
featuring Charles Ray, Colleen Moore, John Gilbert - 55 Min.
- Casey at the Bat or The Fate of a "Rotten" Umpire (1899) - 1 Min.
- How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game (1906) - 5 Min. (fragment)
- Hearts and Diamonds (1914)
featuring John Bunny - 33 Min.
- One Touch of Nature (1917)
featuring John McGraw - 18 Min. (excerpt)
- Felix Saves the Day (1922)
featuring Felix the Cat - 7 Min.
- Casey at the Bat (1922)
featuring DeWolf Hopper - 6 Min.
- Butter Fingers (1925)
featuring Billy Bevan - 16 Min.
- Happy Days (1926) - 14 Min.
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Produced for video by Jessica Rosner
Music composed and performed by David Drazin, David Knudtson, and Ben Model.
Film elements provided by Dennis Atkinson, Film Preservation Associates, the Larson-Casselton Collection, the Library of Congress, and Lobster Films.
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Rodrigo Brandao, Director of Publicity
Kino International
333 W. 39th St. #503
NYC, NY 10018
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