http://threestooges.net/filmography/episode/251
http://threestooges.net/albums/solos/dizzy and daffy0001.jpg

This is one my favorites. Though not technically a movie, it’s certainly a precursor to motion pictures. Now considered Major League Baseball’s national anthem “TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME” was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth (lyrics) and Albert Von Tilzer (music). This is a video recreation of the original illustrated song slide program (with some additional slide elements from the same era) that was shown to the public in 1908. The slides come from the Marnan Collection in Minneapolis, MN. Illustrated songs (predecessors of today’s music videos) were presented in vaudeville theaters and early movie houses to help sell sheet music to the public. When a new song was published 14 to 16 photographic glass slides were created utilizing actors and models who portrayed the storyline of the song’s lyrics. In the theaters a “song illustrator” stood on stage and sang the song while the sequential slides were projected on screen. A lot of sheet music was sold this way.

These days only the baseball song’s chorus is familiar to the public. This is one of the original renditions of the song recorded in 1908 by Edward Meeker, a technician working for Thomas Edison.

“Shoeless” Joe Jackson batted left-handed. In the movie, Ray Liotta batted right-handed.

It was a great movie!