Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of


One of my favorite films is The Maltese Falcon. I must have seen the film noir classic at least 50 times, and each time it's a thoroughly enjoyable experience. And, like going to a ballgame, I see something new, something I haven't seen before, each time I watch.

So why am I discussing The Maltese Falcon on the Baseball Researcher Blog? What does The Maltese Falcon have to do with baseball?

Well, nothing much ... except for one scene that poses an interesting challenge to the baseball picture researcher. The scene occurs nearly halfway through the film and goes like this:

Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) enters the Hotel Belvedere in order to talk with Joel Cairo. He stops at the lobby desk and attempts to ring Cairo.



While on the phone, Spade notices Wilmer Cook (played by Elisha Cook, Jr.), the "gunsel" that has been tailing him, sitting in the lobby and reading (or pretending to read) a newspaper.



Spade walks over, stares at Cook, sits in a chair next to the young thug and coolly partakes in a bit of verbal sparring:

Spade: Where is he?
Cook: What?
Spade: Where is he?
Cook: Who?
Spade: Cairo.

[Where are Abbott and Costello when you need them?]

Cook: What do you think you're doing, Jack? Kidding me?
Spade: I'll tell you when I am. New York, aren't you?
Cook: Shove off.
Spade: You're gonna have to talk to me before you're through, sonny. Some of you will. And you can tell the fat man I said so.
Cook: Keep askin' for it and you're gonna get it ... plenty. I told you to shove off. Shove off.
Spade:
People lose teeth talkin' like that. If you wanna hang around, you'll be polite.


At this point, Spade gets the attention of Luke, the house detective. After exchanging hellos, Spade calls Luke's attention to Cook.

Spade: What do you let these cheap gunmen hang around the lobby for, with their heaters bulging in their clothes?
Luke [to Cook]: What do you want here? Well, if you don't want anything, beat it and don't come back!
Cook: I won't forget you guys.

And with that, Cook exits.

So, where's the baseball? Well, take another look at the newspaper held by Wilmer:



And here's a close-up of the paper:



There's the baseball ... smack dab in the middle of the paper is a picture of a catcher making a play at home.

And the mystery? Who's the catcher? What's the situation? Where and when was the photo taken? It's a great challenge that was originally posed back in 2001 by baseball historian Jules Tygiel on SABR-L , the listserve for the Society for American Baseball Research:

A friend has posed a somewhat esoteric but intriguing question. Most of you will want to pass on this one, but I know that there are a few movie buffs out there. In the Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) walks into a San Francisco hotel. Wilmer the gunsel (Elisha Cook, Jr.) is sitting there, face obscured by an open newspaper. On the back page of the newspaper is a picture of a catcher. Who is the catcher?

No guesses please. Has anyone ever freeze framed the movie and figured this out?

I thought I'd give it a try.

Unfortunately, the quality of the images I have been able to track down (capturing frames off DVD, Blue-ray, and reviewing publicity stills) is not good enough to make out the catcher, the sliding runner, or much else about the photo. The research will have to focus on other clues and I figured the best angle of attack would be to identify the exact issue of the newspaper, track down a copy and simply read the caption for the photo. But before proceeding further, we first need address the possibility that the paper is a manufactured prop.

Actually, fake newspapers show up here and there throughout the film. For example, early in the movie, when Spade gets the late night call telling him that his partner Miles Archer has been killed, the camera lingers not on the sleepy detective, but on the night table where his tobacco pouch and ashtray lay atop a newspaper.



Careful examination of the paper reveals it is a racing form, with the words "Yankee Do—" in a prominent headline, the last word cut off at the fold. I suspect this is supposed to be the name of a horse, likely "Yankee Doodle," a rather uninspired name for a fictional mount. (While it is not stated directly in the movie, Spade is a bit of a racing aficionado, as he has pictures of thoroughbreds scattered about his apartment.) The paper was almost assuredly created for the movie.

Another newspaper figures prominently in a later scene, with the front page taking over the full screen:



As one might guess, there never was a "San Francisco Post-Dispatch." The paper and its important headlines were obviously manufactured in order to further the plot.

In the scene in which Spade awakens after being drugged, he pulls himself together and proceeds to turn Casper Gutman's hotel room upside down, looking for clues. He happens upon a newspaper in which the name of a ship (the La Paloma) has been circled.



Bogart is likely holding a real newspaper (above), but the paper used in the close-up (below) showing the shipping news is a fake:



And when Captain Jacobi (played by director John Huston's father, Walter) stumbles into Spade's office with the Falcon, it is bundled in yet another newspaper ... this one in Chinese (the La Paloma had just arrived from Hong Kong).



Whether or not this is a real paper (or papers?) is unknown. (Bonus points if anyone can decipher anything about this paper.)

But, what of Wilmer Cook's paper? Is it, like the others, a manufactured prop? Well, it's not easy, but the careful eye can make out a few headlines.

Most prominent, at the top left is a headline that reads "SEALS OPEN SERIES WITH STARS TONIGHT" with an impossible to read byline. Below the photo of the catcher are headlines for two separate stories. The one at far right reads "OAKS OPEN L.A. SERIES TONIGHT" and the other "PEARSON AND BALASKI TOP HOLLYPARK RIDERS." Another headline that runs over the fold at the bottom-right reads, in part, "DiMag—" and near the very bottom there appears to be a headline starting with the words "FIGURE SKATING." Finally, at the upper right of the folded paper there appears to be a headline that reads (in part) "NICK WILLIAMS," with an accompanying photo.

Obviously we're seeing the sports section, but the headlines are so specific that it simply cannot be a manufactured piece. So, can we determine the date and name of the paper?

The Maltese Falcon was released in October of 1941, but shooting took place in Hollywood during the summer of '41. In fact, the entire film was shot in just about six weeks, starting in early June and ending in mid-July. Thus, the paper must have been printed no later than mid-July of 1941.

I decided to run through the headlines as clues, seeing if any could help nail the date of the paper.

There are two headlines referring to openings of series. Both refer to clubs in the Pacific Coast League (PCL), the top one referring to the San Francisco Seals and Hollywood Stars, while the lower headline calls out the Oakland Oaks and Los Angeles Angels. Conveniently, both stories feature Bay Area clubs, which is important for continuity as the movie is set in San Francisco. But if we assume that the paper is from 1941, when did those teams meet?

I tracked down a 1941 PCL schedule and quickly two dates emerged as the only possibilities. The Oaks and Angels faced each other in series openers on Tuesday, June 3 (at L.A.) and Tuesday, July 1 (at Oakland). Those dates also match when the Stars played the Seals: June 3 (at Hollywood) and July 1 (at San Francisco). The same pairs of clubs also met for two series in August, but those occurred after shooting was completed, so they are not possibilities for the date of the paper.

So, quickly I was able to narrow down the date of the paper to either June 3 or July 1, 1941.

What of the clue that both series opened at night? Perhaps that would isolate one of the two remaining dates. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, series openers at that time in the PCL always started on Tuesday nights, so we make no headway there.

The headline that reads "PEARSON AND BALASKI TOP HOLLYPARK RIDERS" seems promising. Billy Pearson and Lester Balaski were both jockeys at Hollywood Park (often shortened to "Hollypark" to save headline space). Pearson was an apprentice jockey at the time, while Balaski had been riding since the mid-1930s. Perhaps their positions atop the jockey standings would determine the correct date for the newspaper.

The Los Angeles Times generally published the jockey standings on Mondays, so I checked both the June 2 and June 30 issues to see who were the top riders. Alas, both Pearson and Balaski were one-two on both occasions! This nicely corroborated the two dates I had already determined, but (once again) failed to eliminate either.

Thankfully, the "NICK WILLIAMS" headline managed to do the trick. Richard Lloyd "Nick" Williams was a former minor league ballplayer and scout. But he was best known as manager of the San Francisco Seals in the late 1920s and early '30s. His clubs featured future Hall of Famers such as Paul Waner, Earl Averill and Lefty Gomez, along with star players like Frankie Crosetti, Dolph Camilli, and Lefty O'Doul. But more importantly for my research, Williams passed away on June 2, 1941. The headline was for his obituary that ran the next day, June 3, 1941: the date of the paper held by Wilmer!

Now that the date of the paper was settled, I needed to determine what paper it was. My first guess was that it was a Los Angeles-based paper, since it seemed more likely that a real paper used as a simple prop would most likely be obtained near the studio. Furthermore, the headline related to Hollypark seemed to point in the direction of a paper from Southern California. I contacted SABR member Bob Timmerman, Senior Librarian at the Los Angeles Library, and briefed him on the project. He graciously checked numerous Hollywood and LA-based papers from June 3, 1941, but couldn't find a match.

Then I noticed a subtle clue that had earlier eluded me. Above the headline that reads "SEALS OPEN SERIES WITH STARS TONIGHT" there is a smaller lead headline. It is difficult to discern, but it reads: "IN THE LAND OF MAKE BELIEVE." Since the date of the paper is June 3, we know that the Seals are playing the Stars in Hollywood (not in San Francisco, which would have been the case if the paper had been from July 1). Hollywood is "the land of make believe." But it didn't seem likely that an LA-based paper would refer to Hollywood as "the land of make believe." That would be a title that a paper from a different locale would use. Perhaps this paper wasn't from LA after all? My thoughts turned north ... to San Francisco.

Like Los Angeles, San Francisco boasted numerous newspapers in 1941, but I hoped that a match would surface in one of the two biggest: The Chronicle or The Examiner. I managed to obtain a copy of the sports page from a June 3, 1941 issue of the San Francisco Examiner by way of a kind librarian at York College, but it definitely did not look like Wilmer's paper.

Now my hopes were pinned on The Chronicle. While microfilm of the newspaper can be found at many libraries, I managed to make a connection with Ted Smith, librarian at the University of Oregon, and he agreed to take a look. Initially, the report wasn't good. The page didn't match that seen in the movie still. But upon further review, something interesting was revealed. A pair of headlines in The Chronicle of June 3 were identical to those in our mystery paper: "SEALS OPEN SERIES WITH STARS TONIGHT" and "OAKS OPEN L.A. SERIES TONIGHT." Furthermore, the Stars story had a byline: "by BOB STEVENS."

Bob Stevens had covered baseball in the Bay Area since the mid-1930s and was The Chronicle's beat writer for the Seals for 17 years. He then covered the Giants from their first year following their move out from New York until 1978. While the byline under the Seals headline in the mystery paper is impossible to read, it matches the length of the words "By BOB STEVENS." The matchup of headlines and bylines couldn't be a coincidence ... it had to be The San Francisco Chronicle. But the rest of the page didn't jibe. How could this be?

In fact, there was another problem with the June 3, 1941 date altogether. Basically every paper I could track down from that day featured columns upon columns of coverage of a major sports story: the death of Lou Gehrig. How could it be that Wilmer was holding a sports page from June 3, yet there is apparently not a word of Gehrig's demise?

It seems to me there is only one possible resolution. As was generally the case at the time, The Chronicle published numerous issues of their paper throughout the day. Perhaps the early morning edition had already gone to press before news of Gehrig's death had made it to the paper's offices. After the big news hit The Chronicle, they rearranged the paper, cut various stories (Balaski and Pearson, figure skating, and our mystery catcher), and added in the news about Gehrig. The edition that Wilmer is holding had to be that early morning edition, while the edition on microfilm at the University of Oregon, was from later in the day.

And so, I am left searching for an early morning, June 3, 1941 edition of The San Francisco Chronicle, in hopes that my theory is correct and the mysterious catcher can be identified. Ironically, I'm left in much the same position as Casper Gutman and Joel Cairo at the end of The Maltese Falcon, having come so close to finding the Falcon, yet so far. Like them, I'll not give up. I'll track that paper down someday, somehow. But, until then, the mystery will remain "the stuff that dreams are made of."

11 comments:

  1. I have to say, Tom, that I'm a little disappointed that the headline "Seals Open Series With Stars Tonight" wouldn't lead you to San Francisco earlier on. The Seals are pretty clearly the subject of the headline, which would most likely be the case in the local paper.

    There's a shot of the other side of Cook's horizontal fold when Spade first sees him across the room. You can't really make out any text, but it's clearly the other half of the photo with the catcher along with a portrait shot of some guy in a suit. I'm going to pull that shot and see if I can make out anything else. Don't know if this is helpful at all.

    Nice job, though. Spade would be proud.

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  2. An excellent read, sir.

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    1. Best if read in a Sydney Greenstreet voice.

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  3. Nick Williams is the biggest clue here because it can pinpoint the date of the paper.

    According to Baseball-Reference.com, Williams was the skipper of the SF Seals from 1926-31 and won 2 PCL Crowns, so his death on Monday June 2, 1941 would have been newsworthy in San Fran. Considering the other headlines note the Seals opening a series "tonight" and the Oaks opening a series, I assume this is the evening addition of the Monday paper.

    This section of the sports section looks dedicated to local minor league baseball. None of the headlines mention major league teams.

    At this point, someone can just go to the microfiche section of a library in SF and find the paper.

    p.s. Interesting to note (not to sound like Vin Scully), but Lou Gehrig also died that day. His time of death however was 10PM according to a copy of his death certificate I found on Ebay, so after the evening paper.

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  4. I contacted the archivists at the Chronicle (and was not the first to do so)...Bill Van Niekerken confirmed only the final edition is preserved on microfilm. He said, "I think finding an 'Early' or perhaps 'State' edition of the Chronicle for that date is going to be pretty darn impossible. Being a fan myself (of the movie and baseball), I'm going to keep looking for clues though."

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  5. Per Richard Beverage, president of the Pacific Coast League Historical Society,the paper is definitely that of Tuesday, 6/3/41. He informed me that in those days the PCL played a seven game series each week, beginning on Tuesday, playing through Sunday, which was always a double header, and that Monday was always a travel day for all teams.

    The Seals were at home on Sunday, June 1st, playing a double header with Sacramento. The photo shows enough detail that Seals Stadium can be verified as the venue. The catcher is in home whites, so that makes him a Seal. That day, Joe Sprinz caught the first game and Bruce Ogrodowski caught the second. The number on his back can't be seen, but the face of the player told Richard that the catcher had to be a veteran of "many baseball wars." Sprinz was 39 and Ogrodowski 29, so in all likelihood the catcher is Sprinz.

    However, this is as far as I was able to go, becasue nothing except the final edition of the paper is ever preserved on microfilm. (I contacted the CA State Library and the CA Newspaper Project to be sure there weren't stray versions of other editions somewhere.) Since papers had their own photographers in those days, it is unlikely that the photo appeared in any other paper. Unless someone can actually come up with a copy of this early edition (good work, to dope that one out!) or a clean image from the 35mm print of that particular frame of the movie, the situation around the play at home will have to remain unknown.

    Sallie Pine,
    reference librarian and baseball fan
    Alameda County Library

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  6. Sprinz is the guy who caught a ball dropped from a blimp in a publicity stunt in the late 1930s. The blimp was a few hundred feet above the playing field and when Sprinz caught the ball the force of it sent his glove into his face, breaking his jaw and separating him from several pf his teeth. There's a file in the HOF Library on these sorts of events, and a photo of Sprinz lying on the diamond after being knocked from the force of the ball ran in newspapers across the country.

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  7. A 39-year-old catcher hanging on in the minors, he must have been the Crash Davis of the PCL.

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  8. By Gad, sir, you are a character. There's never any telling what you'll say or do next, except that it's bound to be something astonishing.

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  9. This was a fun read. As I was watching The Maltese Falcon today I noticed the sport section with the catcher picyure and the headline about the Seals and Hollywood Star game. I just had to Google this and found this wonderful research along with all the helpful commemts. Love SABR. Been a member since 2010 but wish I would have joined earlier.

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  10. Not for nothing, but that penultimate line of the film - Bogey's reply to Ward Bond's inquiry ("Heavy - What is it?") about the black bird: "The uh, stuff that dreams are made of"- is not the line Shakespeare wrote for Prospero in "The Tempest," which is "The stuff that dreams are made ON," not "of."

    A great "gotcha!" trivia question hinges on this famous "last line" from the film, which is NOT Bogey's reply that the statue is "the stuff that dreams are made of," but Ward Bond's befuddled response, "HUH?"
    https://youtu.be/1kk3Xvw7jn0?t=177

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