Criss Cross

Well, it's happened again. I just finished watching the 1949 movie "Criss Cross," starring Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, and Dan Duryea (who had a small role in "The Pride of the Yankees," but that's another story), and darned if there isn't some baseball in the background.

For those who aren't aware, I've blogged about finding baseball in movies that basically have nothing to do with baseball a number of times. Feel free to read more:

• Baseball in the Movies: Hidden in Plain Sight
• You Know How To Whistle
• The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

In "Criss Cross," the first appearance of baseball occurs about half an hour into the film, when Steve Thompson (played by Lancaster) and Anna Dundee (played by De Carlo) meet in a drug store. As the two talk, one can see a cigarette advertisement in the background above and behind De Carlo (and through the haze of Lancaster's own cigarette). Here's a screen capture:



The ad is for Chesterfield Cigarettes, and features a slogan they copyrighted in April of 1948: "The Baseball Man's Cigarette." Here's what the actual ad looks like:



The captions for the six baseball men on the ad read as follows (clockwise from bottom left):

• Bucky Harris, Manager of World's Champion New York Yankees
• Boston Braves' Bob Elliott, Voted Most Valuable Player in the National League
• Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox
• Stan Musial, St. Louis Cardinals
• Champion N.Y. Yankees' Joe DiMaggio, Voted Most Valuable Player in the American League
• Ewell Blackwell, Cincinnati Reds

The movie was shot during the 1948 season, so these were great stars for Chesterfield to use. There's the manager of the Yankees, who won the 1947 World Series, as well as both MVPs from the season. Ted Williams and Stan Musial were perennial all-stars, so they were perfect choices to pitch the cigarettes. And while many of today's fans may not have heard of the final player, Ewell Blackwell was the brightest pitching star of 1947.

There was no Cy Young Award at the time, but had there been, Blackwell would have easily captured the 1947 version. Nicknamed "The Whip," the 6'6" sidearmer posted a mark of 22-8 with a 2.47 ERA for an otherwise forgettable Cincinnati Reds club that won just 77 games that season. Blackwell never did approach that kind of success again, as shoulder problems plagued him for the rest of his career. But in 1947, Blackwell was the tops.

Note, that the ad in the movie was slightly altered from the seen one above in two main ways:

• the bottom portion, which features the famous "Always Buy Chesterfield" slogan, has been cropped out;
• the pack of Chesterfield cigarettes in the center of the ad has been obscured by three packs of  cigarettes affixed to the front.

These alterations were clearly made so as to hide the manufacturer's name, both at the bottom of the advertisement and on the image of the cigarette pack at center. Here I've superimposed the color ad on the screen capture to highlight the similarities and alterations:



The ad shows up again at the end of the scene, this time over Lancaster's shoulder, as he and De Carlo talk near the entrance to the drug store



The ad is altered in the same fashion as the previous one. In fact, it may very well be the exact same prop, moved to a new location. Again, I've superimposed the color ad on the screen capture:



I consider this a major find, not because the baseball advertisement is significant in any way, but because I somehow managed to take my eyes off the incredibly gorgeous Yvonne De Carlo in order to stumble across the ad in the first place.

The very next scene in the movie also features some hidden baseball. This time, Lancaster is back at his mother's home, preparing to go out on a date. He talks with his mother and just as he is about to leave we see a framed photograph on the wall near his door. Here are two screen shots showing the photo:





And here are two details from the above shots:





The images are quite blurry, but I believe they both show a picture of a ballplayer (at right) posing with another person. Alas, I have been unable to make any headway in identifying this photo. Any ideas?

John F. Kennedy and Baseball

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Web site is a treasure trove of information of all-things JFK. Little wonder it has numerous baseball-related items digitized and available to the public. Here are just a few highlights.

In his 1935 Choate Yearbook, Jack Kennedy's biography notes that he played baseball during the 1931-32 school year. In later years, however, he concentrated on basketball and (of course) football.

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On June 24, 1960, then-Senator Jack Kennedy wrote to Hank Aaron to thank the Milwaukee Braves star for his help during the Wisconsin Presidential Primary, a critical victory for JFK en route to the Democratic Party presidential nomination. With Aaron suffering through a month-long hitting slump at the time, Kennedy expressed his hope that Hank would "push that average up over the .300 mark." Too bad he misspelled Hank's surname "Aron."

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About two weeks later, just days before the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, Kennedy received a letter from former major league star Jackie Robinson. Robinson had originally campaigned for Minnesota senator Hubert Humphrey, but ultimately chose to support Richard Nixon over Kennedy for the presidency. In this letter, Jackie made this interesting statement:

Please, don't consider me presumptious [sic] but I would like to make one suggestion. While trying to impress anyone with your sincerity, you must be able to look them squarely in the eye. I recognize you probably weren't aware of this, but I found myself concerned because you did not do so with me. I purposely challenged you to see what would happen and found your eyes going elsewhere when talking with me. The ability to look a man in the eye is important, at least to me.

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WGN Television broadcaster Vince Lloyd interviewed President Kennedy before the White Sox faced the Senators in the opening game of Washington's 1961 season. It was the first time a sitting president had been interviewed on live TV at a baseball game.

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In his address at the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Banquet held at the Waldorf-Astoria in December 5, 1961, President Kennedy stated "I will not enter the debate as to whether football or baseball is our great national sport." He then followed up with same comment that he made at the Senators' home opener eight months earlier: "The sad fact is that it looks more and more as if our great national sport is not playing at all -- but watching. We have become more and more, not a nation of athletes, but a nation of spectators."

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Just seven months after Roger Maris hit his 61st home run, breaking Babe Ruth's long-standing single-season record, President Kennedy met with Yankees star at The White House. Maris, national campaign co-chairman of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, exchanged a signed copy of his book "Roger Maris At Bat" for a signed copy of Kennedy's "Profiles in Courage." They also both signed a baseball that was to be auctioned of to raise money for the MS Society. (I wonder where that ball is today.) The visit must have inspired Roger, as that evening the Yankees right fielder slugged his first home run since opening day.

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The day after the first 1962 All-Star Game was held at D.C. Stadium in Washington, D.C., the man that Commissioner Ford Frick called "baseball's perfect knight" visited "Camelot," as President Kennedy took time out to greet Cardinals legend Stan Musial, Stan's wife Lil and daughter Janet.

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On February 5, 1963, Daniel J. Silva, Commissioner of the Cape Cod Baseball League, wrote to John Kennedy asking if the President would "be interested in donating a trophy to be known as the 'President John F. Kennedy Trophy.'" Kennedy's personal secretary wrote back a week later noting that "the President appreciated your thinking of him and he would love very much to donate a trophy for this league but inasmuch as he has received so many, many requests for trophies he had to adopt the policy of not donating trophies."



Today, the league's champions are awarded the Arnold Mycock Trophy.


Cape Cod Times/Ron Schloerb

For those interested, there's lots more baseball-related content at the JFK Library.