Volume II: Filmography

THE BUSH LEAGUER'S DREAM

a.k.a. A BASEBALL PLAYER'S DREAM

December 19, 1913 (Friday)

Length: 438 feet this section. (Split at the end of the second reel of Jack and the Beanstalk)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: William Russell (the baseball hero; Clarence Fitzmorris, a demon outfielder, in his own opinion), Samuel Sullivan (secretary of the club), George Grimmer (messenger boy)

Notes: 1. This film, approximately 500 feet in length, appeared at the end of the second reel of Jack and the Beanstalk. 2. The title appeared as The Bushleaguer's Dream in various places, including a review in the December 27, 1913 issue of The Moving Picture World and in a synopsis in Reel Life, December 13, 1913. 3. The attribution of the role of the secretary to Samuel Sullivan is from the New York Morning Telegraph, December 31, 1913. Other sources say S. Sullivan (a Mrs. S. Sullivan was active about this time; refer to the January 4, 1914 release of Mrs. Pinkhurst's Proxy, for example.)

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, December 13, 1913:

"Fitzmorris got the baseball craze - and got it bad. He came to the conclusion that there was a great baseball hero lost in himself - and as the Giants are always on the lookout for new talent, he got a chance to try out with them. A day's practice convinced him that he was the king of demon outfielders - and when he reached home that night, he dreamed of a dream. He thought he was performing such feats of fielding as utterly flabbergasted the battle-scarred Giants - and at the conclusion of the game, he was offered a contract which he haughtily spurned, as it meant only $10,000 a year. 'Add another cipher to that,' he commanded - and it was done. Then he woke up. A messenger boy was shouting in his ear. He had brought a message from the manager of the Giants informing the recruit that he had been sent back to the wild country - as the stuff of which Giants are made 'wasn't in him.'"

REVIEW, The Bioscope, December 10, 1914:

"An aspirant to American baseball honours dreams that he becomes a champion at the game and then awakes to realize that he is only a third-rate player after all. Although it is quite well done, the film is scarcely likely to be of much interest to English audiences, exclusively devoted as it is to a game which is practically unknown in this country. A preliminary subtitle, briefly reviewing the main features of baseball, would improve the film from an English point of view - and we should certainly like to be told precisely what is a 'bushleaguer.'"

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, December 21, 1913:

"William Russell, George Grimmer and Samuel Sullivan play the principal roles in this baseball comedy. The story is that of an outfielder who in his own mind is the greatest in the games. He gets a tryout with the Giants, and that night has a dream in which he sees himself refusing a contract calling for a mere $10,000 a year and ordering another cipher added to the amount. Just as this is done he wakes up to receive a message from the manager of the team to the effect that he need not bother to come out for practice, as the team had seen enough of him the day before."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, December 27, 1913:

"This finishes out the above two reels. William Russell dreams he is a National League performer. It is a fairly amusing little skit."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, January 14, 1914:

"Split with Jack in the Beanstalk. This is the dream of a split-reel artist, who gives us the dream of a spit-ball artist, who dreams he is making sensational catches with the Giants, and wakes up to find himself fired into the oatmeal league."

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