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1913Thanhouser Company438 feetLiterary adaptation

The Bush Leaguer’s Dream

Also released as A Baseball Player’s Dream

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“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.’”

Summary from Reel Life · 13 December 1913

What the papers said

4 reviews

“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 …

Read in full · 1 min

“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.’”

The Bioscope · 10 December 1914

“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 …

Read in full · 1 min

“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.”

The Morning Telegraph · 21 December 1913

More reviews2 · 27 December 1913 – 14 January 1914

27 December 1913The Moving Picture World1 min

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

14 January 1914The New York Dramatic Mirror1 min

“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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Cast and crew

Cast
George A. Grimmer
George Grimmer as messenger boy
Samuel Sullivan as secretary of the club
William Russell as the baseball hero; Clarence Fitzmorris, a demon outfielder, in his own opinion
Writer
Lloyd F. Lonergan

Every name opens that person's page, with each film they appear in and which of them you can watch.

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More about this film

Bowers’ 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.)

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1913 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “The Bush Leaguer’s Dream”. thanhouser.org/films/the-bush-leaguer-s-dream/

Where a print is held

Held by
No print known