The untold story behind the first great sports film... The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper, and the Making of a Classic
On July 4, 1939, baseball great Lou Gehrig stood in Yankee Stadium and gave a speech that contained the phrase that would become legendary: "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
He died two years later and his fiery widow, Eleanor, wanted nothing more than to keep his memory alive. With her forceful will, she and the irascible producer Samuel Goldwyn quickly agreed to make a film based on Gehrig's life, "The Pride of the Yankees." Goldwyn didn't understand -- or care about -- baseball. For him this film was the emotional story of a quiet, modest hero who married a spirited woman who was the love of his life, and, after a storied career, gave a short speech that transformed his legacy. With the world at war and soldiers dying on foreign soil, it was the kind of movie America needed.
Using original scripts, letters, memos, and other rare documents, Richard Sandomir tells the behind-the-scenes story of how a classic was born. The search to find the actor to play Gehrig; the stunning revelations Eleanor made to the scriptwriter Paul Gallico about her life with Lou; the intensive training Gary Cooper underwent to learn how to catch, throw, and hit a baseball for the first time.
On a warm summer evening, Richard Sandomir led our intimate Clubhouse conversation and brought "The Pride of the Yankees" to life. Listen in...
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"The Betrayal: The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball" with Charles Fountain
"Game of My Life: NY Mets" with Ed Charles and author Michael Garry
"Pinstripes and Penance / Long Road Home" with John Malangone and Mike Harrison
"At The Ballpark" -- A Phenomenal Panel
"The Dad Report: Fathers, Sons, and Baseball Families" with Kevin Cook
"Crack of the Bat: A History of Baseball on the Radio" with James Walker
"The Colonel and Hug: The Partnership That Transformed The New York Yankees" with Steve Steinberg
"Split Season 1981" with Jeff Katz, the Mayor of Cooperstown
"Billy Martin: Baseball's Flawed Genius" with Bill Pennington
"If These Walls Could Talk: New York Yankees" with Jim Kaat
"A Game of Their Own: Voices of Contemporary Women in Baseball" with Jennifer Ring
"Freedom Between The Lines" with Gregory Rubano
"100 Years of Who's Who in Baseball" with Marty Appel and Doug Lyons
"Amazing Aaron to Zero Zippers" with 16-year-old author Matt Nadel
"Joe Black: More Than A Dodger" with Martha Jo Black
"Gil Hodges: A Hall of Fame Life" with author Mort Zachter
"Circus Maximus" with Andrew Zimbalist
Special Event: "A Baseball Life" with Bill Giles and author John Lord
"The Chalmers Race" with author Rick Huhn
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