Two Legends Together At Last!

[Jim Roots]

In her baseball book, Crazy '08, Cait Murphy claims a short and obviously silent film was made in 1909 in which Pittsburgh's superstar Honus Wagner passes on some batting tips to an impressionable youngster named Moses Horwitz. Young Moses went on to put the tips to good use against the noggins of his brothers Curly and Shemp and his best pal Larry.

Three questions:

1) Is this unlikely story true? If yes, then --
2) Does the film (surely no more than 60 or 90 seconds in length) still exist? If yes, then --
3) Can we convince David or Chris or Dennis to sink their massive fortunes into restoring the film, adding five hours of extras including the inevitable two-hour "Making of..." documentary for a DVD, sticking counterfeit Wagner cigarette cards into each copy, and selling the whole shmear for an affordable $7.99? And if not, can we trust gagman to fulminate about archives sitting on important films that the public has a "right" to see?

Murphy also tosses off the aside that the 1908 World Series was the first to be filmed. No further information provided. I know we've discussed the first boxing films and it is possible the WS films came up in that discussion, but I don't recall if the 1908 WS still exists. If it does, then kindly apply the above questions to it, too.

Jim

[Tommie Hicks]

Moe Howard's claims of working at Vitagraph, working with Honus Wager "(those films have been made into banjo picks" quoth Moe), and his work with Augustus Carney have yet to be verified.

[Frederica]

3) Can we convince David or Chris or Dennis to sink their massive fortunes into restoring the film, adding five hours of extras including the inevitable two-hour "Making of..." documentary for a DVD, sticking counterfeit Wagner cigarette cards into each copy, and selling the whole shmear for an affordable $7.99? And if not, can we trust gagman to fulminate about archives sitting on important films that the public has a "right" to see?
Jim

Hello? Closed captioning!