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SPORTS
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AMERICANA
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1930s
War of the Worlds
Radio Broadcast
On October 30, 1938 Orson Welles directed and
narrated an adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel
The War of the Worlds on the CBS Radio network
as an episode of Mercury Theatre on the Air.
During the broadcast Welles presented the show
in mini news bulletins, which were so realistic that
many listeners thought an actual alien invasion
by Martians was currently in progress. Because the
Mercury Theatre on the Air ran without commercial
breaks, this just added to the realism of the hoax.
In the days following the show, there was widespread
outrage and over 12,000 newspaper articles.
The episode established Orson Welles’ fame.
IN THE NEWS
Babe Ruth Calls his HR Shot
It is one of baseball’s all-time great mysteries. Did Babe Ruth really
call his shot just before hitting a mammoth World Series home run?
The undisputed facts of the events were as follows:
It was October 1, 1932, Game 3 of the World Series in Wrigley Field,
with the Yankees leading the Cubs 2 games to 0. In the top of the
5th inning, Ruth was at bat with the score tied at 4, facing Cub
pitcher Charlie Root. The Cubs’ bench was heckling the Babe as
he took strikes one and two. Now, at this point in time, fact and
myth get a bit jumbled. The Babe made some type of outward
gesture with his bat, but it is unclear whether the gesture was toward
the pitcher, or the centerfield bleachers, as Ruth proudly proclaimed
for many years thereafter. Either way, Ruth smashed the next pitch
well beyond the centerfield fence, for one of the most memorable
and debated World Series home runs of all-time. An interesting side
note to this story is that on the very next pitch, Lou Gehrig, forever
playing in Ruth’s shadow also hit a home run, his 2nd of the game
as well knocking Charlie Root out of the game. Typical for Gehrig,
his two home runs in the game paled in comparison to the legend
of the mighty Babe’s Called Shot.
The New York Yankees proclaimed July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day
at Yankee Stadium. Between games of the Independence Day doubleheader
against the Washington Senators, the emotional ceremonies were held on the
diamond. 61,808 fans witnessed the event. New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia
called Gehrig ‘the greatest prototype of good sportsmanship and citizenship’
and Yankees Manager Joe McCarthy, struggled to control his emotions. The
Yankees retired Gehrig’s uniform number ‘4’, a first in Major League Baseball
history. After Babe Ruth spoke, Lou came to the microphone and spoke these
words: ‘Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break
I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but
kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of
you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for
even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known
Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow?
To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to
have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student
of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m
lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat,
and vice versa, sends you a gift – that’s something. When everybody down to
the grounds-keepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies
– that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides
with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that’s something. When you have
a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education
and build your body – it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a
tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that’s
the finest I know. So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break,
but I’ve got an awful lot to live for. Thank you’.
Lou Gehrig at Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939
Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech
NOSTALGIC AMERICA | 5
IN THE NEWS
1940s
Jackie Robinson signs MLB
contract with Branch Rickey
1947
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941
6 | NOSTALGIC AMERICA
The Kissing Sailor
August 14, 1945
NOSTALGIC AMERICA | 7
IN THE NEWS
1950s
Sputnik I
The Space Race Begins
History changed on October 4, 1957, when the
Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I.
The world’s first artificial satellite was the size
of a beach ball, weighed only 183.9 pounds, and
took 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical
path. That launch ushered in new political, military,
technological, and scientific developments. Sputnik
marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-
U.S.S.R. space race.
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refusal to make room
for a white passenger on a city bus in
Montgomery, Alabama in December
of 1955 sparked the Montgomery Bus
Boycott. This one brave act made
great strides towards the end of
racial segregation and the Civil Rights
Movement. The boycott lasted 381
days and ended segregation on buses.