Rare video footage of 1919 World Series surfaces
Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 10:31 pm
Yes, this would be the same 1919 World Series that spawned the infamous Black Sox Scandal.
In a somewhat bizarre turn, the original film reels of the footage languished, buried underground, preserved for decades in the Yukon permafrost! Perhaps even more oddly, this footage was originally excavated in 1978, along with a plethora of other vintage film reels of interest in their own right, and sent to a preservation centre in Gatineau, QC, where it sat untouched for another 35+ years. Only recently was it finally examined — by an American filmmaker who happened to be visiting the centre to research an unrelated project, and who also happened to be a White Sox fan. The footage, complied long before news of the Black Sox Scandal broke the following year, makes no direct reference to this controversy, although a noted baseball authority has pointed to a sequence where a White Sox pitcher is seen to botch an easy double play.
An article from the National Post has the story:
Baseball history unearthed: Rare footage of infamous 1919 ‘Black Sox’ World Series found in Yukon permafrost
The footage was digitised and then uploaded a week and a half ago to youtube by Library and Archives Canada:
[video][/video]
In a somewhat bizarre turn, the original film reels of the footage languished, buried underground, preserved for decades in the Yukon permafrost! Perhaps even more oddly, this footage was originally excavated in 1978, along with a plethora of other vintage film reels of interest in their own right, and sent to a preservation centre in Gatineau, QC, where it sat untouched for another 35+ years. Only recently was it finally examined — by an American filmmaker who happened to be visiting the centre to research an unrelated project, and who also happened to be a White Sox fan. The footage, complied long before news of the Black Sox Scandal broke the following year, makes no direct reference to this controversy, although a noted baseball authority has pointed to a sequence where a White Sox pitcher is seen to botch an easy double play.
An article from the National Post has the story:
Baseball history unearthed: Rare footage of infamous 1919 ‘Black Sox’ World Series found in Yukon permafrost
The footage was digitised and then uploaded a week and a half ago to youtube by Library and Archives Canada:
[video][/video]