1920s and 30s Fox Movietone News Collection Baseball

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by BillyCox3

Hank,
Maybe it's just a case of my not having listened to his voice in a while. Guess I could have forgotten his unusual timbre (but how could you?).

I don't understand your question. I never heard him in person, if that's what you're referring to. He's sounded about the same to me in all of the recordings I've heard. You get an hour or so of it in the 1939 game broadcast. I've never thought of it as particularly unusual, just a high-pitched voice, no doubt surprising to some people coming from such a big guy, but I'm not sure there's any actual "normal" correlation between the two. As I mentioned, just listen to some Will Rogers if you to hear another example of what I believe to be more of a regional accent than some sort of freaky timbre.

[Hankphenom]

What I really love about this footage is that it consists mostly of outtakes, so you're getting a lot of the real person in clips that were cut because they started cutting up or engaging in other unscripted language or activities the editor deemed unsuitable for the final newsreel. The segment from the 1931 Washington spring training showing Walter Johnson trying unsuccessfully to help the filmmaker get Johnson's very young daughter Barbara to say a line they had prepared for her, then turning on a dime into the concerned and loving father when he saw that their badgering was making her upset, and putting a stop to the whole exercise, is just precious. There are other examples of Walter's personality and humor coming through when the planned routine wasn't working out or breaking down, and where else could you find such material?