Have you ever seen sports props in the background of a movie?

[CarltonHendricks]

When I got home from Brimfield MA last May I rented Love Story to see the shots of the Harvard campus I had visited on my trip...Towards the end of the movie Ryan O'Neal's character goes to see his father for money to pay his wife's medical expenses...My radar came on as he sits in his fathers office waiting for him...I spotted a c1890 coxed pair rowing bronze sitting on the desk...Phew, would I like to run into one of those at an antiques show!...you can see more photos of the office scene in a feature I hoisted up on my home page SportsAntiques.com...Has anyone else ever seen a sports relic in the background of a movie?

[BrandonG]

My new favorite HBO Sunday night show "Boardwalk Empire". Nookies new lawyer has a Ty Cobb signed ball on his desk, and later in the episode a drawer full to give to the kiddies!

[Chris-Counts]

In the movie, "Brighton Beach Memoirs," there is wonderful advertising piece depicting Sunny Jim Bottomley on the bedroom wall of the main character, Eugene. There's also a nice vintage photo of Dizzy Dean ...

[leftygrove10]

I sold a picture of Lefty Grove to a girl in Hollywood to be used on the set of "Money Ball". The photo was supposed to be in the office of the Athletics Owner. Unfortunately, I didn't see the picture when I watched the movie a few weeks ago.

[Bpm0014]

In the first 5 minutes of A Christmas Story, when they show Ralphies bed, you can very quickly see a couple of baseball cards (one is a T206) glued to the back headboard.

[Jantz]

You can see quite a few items in "The Sandlot". James Earl Jones has them scattered throughout his house. They are shown towards the end of the movie.

Also in the movie "Good Will Hunting", Robin Williams has about 20 baseball cards on a board behind his desk.


Jantz

[Writehooks]

In the original Rocky, during the scene in which the “Italian Stallion” takes Adrian ice skating on their first date, he pulls a news clipping/photo from his wallet to prove to her that he's a professional fighter. The photo is actually a real Associated Press wirephoto taken Nov. 12, 1968, showing Canadian heavyweight champion George Chuvalo knocking another fighter through the ropes at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Rocky points to Chuvalo and says something like, “See, that's me right there!” What makes it particularly ironic is that the real-life opponent Chuvalo is pummelling is Italian champion Dante Cane. I have a Type 1 version of that photo, along with a program and handbill from the fight, in my collection.

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by Writehooks

In the original Rocky, during the scene in which the “Italian Stallion” takes Adrian ice skating on their first date, he pulls a news clipping/photo from his wallet to prove to her that he's a professional fighter. The photo is actually a real Associated Press wirephoto taken Nov. 12, 1968, showing Canadian heavyweight champion George Chuvalo knocking another fighter through the ropes at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Rocky points to Chuvalo and says something like, “See, that's me right there!” What makes it particularly ironic is that the real-life opponent Chuvalo is pummelling is Italian champion Dante Cane. I have a Type 1 version of that photo, along with a program and handbill from the fight, in my collection.

Man you must have a good eye to spot all that....now let's see that photo...

[patricka]

I remember watching the 2003 made for TV movie "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself" with Antonio Banderas. There is a scene that takes place in a NY restaurant and on the wall is a framed T200 Fatima Team Premium Jumbo Photo. Can't remember the team but it appeared to be a reproduction.

[D. Broughman]

You may want to watch White Collar tonight there advertising a Babe Ruth ball is going to be stolen from Yankee Stadium.

[scooter729]

Not quite a movie or a real signed ball, but there was the great recent commercial with an appearance of a Honus Wagner signed ball in an Audi commercial....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40WNKZsQMYg

[sayhey24]

In Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman has a lot of baseball cards on the wall of his room. Someone mentioned The Sandlot before -- I remember that James Earl Jones had those 1960s HOF busts in his house.

Greg
http://www.baseballbasement.com

[Kalineman]

In Spike Lee's movie Crooklyn, there are a couple scenes where Strat-O-Matic baseball is being played. Not surprising because Spike has been a big Strat-O-Matic player since childhood.

[novakjr]

A gem mint '52 Topps Pafko was pretty much the entire plot of "Cop Out".

[Butch7999]

In the 1944 classic "Laura," Dana Andrews' "Detective Mark McPherson" character spends a lot of time
jiggling the Baseball dexterity game by Colmor...


Noting that the game was produced with several subtle variations to the playing surface graphics
and to the metal frame, here's a close-up from the movie:


There's a WWI-era silent comedy that features another tabletop baseball game, but we'll have to
dig deeper into our notes to find the details...

In a more modern setting, the office of the FBI agent character "Booth" in the TV series "Bones"
is festooned with hockey memorabilia, most prominently a framed photo of Bobby Orr's famous
"flying" goal that finished the 1970 Stanley Cup Final...

[alanu]

Not really vintage, but in the movie Grand Canyon, Kevin Kline's son is named Roberto after Roberto Clemente, and Kevin Kline has a late 1980's Sports Impression statue of Clemente on his work desk.

[okmaybent@aol.com]

I had a BB card store in Los Angeles in the 80s. Art Department people came in and bought a lot of Football photos to be used somewhere in JR Ewings house...probably a den... as background. Also I think we sold some cards that were used in a 1980's Robert Wagner "Hart to Hart" episode about a rare $250,000 BB card collection. The show pictured some very current cards.

Max of Valley BB sold some to them as well. I think we/ or Max sold some stuff to be used in Dustin Hoffman's room near the beginning of "Rainman" too. Its been a long time so memory is fading.

What I do remember VERY CLEARLY is that after the "Hart to Hart" episode my phone rang off the hook with people who after seeing those common cards with the $250,000 price tag were convinced their shoebox of 1981 Fleer cards were worth millions. I was a VERY long and frustrating day.

[mcgwirecom]

Stephen Kings "Needful Things" has a Mantle rookie card in it I remember. In "The Natural" at the beginning they show the inside of Roy Hobbs' bedroom and he has a lot of pennants and a baseball lamp I think.

[murphusa]

In Bells of St Mary's Bing Crosby goes into a sporting goods store and you see a wall of boxed baseball gloves

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by mcgwirecom

Stephen Kings "Needful Things" has a Mantle rookie card in it I remember. In "The Natural" at the beginning they show the inside of Roy Hobbs' bedroom and he has a lot of pennants and a baseball lamp I think.

This was actually just mentioned in the post-war forum...In "Needful Things" the movie, it was a signed '56 Mantle. In the book, it's a signed '56 Koufax..

[dherm360]

In the Mask
Rocky collects 55 Dodger cards and continue to talk about Rube Walker-after he dies the cards were placed at his grave site

[Wite3]

Mask featured a lot of 50s Brooklyn dodgers...

As an aside okmaybent...which store? I spent a ton of time at stores in the valley and even worked for a few...btw, I miss max...a truly good guy to me over the years.

Joshua

[okmaybent@aol.com]

Dave Hamilton and I (Eric Cooper) started All Star Cards Ltd on Sherman Way in Van Nuys and also established the West Coast Card Club. Those were fun times with Clay Hill, David Koehler, Wes, Will Davis, Al Savage, Tony Galovich and of course one of the true hobby pioneer's... R.I.P. Goody.

[Wite3]

That the one that was near the Toys R Us? I loved that store...bought my first t206 there (still have it...a very nice Bergen). I worked at Tripleplay on Riverside in the early '90s and with Max shortly around the same time. I remember Goody at shows and Dave Koehler sounds familiar too.

Good times. Cheap cards!

Joshua

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by Wite3

That the one that was near the Toys R Us? I loved that store...bought my first t206 there (still have it...a very nice Bergen). I worked at Tripleplay on Riverside in the early '90s and with Max shortly around the same time. I remember Goody at shows and Dave Koehler sounds familiar too.

Good times. Cheap cards!

Joshua

Dave Koehler = Sportscards Plus in Westminster, CA

[henson1855]

Not vintage but watched the new Will Ferrell movie "Everything Must Go" on HBO the other night, his prized posession was a 1978 signed Yankees World Series ball.

[CarltonHendricks]

Spotted a Willie Mosconie exhibition poster in the background of the Hustler with Paul Newman and Jackie GLeason...I picked up the same poster last May at Brimfield....Also there was a trophy case in the background one of the pool halls.




At May 2011 Brimfield

[2dueces]

Not sports props but I watched "Arsonic and Old Lace" for the 20th time. Best comedy of all time starring Cary Grant. In the very beginning of the movie there is a quick shot of a real baseball game of the Brooklyn Dodgers at home. Not sure if the game is from 43 or 44 but the movie dated 1944. If you've never seen it, watch what a comedy is really suppose to be. Not the childish, boorish things they make today that they call comedy. Sorry for the slightly off topic post. Back to your regular scheduled program.

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by 2dueces

Not sports props but I watched "Arsonic and Old Lace" for the 20th time. Best comedy of all time starring Cary Grant. In the very beginning of the movie there is a quick shot of a real baseball game of the Brooklyn Dodgers at home. Not sure if the game is from 43 or 44 but the movie dated 1944. If you've never seen it, watch what a comedy is really suppose to be. Not the childish, boorish things they make today that they call comedy. Sorry for the slightly off topic post. Back to your regular scheduled program.

It's now 2nd in my Netflix queue...behind season 1 of Wiseguy!

[travrosty]

not a movie but a tv show. an episode of seinfeld, where jerry gives away his knicks tickets, and kramer comes up with the idea of making your own pizza pie, jerry has a baseball glove with a ball inside mounted on the wall above his computer.

also cheers obviously had a bunch of memorabilia in sams office.

[batsballsbases]

Funny just finished watching Going My Way (1944) With Bing Crosby. In the movie Bing wares a nice St, Louis Browns Cap and Warm up jacket that he says The Boys Gave him! Bing plays a priest and is trying to get a choir together and uses the cap and jacket thru the movie.

[jacksons]

Originally Posted by leftygrove10

I sold a picture of Lefty Grove to a girl in Hollywood to be used on the set of "Money Ball". The photo was supposed to be in the office of the Athletics Owner. Unfortunately, I didn't see the picture when I watched the movie a few weeks ago.

Hi Brad -

I watched this on DVD recently and I distinctly recall seeing a Grove photo on the wall of the room in which the scouts meet. Several scenes from the movie are done in this room. I think the photo appears in a shot of Jonah Hill, behind him on the wall.

I could be proven wrong.

[CarltonHendricks]

Fred MacMurray


William Frawley





While watching the 1960's T.V. series My Three Sons starring Fred MacMurray I noticed three pieces of sports memorabilia decor in the house. Moreover, all the rest of the wall pictures I saw were English sporting prints...and a large dog painting or print....not a stitch of flowers or chick art in the place!

For those of you who weren't around in the early to mid 1960's My Three Sons was one of the most popular shows then. The premise of the show was Fred MacMurray played a widower raising three boys. William Frawley who previously played Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy played the gruff outspoken salt of the earth grandfather who did the cooking and housekeeping in the early seasons.

An avid New York Yankees baseball fan, Frawley had it written into his I Love Lucy contract that he did not have to work during the World Series if the Yankees were playing. The Yankees were in every World Series during that time except for 1954 and 1959. He missed two episodes of the show as a result. Source Wikipedia

http://www.examiner.com/article/clas...-my-three-sons
Stanley Livingston who played youngest son Chip gave an interesting newspaper interview September 18, 2011, link above, in which he talked about his close relationship with William Frawley even though Frawley didn't like kids per se.

[Deertick]

Not really vintage, but I think Liz Lemon has a poster and jersey of Mike Schmidt on the wall in her bedroom on "30 Rock".

[Duluth Eskimo]

Originally Posted by CarltonHendricks

Spotted a Willie Mosconie exhibition poster in the background of the Hustler with Paul Newman and Jackie GLeason...I picked up the same poster last May at Brimfield....Also there was a trophy case in the background one of the pool halls.




At May 2011 Brimfield

The Hustler could be one of the greatest sports movies of all time.
I like how Mosconi himself is the person racking up the balls in the big match between "Fast Eddie" and "Minnesota Fats". If you listen close, Gleason calls him, "Willie". Classic cinema. Btw, was there a find of that poster as I have seen it many times in the past. I saw its not dated in the advertising date area.

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by Duluth Eskimo

The Hustler could be one of the greatest sports movies of all time.
I like how Mosconi himself is the person racking up the balls in the big match between "Fast Eddie" and "Minnesota Fats". If you listen close, Gleason calls him, "Willie". Classic cinema. Btw, was there a find of that poster as I have seen it many times in the past. I saw its not dated in the advertising date area.

Duluth, Reproductions abound...the real ones have fold lines and are scarce...the repos are pretty easy to spot

[Matt Felix]

This is currenty on the bay as a buy it now.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WILLIE-MOSCO...item3cc9fa36f4

It has, in red below the date and time line, "Read Masconi on Pocket Billiards."

Could this be a later addition or somthing that made it on some posters and not others? It looks like the phrase appears on the poster in the movie.

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by Matt Felix

This is currenty on the bay as a buy it now.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WILLIE-MOSCO...item3cc9fa36f4

It has, in red below the date and time line, "Read Masconi on Pocket Billiards."

Could this be a later addition or somthing that made it on some posters and not others? It looks like the phrase appears on the poster in the movie.

Mat, I checked that out...looks completly legit...I feel confident it's original...heck it has a LOA from Hunt Auctions...listing said the seller had 3...I emailed him and asked:

"Would you know how many of these there were total from the estate? May I ask did you buy them all?"

Guy wrote back:
"We purchased a group of 10, as I remember there were (2) groups of 10, so 20 total"

I'm confident mine is real because of the faint age toning and folds...the one in the listing has folds and an LOA....BUY!!

http://www.sportsantiques.com/pg5brimstory.htm
I got mine at Brimfield....I bought a Bill Tilden tennis match poster from a guy for like $600.00 as I recall....later I came back to look at it since he was holding it after I paid for it....and he had the Mosconi out...and I was all over it...said he forgot he had it and put it out after I left...think I gave $300.00...read the whole account in the link above

[2dueces]

At the end of Sweet Home Alabama there is an old Piedmont cigarette ad on the stairs as Jake comes down. The ad prolly measures 36"x 30".

[Tom Hufford]

Trouble With The Curve, starring Clint Eastwood as an aging baseball scout, won't be released until next week. I haven't seen the film yet (obviously), but have seen the preview several times, and see some very familiar photos.

The movie was filmed in and around Atlanta, with a lot of shots in Turner Field and in the Braves' offices. When the Braves moved into Turner Field in 1997 and opened their Hall of Fame and Museum, I loaned the museum numerous player photos which they copied and have used in displays at the museum and around the ballpark. (That's not as strange as it sounds - not a lot of material survived the moves from Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta, and they had photos of Spahn and Mathews from Milwaukee but not Boston, etc.).

So, when I saw the previews, with some shots in the Braves' offices, I sat up and thought - "Hey, there's my pictures!" I'm looking forward to seeing the movie next week - I just regret that I was out of town while they were doing the filming, I'd love to have been an extra in the crowd shots, or whatever!

[Butch7999]

Here's another vintage piece we just ran across -- a fleeting glimpse of Peo's baseball coin-op, World Championship Miniature Baseball,
in the background of a scene from Fritz Lang's excellent 1936 film, Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney...

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by Butch7999

Here's another vintage piece we just ran across -- a fleeting glimpse of Peo's baseball coin-op, World Championship Miniature Baseball,
in the background of a scene from Fritz Lang's excellent 1936 film, Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney...

Good eye Butch!

[Butch7999]

Thanks Carlton -- can't really take credit for spotting it, though. Someone else at our Baseball Games group sent that to us quite a while ago --
long enough ago that we can't remember who actually did notice it. Forgot we had it in our files until just the other day.
Plenty of sharp eyes among the membership...

[bigtrain]

Not a movie and not sure if they really exist but I'd love to find a Phil Rizzuto head keychain that says "Holy Cow!" when you squeeze it as featured on the famous "pothole" episode of Seinfeld.

[drc]

I once won in a multi-movie studio charity auction a couple of retro (made for the movie) 1950 England World Cup soccer uniforms, including the high top handmade leather cleats. The jerseys were clearly custom/handmade for the movie-- first time I'd ever seen shirts with no tags of any kind anywhere. I eventually put one uniform up on eBay and a pub owner in London won it. I assume for display in the pub. The uniforms were donated directly to the auction by the studio that made the movie and came with LOAs from the studio.

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by drc

I once won in a multi-movie studio charity auction a couple of retro (made for the movie) 1950 England World Cup soccer uniforms, including the high top handmade leather cleats. The jerseys were clearly custom/handmade for the movie-- first time I'd ever seen shirts with no tags of any kind anywhere. I eventually put one uniform up on eBay and a pub owner in London won it. I assume for display in the pub. The uniforms were donated directly to the auction by the studio that made the movie and came with LOAs from the studio.

David, What was the name of the movie the uniform made for?...

[Butch7999]

Blotto, the 1930 Laurel & Hardy comedy, ran on TCM last night (both the US release and the extended Spanish-language version).
Not quite halfway through the movie, Stan's wife goes to a sporting-goods store to buy a shotgun. In the background can be seen
a pictorial ad for tennis rackets, a box of balls for some undetermined sport, and, most prominently, a sign at the upper right of the shot that reads

BABE RUTH
Major League xxxxxx xxx Xxxxxxx

along with other too-small-to-be-legible text. The last word might be "Gloves," but it's pretty blurry.

Edit: four and a half years later, here's a look, cribbed from YouTube [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NWXbBFI1Qw ]:

[AgonyandIvy]

In the movie "Ordinary People" in one of the son's bedroom, there is some White Sox souvineers - one in particular is the Chicago Tribune 1959 Headline "White Sox Win Pennant" beer mug that sits on a shelf.

In the TV Sitcom "Parks and Recreation" in Chris Traeger's (Rob Lowe) office is a 1978 Wheaties box of Bruce Jenner.

[CarltonHendricks]

Spotted this wrestling broadside in an old Superman episode.....for you youngsters that's George Reeves looking at it who played Superman/Clark Kent....who died under mysterious circumstances in 1959 at his home in the Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles

[kilo]

episode 22 of season 3 of star trek the next generation; "the most toys". a 'collector' bent on aquiring data for his personal collection shows of a 1962 Roger Maris card, complete with "simulated buble-gum scent".

--kilo.