Looking Back: Joe E. Brown Visits the 1941 Vols

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   Many great ball players would run the bases, swing a bat or throw a ball in the old Sulphur Dell ballpark. And many dignitaries would attend the Nashville Vols games as a fan or to gain attention.
   When the 1941 Vols arrived in Nashville from spring training for their first workout in the home park, Joe E. Brown a comedic actor, was among the 2,000 Nashvillians that greeted the team. It might not seem a big deal, but Brown would make a small contribution to "America's Pastime" by attending ball games as a devoted fan while making movies about baseball.
   The Tennessean reported that the best Vols hitters in batting practice were much better than "the appearance of Movie Comedian Joe E. Brown swinging at several pitches. The big-mouthed cinema star had difficulty connecting with the ball, for he was unable to find a left-handed bat. At least, he gave that as a reason for his inability to hit the right field fence." Brown was known in the sporting world for his baseball trilogy Fireman, Save My Child (1932), Elmer the Great (1933) and Alibi Ike (1935).  
   It was widely known in Hollywood of Brown's enthusiasm for the game of baseball. He was persistently seen in the company of baseball players. In 1940, while in Nashville, Brown dropped by to visit the Vanderbilt baseball team on the university's campus. The high school in his birthplace (Holgate, Ohio) dedicated a corner stone to its stadium.
   In the movie Fireman, Save My Child, Brown is cast as "Smokey" Joe Grant a small town fireman with a girlfriend, Sally (Evalyn Knapp). Grant's pitching proficiency has earned him a spot on the St. Louis Cardinals roster. His character has invented a fire extinguisher that he says, "lets loose chemicals that'll smother the blaze like a wet blanket." While trying to sell his invention, Grant forgets that he is pitching in the seventh game of the World Series.
   The book "Great Baseball Films" by Rob Edelman gives a synopsis of the movie: "Back in his hometown of Rosedale, Kansas, Grant is a hero. Kids fawn over him, and his teammates and opponents patiently await his return if he is called away during a game to fight a fire. But in St. Louis, his manager (Guy Kibbee) is forever gruff and growling, and his teammates ride him for his country values. Grant innocently starts up a friendly conversation with a woman, who automatically assumes he is a masher. June (Lillian Bond), a gold digger, hoodwinks him, taking all his money. 'It must be too exciting to live in a small town,' she snootily observes. But Sally loves him for who he is, not for his money. Despite his various distractions, he manages to perform the requisite heroics at the finale, leading the Cards to victory against the New York Yankees in the World Series."
   Ring Lardner was a sports writer in the early part of the 20th century. Along with Tennessee-native Grantland Rice, these were the two best-known sports writers in the country. Lardner was also a writer of fictitious short stories related to baseball. Elmer the Great is based on Lardner's work. Edelman gives this plot in Brown's second baseball movie Elmer the Great:
   "Elmer Kane is a home run hitter rather than a pitcher, and he comes with a small-town Indiana girlfriend (Patricia Ellis)-his major league team is the Chicago Cubs. He is 'sassy and ignorant' braggart and rube, whose personality is contrasted to a new paint job: 'fresh and all wet.' He alienates his teammates, who make him the butt of their humor. He leads the Cubs to the summit of the standings. He refuses to be bought by gamblers. He fights and makes up with his girl. He thwarts a sneaky Yankees pitcher's attempts to cheat by making it appear that he is hurling a ball when he really isn't. He wins the deciding game of the World Series with an inside-the-park homer. And he, too, refers to the World Series as the "World Serious."
   Another one of Lardner's work was made into a movie that completes Brown's baseball trilogy. Edelson gives this scenario of Alibi Ike:
   "Brown is cast as Frank X. Farrell, fireballing right-handed rookie pitcher who comes to the Chicago Cubs from Sauk Center, a small town. Farrell is a comical character with a silly, exaggerated pitching motion, and he first appears on-screen by crashing his car through an outfield wall. However, Farrell is as brash and overconfident as he is talented. After throwing blazing strikes, he observes that he is not even trying, that he has not even warmed up. He utters such lines as 'I don't never brag,' and then immodestly describes his athletic abilities. Plus, he is constantly making excuses.
   "The veteran ballplayers humor Farrell by playing pranks on him. He becomes romantically involved with his manager's sister-in-law (Olivia de Havilland). Gamblers attempt to bribe him into throwing the game that will land the Cubs in the 'World Serious.' Eventually he is kidnapped, but he escapes in time to smack a game winning inside-the-park home run, diving all over the catcher, who comes out to block the plate. He and his girl have a spat but are reunited in the finale."
   Brown played some minor league baseball before he pursued an acting career. Therefore his natural athleticism was realistic in his roles as a baseball player. He began his movie-acting career in 1928 and is best remembered for his role in the classic film Some Like It Hot. In that movie Brown played the part of millionaire Osgood Fielding, III who falls for Daphne (played by Jack Lemmon in drag). Co-stars were Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe.
   Brown was also a television and radio announcer for the Yankees in 1953. His son, Joe L. Brown, was a longtime general manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Joe E. Brown died in Brentwood, California in 1973 just weeks short of his 81st birthday.
Traughber's Tidbit: This is an interesting article by Tennessean's sports writer Raymond Johnson in his "One Man's Opinion" column dated April 17, 1952: "Atlanta-Until Prexy Earl Mann does away with the foot-high hedge fence in Ponce de Leon's left field Atlanta baseball writers should be awfully careful what they say about Sulphur Dell…. Nashville's park has been the subject of more stories by Atlanta scribes over the years than were Stone Mountain half-dollars minted. Do you remember those half-dollars?
   "The scribes in the Georgia metropolis, past and present, have called Sulphur Dell everything that was uncomplimentary. They even changed the spelling of Nashville's unique park. They switched Sulphur to "Suffer" and inserted an H in place of the D in Dell. In a way I didn't blame them, for, you see, Atlanta didn't win a game in the Nashville playground for nearly two full seasons. But, even candy doesn't taste right to a kid after he has stuffed himself with it for hours.
   "Since the Crackers started their exhibition schedule, they discovered that the hedge, which a midget could step over without assistance, needed more than the 'green' leaves of a few boxwoods. So they put a railing, painted green, on the outside of the hedge to prevent balls from going through it. The only thing the players figured this would accomplish is to offer more and better ways for injuries. Let's take a look at the ground rules and perhaps you will understand why the Atlanta scribes no longer will ridicule Sulphur Dell. They read:
   An outfielder must have both feet within the playing side of the hedge, in foul or fair territory, to make a legal catch of a fly ball. In the event an outfielder leaps for a fly ball, the catch, if made within the playing area shall be legal even if the outfielder falls into, through, or over the hedge after making the catch. The ball, however, must be held.
   "That's okay, but what if an outfielder dropped the ball? The rules say the batter is entitled to two bases IF it is dropped into the hedge. IF it is dropped beyond the hedge, it is a home run. That's where the catch comes, and where there are going to be so many arguments that even the club's officials tremble with fear.
   "The rules do not cover it, but the hedge gives the Crackers far far more advantages than Sulphur Dell's short right field fence. One of the Crackers tells me Manager Dixie Walker has instructed his left fielders to let ground balls go if the opposition has runners who might score from first base without a perfect throw, The ground rules would stop them at third base since it is an automatic double on any ball that goes through, over or lodges in the boxwoods.
 "Tuesday night Bob Boring [Nashville Vols player] smashed a sizzling drive to left that eluded (maybe accidentally, maybe intentionally) Al Aucoin in left field. Jim Marshall was on first base at the time and he turned on the steam to score. He reached the plate all right, but was waved back to third base because the ball bounced over the hedge. Aucoin probably could have headed it off, and he would have under normal conditions, but not with that lubricous hedge. Which limits such hits to two bases. So, after seeing that play, the Atlanta scribes have hoisted a white flag and no longer, or at least until Ponce de Leon's hedge has disappeared, will they say uncomplimentary things about Sulphur, the only Southern league park that had not undergone some changes in its distances since 1927."
   Tidbit Two: Adjacent to Raymond Johnson's Column was this notice: "Belichick Proud Father: Vanderbilt's Assistant Coach Steve Belichick became the father of an eight pound four ounce son yesterday afternoon. Mrs. Belichick and the new boy, William Stephen Belichick, were resting comfortably in Vanderbilt hospital last night. It is their first child."
   (Yes, this is the Nashville birth announcement of Bill Belichick the current New England Patriots head coach and five-time Super Bowl winner. His father, Steve, was a Vanderbilt running backs coach (1949-52). Now you know that "Little Bill's" weight at birth was eight pounds, four ounces something that New Englanders don't know.)
   If you have any comments or suggestions contact Bill Traughber via email [email protected]