Dan O’Brien, the owner of rubewaddell.net, answered my call for the documentary shorts of the Rube. It seems that footage was destroyed, but–there’s a rubewaddell.net! Why are you still here? Shoo, shoo, I will be here when you get back.
Buy me a cup of coffee
A ridiculous amount of coffee was consumed in the process of building this project. Add some fuel if you'd like to keep me going!
San Antonio Light
July 19, 1914*
Historic Film Lost in Fire
Moving Pictures of McKinley, Russo-Japanese War and Other Destroyed at Lubin Plant
The recent fire at the Lubin plant in this city, apart from the financial loss of one-half million dollars’ worth of films that could not be insured, caused Sigmund Lubin many a heartache, says the Philadelphia North American.
Not alone because of a sentimental attachment for old prints destroyed, but largely because they represented the first attempts of an American manufacturer to film objects of interest and incidents which can never take place again.
Probably one of the films which Mr. Lubin prized as highly as any which he lost was that of President McKinley and his cabinet at Camp Alger during the Spanish-American war. He also had a valuable film of the martyred president, as well as some films of funerals of foreign monarchs. These, of course, had a large commercial value abroad.
[last paragraph]
Among others of special interest were the films of the Dixon-Gans fight, the Corbett-McGovern fight and a picture of the crucial game of the baseball season of 1902, when Rube Waddell pitched the Athletics to their first American championship.
*The Lubin fire actually occurred on June 13, 1914.
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From: Baseball in the Movies
A Comprehensive Reference, 1915-1991
by Hal Erickson
McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC, 1992
In 1903 the Lubin Company of Philadelphia released a little gem titled “Game of Base Ball” (how did they come up with these titles?). This was virtually a newsreel, depicting a game between the Philadelphia Athletics (the champion ball club of 1902) and the Baltimore team. The players were filmed full-figure at their positions, with special emphasis placed upon pitcher Rube Waddell. Lubin distributed “Game of Base Ball” with a companion featurette, the provocatively titled “Crowd Leaving Athletic Base Ball Grounds.”
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September 13, 1902
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin
“During the A’s series with Baltimore, Professor Lubin’s cineograph took pictures of Waddell pitching to Howell and they will be reproduced at the 9th and Arch Museum next week.”