Headin' Home

1920 ComedyDrama 55 minutes Directed by Lawrence C. Windom

Open in new tab

About Headin' Home

Babe Ruth plays himself in a story that invents a country boyhood for him. In the film he comes from a small town, not Baltimore, and cuts down a tree to make his own bat. He is the joke of the town until a long home run changes that. The closing scenes put him with the New York Yankees and cut in footage shot at the Polo Grounds.

Cast & crew

More about Headin' Home

Lawrence C. Windom directed. Arthur 'Bugs' Baer wrote the screenplay from a story by Earle Browne. William Shea and Herbert H. Yudkin produced it. Yankee Photo Corporation distributed it. Ollie Leach was the cameraman. It opened on 19 September 1920.

Themes

  • A made-up boyhood
  • A homemade bat
  • The Yankees at the Polo Grounds
  • Babe Ruth
  • baseball bat
  • small town
  • home run
  • Polo Grounds

Background

Ruth had just been sold to the Yankees. The picture builds a small-town legend around him instead of using his Baltimore childhood.

Look

Ollie Leach shot the staged scenes and the film cuts in footage of Ruth batting at the Polo Grounds.

Notes

  • Ruth Taylor plays Mildred Tobin. William Sheer plays Harry Knight. Margaret Seddon and Frances Victory are also billed.
  • The boyhood in the film is fiction. Ruth grew up in Baltimore and spent much of his childhood in a reform school.
  • The Yankees were playing at the Polo Grounds in 1920.
  • Wikidata lists a running time of 71 minutes. The Wikipedia copy runs 55 minutes.

Scenes

  • Ruth cuts down a tree and carves a bat from it.
  • Yankees footage at the Polo Grounds closes the story.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (Heading_Home)