How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game
About How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game
A stenographer writes the office boy a note: "Dear Teddy: Come home at once. Grandma is dead." The boss lets him go. She faints when the excuse works, and the bookkeeper is sent to take her home. The broker leaves for the game too. Teddy climbs a telephone pole and watches through a spyglass. The view is a circular mask over real game footage, and the boss spots the stenographer and the bookkeeper in the stands.
Cast & crew
More about How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game
Edwin S. Porter photographed it for Edison. Thomas A. Edison copyrighted it on 10 July 1906 (H80456 through H80464). AFI lists an August 1906 release and lengths of 800 and 785 feet. It was shown on 9 August 1906 at the New York Theatre Roof, Broadway and 45th Street, on a baseball night after the Giants beat the Pirates 6–0. Players from both clubs were in the house.
Themes
Look
Edwin S. Porter shot the office scenes and the Polo Grounds footage. The game is masked as the view through Teddy's spyglass.
Preservation
About five minutes survive, assembled from pieces of the original. Shieber estimates the 1906 release ran about 13 or 14 minutes.
Notes
- Tom Shieber identified the ballpark as the Polo Grounds and the clubs as the New York Giants and the Pittsburgh Pirates, with Christy Mathewson warming up.
- He dates some of the game shots to 20 or 21 June 1906 and the Mathewson footage to another day that year.
- Charles Musser's summary of the office half is the source for the fake telegram about grandma.
- Shieber puts the 1906 running time at about 13 or 14 minutes. What remains is about five minutes.
- The surviving piece is on the DVD set Reel Baseball.
Scenes
- The stenographer's note gets Teddy the afternoon off.
- From the telephone pole, the spyglass mask opens on Mathewson and the Polo Grounds.
- The boss finds the stenographer and the bookkeeper at the game.
Also available
- Reel Baseball (DVD)
Quotes
Dear Teddy: Come home at once. Grandma is dead.
