Facing Grover Cleveland Alexander. John Kieran, “Looking Around with Lou Gehrig,” New York Times, March 16, 1941.
“He can’t miss.” Ibid.
“I was telling Lou about the new breast stroke.” John Kieran, “With an Assist for Lou Gehrig,” New York Times, March 12, 1941.
“Doc has told me all about him.” Ibid.
“It’s the last glove I used.” Kieran, New York Times, March 16, 1941.
“There was Alex.” Ibid.
It was impossible not to notice. James P. Dawson, “Henrich in Game at Gehrig’s Post,” New York Times, March 23, 1939.
James Kahn of the Sun. Eleanor Gehrig and Joseph Durso, My Luke and I, p. 209.
“His throwing has been open to question.” Dawson, New York Times, March 23, 1939.
“has slowed up dreadfully.” Gayle Talbot, “Iron Horse Seen as Weakening By Talbot,” Bakersfield Californian via Associated Press, April 15, 1939.
But Lou had enough goodwill in the press corps. John Kieran, “One Man on a Horse,” New York Times, March 28, 1939.
Lou could get inexplicably drowsy. Gehrig and Durso, My Luke and I, p. 4; and Interview of Eleanor Gehrig by Paul Gallico, Goldwyn studio files.
“He didn’t have a shred of his former power.” Jonathan Eig, Luckiest Man, p. 266.
“McCarthy will keep him in there.” Talbot, Bakersfield Californian, April 15, 1939.
McCarthy sidestepped reporters’ questions. Frank Graham, Lou Gehrig, p. 149.
“He would go down for a ground ball.” Ibid.
Times writer Arthur J. Daley dropped a disquieting note. Arthur J. Daley, “Ruffing Wins, 8–4, But Injures Elbow,” New York Times, April 26, 1939.
Lou knew it was over. Gehrig and Durso, My Luke and I, p. 213.
“I told him the heartbreaking words.” Ibid.
“I’ll let him take a rest.” Charles P. Ward, “Ward to the Wise,” Detroit Free Press, May 3, 1939.
Taking himself out of the lineup, he wrote, “was inevitable.” Letter from Lou Gehrig to Eleanor, from Book-Cadillac Hotel in Detroit, May 3, 1939.
Johnny Schulte, a journeyman catcher. “Gehrig Reported Ailing,” New York Times, June 2, 1939.
But a few days later. Eig, Luckiest Man, p. 295.
As soon as Gehrig. Eig, Luckiest Man, p. 299.
“There was some wasting of the muscles.” Ibid.
“We think it’s serious.” Gehrig and Durso, My Luke and I, p. 11.
“I waited and worried.” Ibid.
Dr. Habein’s early, informed guess. Eig, Luckiest Man, p. 302.
“There is a fifty-fifty chance.” Letter from Gehrig to Eleanor, cited in My Luke and I, pp. 13–14.
Lou was back at Yankee Stadium. Arthur J. Daley, “Infantile Paralysis Terminates Gehrig’s Playing Career,” New York Times, June 22, 1939.
“You have to take the bitter with the sweet.” Ibid.
In the dugout. Ibid.
“a death warrant in his pocket.” George Moore, “Columbia Lou Gehrig Steps from Diamond to Hall of Fame Add 100 Per Cent,” Arizona Republic, June 24, 1939.
“He’d see them all.” Gehrig and Durso, My Luke and I, p. 20.
“I’ve been over your record.” Ray Robinson, Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time, p. 267.
Eleanor had to help him sign his name and light a cigarette. Gehrig and Durso, My Luke and I, p. 20.
In the final months. Letter from Eleanor Gehrig to Paul Gallico; interview of Eleanor Gehrig by Gallico for script preparation. Goldwyn studio files.
Nell added more. Letter from Nell Twitchell to A. F. Lorenzen, a friend of Lou’s parents who was trying to intervene for money for them with Eleanor.
“Maybe if, one day, he had pulled up a little.” Ira Wolfert, “Mrs. Lou Gehrig Reveals Unflinching Fight Made by Famous Yankee ‘Iron Man’ in Battle for his Life,” The Sporting News, Jan. 1, 1942, p. 5.
In his final weeks, Lou’s breathing slowed. Gehrig and Durso, My Luke and I, p. 228.
Barrow kissed Lou. Jack Mahon, “Final Tribute Paid Memory of Gehrig at Riverdale Church,” Kane Republican via International News Service, June 4, 1941.
“My three pals.” Eig, Luckiest Man, p. 356.
“The most beatified expression.” Gehrig and Durso, My Luke and I, p. 228.
“She told me that Lou Gehrig had died.” Phone interview with Larry Merchant.
In his office that day Barrow told reporters. “Gehrig Wasted to 150 Pounds, Barrow Avers,” Cincinnati Enquirer via AP, June 4, 1941.
Eleanor followed, with her brother, Frank Twitchell, Jr. Eig, Luckiest Man, p. 358.
Walsh had shrewdly gauged. Leigh Montville, The Big Bam, p. 263.
“I shall never forget the expression on Babe Ruth’s face.” Christy Walsh, Adios to Ghosts, p. 25.
“I had never had Babe Ruth.” Ibid., p. 14.
“I read where Sol Lesser.” “Slugging New York First Baseman May Enter Motion Pictures,” United Press, Oct. 20, 1936.
“This is not a joke.” Ibid.
Walsh’s publicity ploy. “Mr. Gehrig as Tarzan,” Montana Butte Standard, Oct. 24, 1936.
“knotty knees.” Frederick Othman, “Gehrig Puts on Pants; Now Ready to Kiss Film Blonde,” United Press, Jan. 5, 1936.
watching Gehrig “poke around a ranch and get tossed.” Herbert Cohn, “At the Local Strand,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 7, 1938.
“Anything, El, you know that I consider a pleasure and a privilege.” Letter from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig, June 24, 1941.
“Not knowing how you have been feeling now that the shock is over.” Ibid.
“That night the phone rang in my apartment.” Ibid.
Sheehan suggested that the rights to Lou’s story. Ibid.
“And why the hell should I?” Jerome Holtzman, editor, No Cheering in the Press Box, p. 104.
He was still waiting for a “respectable” offer from MGM. Letter from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig, July 2, 1941.
“By self-admission,” he wrote to Eleanor. Ibid.
She said Selznick “is okay but in the long run.” Ibid.
Busch’s hankering. Pat McGilligan, editor, interview by David Thomson. Backstory.
“has accidentally got himself.” Niven Busch, “The Little Heinie,” The New Yorker, Aug. 10, 1929.
“he was the sort of boy.” Ibid.
“My mother makes a home comfortable enough for me.” Ibid.
“Goldwyn was not very smart.” McGilligan.
He invited Goldwyn. A. Scott Berg, Goldwyn: A Biography, p. 370.
Walsh had negotiated. Letter from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig, July 9, 1941.
Walsh reminded her. Ibid.
“It seems like the whole world is interested.” Letter from Louella Parsons to Samuel Goldwyn, Feb. 3, 1942.
“I have four or five different stars in mind.” John Chapman, “Bob Hope Says He Feels Like ‘Hess in Scotland,’” Harrisburg Telegraph, July 19, 1941.
“The results of a Hollywood poll.” Goldwyn studio files.
“WHO IS GOING TO PLAY THE ROLE OF LOU GEHRIG?” Press release issued by Christy Walsh, Oct. 2, 1941.
“That silly contest.” Letter from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig, Oct. 28, 1941.
“If Sam Goldwyn, the movie producer, is finding it difficult.” “Who Should Play Gehrig?” The Sporting News, Aug. 14, 1941.
“You know, it isn’t such a bad idea.” Hedda Hopper, “Eddie Albert’s the Favorite to Play Life of Lou Gehrig,” Des Moines Register, Aug. 7, 1941.
Barrow, a shrewd judge of talent. Letters from Edward G. Barrow to Eddie Albert’s agent and Eleanor Gehrig, Aug. 18–19, 1941.
Bernard Sherling of Brooklyn. “Who Should Play Gehrig?” The Sporting News, Aug. 21, 1941, and Goldwyn studio files.
“But now comes a proposal.” “No Calls for Pats on the Back,” editorial, The Sporting News, Nov. 20, 1941.
Based only on physical resemblance.” J. G. Taylor Spink, “Who Will Fill Gehrig Role—Film or Diamond Player—On Screen?” The Sporting News, Dec. 4, 1941.
“Here’s something.” “Cooper to Play Part of Gehrig,” Montana Standard, Dec. 25, 1941.
Howard Hawks, who directed both films, understood Cooper. Frank Nugent, “‘The All-American Man,’” The New York Times, July 15, 1942.
“I don’t want anything from him.” Leigh Montville, The Big Bam, p. 343.
“Grin, sure I’ll grin.” Paul Mickelson, “Babe Given Ovation and Forgotten,” Oakland Tribune via Associated Press, April 15, 1936.
“But yesterday, while rehearsing a home run blow.” Montville, The Big Bam, p. 243.
“He looked to me exactly as he did the last year I saw him play.” Letter from Paul Gallico to Samuel Goldwyn, undated.
But a few days later, shortly after midnight. “Babe Ruth Is Ill,” New York Times, Jan. 3, 1942.
“My suspicion is that he went on a bender.” Gallico letter to Goldwyn.
“Ruth has not been looking quite right for several weeks.” “Babe Ruth Case Cleared by Doctor,” New York Times, Jan. 4, 1942.
“I never felt better in my life.” “Babe Ready for Films,” San Bernardino County Sun via Associated Press, Jan. 31, 1942.
Walsh had spent a week trying to arrange the perfect greeting. Letter from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig, Feb. 8, 1942.
a recent immigrant from Australia with “a gorgeous dialect.” Ibid.
“A crowd gathered.” Ibid.
No pants. Dick Hyland, “Behind the Line,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 11, 1942.
“To tell the life story of Lou Gehrig without some reference.” Memo from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig, Nov. 25, 1941.
“He should not appear in the flesh.” Gallico’s notes from Eleanor Gehrig interviews.
“Babe himself would be a menace.” Ibid.
“There was nothing Lou could do about it.” Ibid.
“In the beginning.” Memo from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig, Nov. 25, 1941.
Goldwyn blew up at the challenge. Memo from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig, Nov. 25, 1941.
“I’m cutting Ruth’s part in two.” Ibid.
“It seems illogical.” Ibid.
“To put it briefly he absolutely refuses.” Ibid.
Dahlgren was insulted. Letter from Babe Dahlgren to Walsh, Feb. 25, 1942.
Dahlgren lost his fight. Interview with Matt Dahlgren.
“IMPORTANT THAT YOU PHONE ME TODAY.” Telegram from Wally Pipp to Christy Walsh, Jan. 21, 1942.
Walsh spurned him. Letter from Walsh to Pipp, Jan. 21, 1942.
Ruth the highest paid at $1,500 a week. List of contracts. Goldwyn studio files.
“You ought to hear what the ‘old woman’ said to him.” Letter from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig, Feb. 14, 1942.
“First of all.” Nelson Bell, “Mr. Goldwyn Explains About That Gehrig Film,” Washington Post, Feb. 3, 1942.
“Baseball on the screen is dull.” Goldwyn studio files.
Delehanty asked: “What is there so repellent.” Thornton Delehanty, New York Times, May 3, 1942.
The writer Alva Johnston profiled Goldwyn. A. Scott Berg, Goldwyn, p. 268.
“I never knew what the Goldwyn touch was.” Carol Easton, The Search for Sam Goldwyn, pp. 207–208.
“Can’t we do that, Mank?” Interviews with Sara Mankiewicz and Frank Mankiewicz by Richard Maibaum, for Mank: The Wit, World and Life of Herman Mankiewicz, courtesy of Nick Davis.
“And honest to goodness.” Letter from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig.
Goldwyn started life far from the American sandlots depicted in Pride. Credit for details of Goldwyn’s life are owed mainly to A. Scott Berg, Goldwyn: A Biography.
Watching a scene with the inexperienced Cooper. Gary Cooper, as told to George Scullin, “Well It Was This Way,” Saturday Evening Post, March 7, 1956, part 4.
The relationship between Cooper and Goldwyn. Goldwyn studio files include telegrams describing contractual terms and threat by Goldwyn. Also cited in Jeffrey Meyers, Gary Cooper: An American Hero.
Cooper admitted that the criticism made him feel “pretty small.” Gary Cooper, as told to George Scullin, “Well It Was This Way,” Saturday Evening Post, March 31, 1956, part 7.
“I bow to your threats.” Goldwyn studio files and Gary Cooper: An American Hero.
“My part is such that it cannot help.” Carl Rollyson, The Life of Walter Brennan: A Real American Character, p. 79.
She promised Pollack a longer version with more details. “Baseball Bride,” by Eleanor Gehrig, book proposal, Jan. 24, 1972. From the files of George Pollack, Eleanor’s lawyer, courtesy of his daughter, Ruth Pollack Pappas.
They were thick and meticulously maintained. Eleanor donated her scrapbooks to the Baseball Hall of Fame, which allowed me to examine them as well as the prop scrapbook that Goldwyn donated to the Hall.
Auburn-haired, brown-eyed, vivacious, and urbane. Ray Robinson, Iron Horse, p. 177.
“It was I who was to inherit as a mother-in-law.” Eleanor Gehrig, “Baseball Bride.”
“I could hold my liquor.” Gehrig and Durso, My Luke and I, p. 77.
She observed Gehrig. Gallico–Eleanor Gehrig interviews, Goldwyn studio files.
But her Prohibition-era Lark was not made to last. Details drawn from My Luke and I, and Gallico-Gehrig interviews.
“Listen, Eleanor, I’m only married to Tony Lazzeri.” Tara Krieger, “Eleanor Gehrig,” Society for American Baseball Research website, undated.
She revealed that “he took a New Rochelle girl out a few times.” Gallico-Gehrig interviews.
“Eleanor was raised.” Ibid.
“I would not have traded.” Durso and Gehrig, My Luke and I, p. 229.
“WANT YOU TO BE THE FIRST.” Telegram to Eleanor Gehrig from William Hebert, Jan. 19, 1942.
“I don’t believe anyone is surprised.” Louella Parsons, “Teresa Wright Cast in Gehrig Film,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 22, 1942.
Her father, Arthur. Donald Spoto, A Girl’s Got to Breathe. This chapter owes a great debt to Mr. Spoto’s biographical work on Teresa Wright. He knew her, interviewed her, and captured her spirit and life in his book.
Wright started acting. Ibid.
she “plays a young lady.” Brooks Atkinson, “Speak Up Father,” New York Times, Nov. 19, 1939.
Soon after Life opened. Spoto, A Girl’s Got to Breathe.
“I had discovered in her.” Ibid.
During a break in filming. Donald Hough, “Failure?” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 27, 1942.
“And don’t mind if she twists her fingers.” Ibid.
He further assessed her state of mind. Ibid.
“Teresa,” Goldwyn exhorted her. Berg, Goldwyn, p. 358.
“Wyler was the first one out there.” Teresa Wright interview by Joan and Robert Franklin, Columbia Center for Oral History Archives, 1959.
“Miss Wright,” the trade magazine wrote. Herb Golden, “Review: ‘Mrs. Miniver,’” Variety. May 13, 1942.
“I never knew anything about baseball and never cared.” Bill Francis, “The Wright Stuff,” National Baseball Hall of Fame website, undated.
“If you queried Miss Wright carefully.” Goldwyn studio files.
“She despises bananas.” Sidney Skolsky, “Skolsky’s Hollywood: Meet Teresa Wright,” Cincinnati Enquirer, Aug. 19, 1942.
Hebert put out word. Goldwyn studio files.
In Cooper’s assessment. Ibid.
And Hebert reminded reporters. Ibid.
In her original, anti-cheesecake language. Spoto, A Girl’s Got to Breathe.
“It must be the contour of the Wright limb.” Kyle Crichton, “No Glamour Gal,” Collier’s Weekly, May 23, 1942.
“She incarnated a domestic radiance.” Scott Eyman, “More Than a Shadow of a Doubt,” Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2016.
On his first day at Wrigley. Goldwyn studio files, production schedule.
On a gloomy day. Ibid.
“Now, in the first scene, you walk.” Ibid., studio files.
The quest for authenticity began the previous fall. Studio files, production schedule.
“On old South Field.” “Goldwyn Films Campus,” Columbia Spectator, Oct. 9–10, 1941.
Led by Robert Cobb. “Film Crowd Jumps at the Chance to Buy a Ball Club of Its Own,” Harrisburg Telegraph, March 4, 1940. And Stephen M. Daniels, “Hollywood Stars,” SABR website.
His daughter, Maria, recalled attending games with her parents. Interview, Maria Cooper Janis.
“Big League baseball and big business trimmings.” Bill Henry, “New Diamond, Built by Gum, Is Perfect,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 30, 1925.
“When I got back to Montana.” Gary Cooper to George Scullin, “Well It Was This Way,” Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 25, 1956, part 2.
“York wasn’t so bad.” Ibid.
“Do it all the time from force of habit.” Harry Evans, “Hollywood Diary,” Family Circle, August 1942.
“When I was playing ball in the big leagues, my bats would be jumping.” Lawrence Ritter, The Glory of Their Times, p. 274.
“I am now an outfielder.” Ibid., p. 273.
“If that Cooper doesn’t get in there and play ball like Gehrig.” Frederick Othman, “Former Yankee Star Picks Up $25,000 as an Actor,” Oakland Tribune, via United Press, Feb. 12, 1942.
“Presently up the walk of the Tyrone Power home.” Goldwyn studio files.
“It might have been apocryphal.” Interview with Maria Cooper Janis.
“I see where Lefty O’Doul is taking a lot of bows teaching Gary Cooper to hit.” “Did O’Doul Teach Fernandez to Hit? Ask Stengel,” Belvedere Daily Republican, May 2, 1942.
Cooper stopped to light a cigarette one day. “Gary Cooper Left-Handed at Mr. Babe Ruth’s Behest,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 31, 1942.
“The machine would pitch out the ball and I’d whang at it.” Othman, “Former Yankee Star Picks Up $25,000 As An Actor,” Oakland Tribune, via United Press, Feb. 12, 1942.
During filming one day at Wrigley, Wood called for Ruth to step up. Sidney Skolsky, “Watching Them Make Pictures,” Cincinnati Enquirer, March 16, 1942.
Years later, Cooper confirmed some of the flip-flop story. “Well It Was This Way,” Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 25, 1956, part 2.
“I said, ‘Well, put the letters on his shirt backwards.’” Carol Easton, The Search for Sam Goldwyn, p. 207.
Sara Mankiewicz told her husband’s biographer, Richard Meryman. Interviews by Meryman for Mank: The Wit, World and Life of Herman Mankiewicz, courtesy of Nick Davis.
In 2013, Tom Shieber. Tom Shieber, Baseball Researcher, “The Pride of the Seeknay,” Feb. 3, 2013.
This chapter is drawn largely from the original outline of the Gehrig story by Paul Gallico and Abem Finkel, various scripts, including the first by Gallico and Earl Baldwin, and the so-called final one by Herman Mankiewicz and Jo Swerling. All are in the Goldwyn studio files. The remaining sources are:
“Beezark of Kerblam.” Damon Runyon, “Runyon, With Aid of Babe, Picks Yankees,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, Oct. 5, 1927.
“We have not yet come to view the Japs.” Damon Runyon, “The Brighter Side,” The Town Call, via King Features Syndicate, Jan. 3, 1942.
“I think Gallico is going to find things missing.” Letter from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig, Jan. 28, 1942.
“Huggins is seen seated.” Letter from Eleanor Gehrig to Walsh, Feb. 14, 1942.
“I will tell you, Baby.” Letter from Gallico to Eleanor Gehrig, April 8, 1942.
“We don’t want the public to think Gehrig was a sissy.” Letter from Walsh to Eleanor Gehrig, Feb. 14, 1942.
The Tanglefoot epithet. Westbrook Pegler, “Ty Cobb Becomes Spry, Sneaks Base on Combs,” Detroit Free Press, April 14, 1927, and “Fair Enough,” The Pittsburgh Press, June 4, 1941.
“I broke our engagement.” Gehrig and Durso, My Luke and I, p. 150.
Eleanor brought the error to Goldwyn’s attention through a memo. Memo from Christy Walsh to Samuel Goldwyn, listing errors in the script. March 23, 1942.
Much like the previous chapter, this one leans heavily on the original outline and scripts in the Goldwyn archive, and on the movie itself. The story and its characters evolved with its succeeding script, and even the “final script” by Mankiewicz and Swerling lacks some of the dialogue and scenes that are in the final cut of the film.
Dahlgren even pleaded with Gehrig to change his mind. Babe Dahlgren, “Gehrig’s Last Day,” Sports Illustrated, June 18, 1956.
Lou was “shaken to tears” when they saw Tristan and Isolde. Eleanor Gehrig and Durso, My Luke and I, p. 26.
“This is what I mean by screenwriting!” Maibaum, Mank, p. 279.
“I know, Mr. Goldwyn.” Holt’s polio confirmed by his daughter.
This chapter is also largely the product of what was found in the scripts in the Goldwyn archive and what survived to the final cut, as well as details from the Fox Movietone newsreel taken that day, which, unfortunately, is not intact, containing only a few lines from Gehrig’s speech.
“If Lou starts to fall, catch him.” Joe Gergen, “Dahlgren Recalls Decline of Gehrig 50 Years Ago,” Los Angeles Times via Newsday, July 9, 1989.
“In my eight-year-old head.” Interview with Larry Merchant.
“A few days ago, I sent Christy a copy of Lou’s speech.” Letter from Eleanor Gehrig to Goldwyn, April 16, 1942.
“You can count on the wording being perfect.” Ibid.
“Gehrig, who had always obeyed orders.” Rud Rennie, “Selkirk’s Second Homer of Day Speeds Sundra to Fifth Straight,” New York Herald Tribune, July 5, 1939.
Rosaleen Doherty, a thirty-five-year-old reporter. Rosaleen Doherty, “Wife Brave, Lou Shaken, as 61,000 Cheer Gehrig,” New York Daily News, July 5, 1939.
“But leave it to big, fat, jovial Babe.” Jack Miley, “Fun-Loving Guy Brings a Smile to Lou’s Face,” New York Post, July 5, 1939.
Irv Welzer, then eleven, watched the speech from the bleachers. Interview transcript courtesy of Marty Appel.
Soon after the speech, he wrote an article. Lou Gehrig, “Why I Am Thankful,” Baltimore Sun, Nov. 19, 1939.
“If not for the movie.” Interview with Jonathan Eig.
“I find myself pacing the floor at night.” Goldwyn studio files.
“Then I saw Sam Goldwyn who was waiting for me.” Louella O. Parsons, “Gary’s Portrait of Gehrig Pleases Widow at Preview,” Cincinnati Enquirer via International News Service, June 14, 1942.
“I think it meant a lot to her.” Bill Francis, “The Wright Stuff,” National Baseball Hall of Fame website, undated.
“Winchell saw a few reels.” Letter from Goldwyn to Gallico, June 1, 1942.
Willkie reminded the Academy Awards audience. “Take War to Foe, Willkie Demands,” New York Times, Feb. 27, 1942.
A preliminary report from what was known as the Hays Office. Production Code Administration report on The Pride of the Yankees script, March 16, 1942.
he dictated a letter to Abel Green. Letter from Goldwyn to Abel Green, Jan. 19, 1943. Goldwyn studio files.
“It’s been a tough picture to produce.” Letter from Samuel Goldwyn to Joseph Schenck, June 4, 1942. Ibid.
“I bet you $1,000.” Letter from Mervyn LeRoy to Buddy DeSylva, July 30, 1941; letter from DeSylva to LeRoy, Aug. 1, 1941; letter from LeRoy to Goldwyn, Sept. 11, 1941. Ibid.
“Those kids’ll be sitting out on a muddy hillside.” “Gary Cooper Moved Greatly on Pacific Tour,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 29, 1943.
A different assessment came from Pfc. Randon Gahlbeck. Daily Herald, Jan. 7, 1944.
The show in Port Moresby. Cooper as told to George Scullin, “Well, It Was This Way,” Saturday Evening Post, April 8, 1956, part 8.
“Hey, Coop!” Ibid.
It had been eighteen months. Transcript of Lux Radio Theatre broadcast, Oct. 4, 1943.
At the Theatre Royal in Sydney. “Gary Cooper in Sydney,” Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 20, 1943.
Under questioning by Robert Stripling. “Hearings Regarding the Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry,” Sam Wood’s testimony, Oct. 20, 1947.
Cooper testified at the HUAC hearings a few days after Wood. Meyers, Cooper: American Hero, p. 225.
Thomas, the chairman, who was questioning Cooper. “Hearings Regarding the Communist Infiltration,” Cooper’s testimony, Oct. 23, 1947.
Living alone in an apartment on East 53rd Street. Interview with Marty Appel.
In April, 1969, she wrote to Michael Burke. Letter from Eleanor Gehrig to Michael Burke, April 17, 1969. Letter from George Pollack to Goldwyn, April 24, 1969.
“We are somewhat at a loss.” Letter from Martin Gang to Pollack, May 12, 1969. Letter from Pollack to Gang, May 15, 1969.
“She was quite a presence.” Interview with Blythe Danner.
“I was trying to get hold of the quality.” Jerry Buck, “Actor Romances Another Eleanor,” Albuquerque Journal, via Associated Press, Jan. 15, 1978.
One day in 1971. Richard Sandomir, “A Little Gehrig Fantasy for Really Big Dollars,” New York Times, June 29, 1999.
“To watch someone close to you become a helpless, hopeless paralytic.” “Gehrig’s Widow Asks U.S. to Seek Sclerosis Remedy,” San Bernardino County Sun, via Associated Press, May 11, 1949.
“A few weeks later.” Transcript of “Bill Stern’s Sports Newsreel,” with Eleanor Gehrig, June 3, 1949.
Only two mourners attended her funeral. Tara Krieger, “Eleanor Gehrig,” SABR.org. Also confirmed in interview with Pollack’s daughter, Ruth Pollack Pappas.
“There was this elderly woman looking meek and happy to be here.” The story of Teresa Wright’s late-in-life conversion to baseball fandom was told through interviews with Rick Cerrone, a former Yankees publicity director, and correspondence he had with Wright and her family. Also, Ray Robinson, “Backtalk: Becoming a Yankee Fan by Way of Hollywood,” New York Times, July 4, 1999.
The primary source in this chapter is a recording that was serendipitously made of the Friars Club roast of Cooper and is available online.
Cooper, his wife, Veronica, known widely as Rocky. Interview with Maria Cooper Janis, Cooper’s daughter.
But Rocky had not told him of the fatal diagnosis. Jeffrey Meyers, Gary Cooper: American Hero, p. 321. Also, interview with Maria Cooper Janis.
“I’ve been coasting along.” Gary Cooper, as told to Leonard Slater, “I Took a Good Look at Myself and This Is What I Saw,” McCall’s, Jan. 1961, p. 62.