12/21/24
February 27, 2007
The Innovations of Lew Fonseca: Partially inspired by this thread, a look into the man whose fingerprints dot the blueprints for sports training films, highlight films, sports broadcasting... even the speed gun. A column by The Crafty Sousepaw.
Souse, that was one really enlightening piece of work. I had no idea that Lew Fonseca could be considered the "Father of Sports Film". He may have had the greatest impact on sport of any single individual. Recently on one of the local Boston TV stations, they showed a promotional film of the 1952 Red Sox that had been put out by Narragansett Beer. (If you are old enough to remember that stuff, you are in my geriatric group.) I was fascinated to listen to Curt Gowdy narrating and to see clips of some really great players from that time. We are fortunate in this electronic age to be able to store the video memorabilia from today. Even better, if there is something discovered from a previous time, we may be able to preserve it in the realm of the 1s and 0s. Thanks for teaching me something today, Crafty.
posted by Howard_T at 10:39 AM on February 27, 2007
A point that might be of additional interest: In the 1880's Eadweard Muybridge used strobe-lit photography and other technical tricks in what was a precursor to motion pictures. He did capture sporting subjects such as horse racing and lawn tennis, though I am not familiar with him ever shooting baseball.
posted by smithers at 11:10 AM on February 27, 2007
First, thanks guys for the nice comments. Reading it now, the piece seems about as dry and humorless as a bad book report, but I think it makes up for it by being excessively long and full of arcana. Tell us more about this presentation at the BHOF.... There's not too much to tell, except that the live version, held in the Hall's Bullpen Theater, included actual film clips to spice things up a bit. I think the whole thing ran about 45 minutes. Speaking of clips, smithers, this one (YouTube) is the earliest known film footage of baseball. It was shot by Thomas Edison himself in 1898. It is titled "The Ball Game" but it appears to be more of a practice of some sort than an actual contest. Pretty cool. Edison also shot a short skit called "Casey At The Bat," which had nothing to do with the poem but was comprised instead of an argument with an umpire that ends up in a full scale brouhaha. Here is a fairly exhaustively compiled list of the eariliest baseball movies. As you can see, there was no shortage of baseball films that pre-dated Fonseca, including a World Series highlight film from as early as 1906, but it was Fonseca who introduced the commercial opportunities in these highlights.
posted by The Crafty Sousepaw at 11:34 AM on February 27, 2007
Thanks so much, this is a really interesting read! Great Column!
posted by skydivemom at 04:21 PM on February 27, 2007
My lord, more of this please, TCS. Beautiful column, buddy. SpoFi needs more of this now more than ever.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:31 PM on February 28, 2007
Wow, that was one of the best columns I have read here, Crafty. Interesting, well-written, and I really learned something new. Thanks! Tell us more about this presentation at the BHOF....