Jack the Baseball Slugger - 1936

[Yhtapmys]

All-Star Cast For Baseball Say Anything Goes
HOLLYWOOD, July 6—(AP)—Anything goes, and most everything will, when Hollywood's male picture stars stage a benefit baseball game at Wrigley Field [the one in Los Angeles, not Chicago] July 18.
Billed as a mighty struggle between the “Leading men” and the “comedians,” it will be hard to tell which team is which with line-ups that are slated to include:
Joe E. Brown, Jack Benny, Robert Armstrong, John Boles, Leo Carillo, Jimmy Gleason, Jack Oakie, Vince Barnett, Clark Gable (maybe), Ricardo Cortez, Harry Ruby and and Sam Brisken (the only two serious players in the fold), Eddie Cantor the four Marx brothers (all playing second), Edward Arnold, Lew Ayers, Dick Powell, Buster Keaton and a host of others.

Movie Stars in Baseball Comedy As Hollywood in Benefit Battle
Los Angeles, Cal., July 18.—AP—Seventeen thousand fans howled themselves hoarse and the game of baseball took an awful beating today when Hollywood stars staged their annual diamond charity game.
Lined up as the Comedians and the Leading Men, the game started off with a riot when the fun-makers stormed into the park on wheelchairs, crutches, wheelbarrows and a police patrol wagon.
The heroes, all dark and handsome, put Walter Abel on the mound to start with and by the end of the second inning, one hour later, the Comedians had used up four pitchers and were still going strong.
Jack Benny, with a cigar in his mouth, managed to reach first base on a walk where Georgie Jessel and Benny Fields served him with beer and sandwiches, but was almost lapped on a race around the bases when Vic Orsatti slammed a home run inside the park.
Leo Carillo, from the microphone, requested Warner Baxter in the stands to stand up and 1000 men obliged.
Accompanied by a caddy, Buster Keaton walked to the plate, selected a club the size of a young oak tree and threw the customers by dumping down a perfect bunt. The umpire, Victor Moore, threatened to oust him from the game for offering a bribe to the second baseman.
The Leading Men, with Fred MacMurray on third and Ricardo Cortez on second, offered a strong defense until a ball was knocked into the infield.
The entire Comedian team suddenly sprawled out on the ground after its outfielder, Lucien Littlefield, caught a long fly with ease. A moment later the comedy team of Mitchell and Durant, after turning respective body flips over a grounder, lit into each other in ono of their famous “fights.”
Director Mervin Leroy, Andy Devine and Harry Ruby were the first pitchers for the Comedians.
It didn't look like a Coast League ball game—the stands were practically filled.
Unverified reports had the Comedians ahead in the trival matter of scoring runs.

[Jhammes]

In the spirit of Baseball Season (Jack Benny's favorite sport, right?),
the NBC Archives, or fans who were there with Super 8 Cameras, may still have this.


From The Ocala (Florida) Star-Banner, October 21, 1973:

>BENNY PLAYS ROLE TO HILT
>
>OAKLAND (AP) Comedian Jack Benny, invited to throw out the first
>ball at Saturday's World Series game, tried to keep it instead.
> The perpetual 39-year-old comic, who made a fortune out of posing
>as a cheapskate, faked a toss to Oakland A's catcher Gene Tenace,
>then put the ball in his coat pocket and sat down.
> A's owner Charles O. Finley, sitting next to Benny behind the
>Oakland dugout, jokingly forced Benny to surrender the $3 item, and
>the first ball was finally tossed to Tenace.