Pride of the Yankees was released in July of 1942, a sports film best remembered for a famous quote: “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
The speaker, of course, was Lou Gehrig, nicknamed the “Iron Horse” by New York Yankees baseball fans. During his professional career, cut short by illness, he played in a record 2,130 consecutive games, a record not broken until 1995.
The scene for his famous speech is Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939: “Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day.” One month earlier, on his 36th birthday, he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the disease that would kill him two years later.
To those who were there in 1939, an estimated 62,000 fans, it was a remarkable moment. Hollywood essentially copied it – with minor adjustments and in close-up – three years later with the release of The Pride of the Yankees. The actor’s version of the speech concludes the film.
The film would receive 11 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture in 1943. Both its leading man and actress Teresa Wright were nominated as Best Actor/Actress. Of the 11 nominations, the film won Best Film Editing.
It was directed by Sam Wood, a veteran of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Wood’s films from the 1930’s and 40’s include classics such as A Night at the Opera, Our Town, and Goodbye, Mr Chips. Wood was nominated as Best Director for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), Kitty Foyle (1940), and Kings Row (1942). He would later direct Gary Cooper in three more films: For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Casanova Brown (1944), and Saratoga Trunk (1945). The film was reviewed by N.Y. Times critic Bosley Crowther on June 16, 1942. He wrote:
“‘The Pride of the Yankees’ is a review of the life of a shy and earnest young fellow who loved his mother, worked hard to get ahead, incidentally became a ball player for two reasons—because he loved the game and also needed the cash—enjoyed a clumsy romance which eventually enriched his life and then, at the height of his glory, was touched by the finger of death. It is, without being pretentious, a real saga of American life—homely, humorous, sentimental and composed in patient detail.”
