''The Stratton Story'' is a 1949 American biographical film directed by

Sam Wood Samuel Grosvenor Wood (July 10, 1883 – September 22, 1949) was an American film director and producer who is best known for having directed such Hollywood hits as '' A Night at the Opera'', '' A Day at the Races'', '' Goodbye, Mr. Chips'', '' ...

that tells the true story of Monty Stratton, a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who pitched for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

from 1934 to 1938. The film is the first of three to pair stars

Jimmy Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...

and June Allyson, followed by ''

The Glenn Miller Story ''The Glenn Miller Story'' is a 1954 American biographical film about the eponymous American band-leader, directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart in their second non-western collaboration. Plot The film follows big band leader Glenn ...

'' and '' Strategic Air Command''. Stratton commented that Stewart "did a great job of playing me, in a picture which I figure was about as true to life as they could make it." ''The Stratton Story'' was a financial success and won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture Story.

Plot

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

farm boy Monty Stratton demonstrates a knack for pitching a baseball. With the help of Barney Wile, a retired

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

who is now a scout, he manages to arrange a tryout with the

during the team's spring training in California. He shows promise and is given a contract. On his first evening at spring training, Stratton is introduced to a young woman named Ethel. They start dating and fall in love, but Stratton must leave from Ethel to travel to Chicago. When he is sent down to a minor league team, he proposes marriage. He is called back up to the White Sox and returns to Chicago with his newlywed bride, and by the end of the season, they are expecting a child. The next season, Stratton is pitching during a road game and cannot focus because he is thinking of his wife giving birth in Chicago. When he is notified that he has a son, he throws a

wild pitch In baseball, a wild pitch (WP) is charged against a pitcher when his pitch is too high, too short, or too wide of home plate for the catcher to control with ordinary effort, thereby allowing a baserunner, or the batter (on an uncaught third str ...

and is pulled from the game smiling. As his career progresses, Stratton improves so much that he is voted an All-Star in the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

. In the offseason of 1938, he accidentally shoots himself in the right leg while hunting on his farm in Texas. When his leg must be amputated, it appears as though his pitching career is over and he enters a very dark, brooding period. Nevertheless, with the support of his wife and a wooden leg, Stratton learns to walk along with his baby boy. He works hard and starts practicing his pitching again. He makes an inspirational, successful

minor-league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

comeback in 1946.

Cast

* James Stewart as Monty Stratton * June Allyson as Ethel *

Frank Morgan Francis Phillip Wuppermann (June 1, 1890 – September 18, 1949), known professionally as Frank Morgan, was an American character actor. He was best known for his appearances in films starting in the silent era in 1916, and then numerous sound ...

as Barney Wile *

Agnes Moorehead Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress. In a career spanning four decades, her credits included work in radio, stage, film, and television.Obituary ''Variety'', May 8, 1974, page 286. Moorehead was th ...

as Ma Stratton * Bill Williams as Eddie Dibson *

Bruce Cowling Bruce Cowling (October 30, 1919 – August 22, 1986) was a film and television actor in the 1940s and 1950s. The Oklahoma-born actor appeared in twenty films including ''Song of the Thin Man'' (1947), '' Battleground'' (1949), ''Ambush'' (1950 ...

Ted Lyons Theodore Amar Lyons (December 28, 1900 – July 25, 1986) was an American professional baseball starting pitcher, manager and coach in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in 21 MLB seasons, all with the Chicago White Sox. He is the franchise le ...

* Cliff Clark as Josh Higgins * Mary Lawrence as Dot * Dean White as

Luke Appling Lucius Benjamin "Luke" Appling (April 2, 1907 – January 3, 1991), nicknamed "Old Aches and Pains" was an American shortstop in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the Chicago White Sox (1930–1950). He was elected to the Base ...

Robert Gist Robert Marion Gist (October 1, 1917 – May 21, 1998) was an American actor and film director. Life and career Gist was reared around the stockyards of Chicago, Illinois, during the Great Depression. Reform school-bound after injuring an ...

as Earnie * Gene Bearden as Himself *

Bill Dickey William Malcolm Dickey (June 6, 1907 – November 12, 1993) was an American professional baseball catcher and manager. He played in Major League Baseball with the New York Yankees for 19 seasons. Dickey managed the Yankees as a player-manager in ...

as Himself *

Jimmy Dykes James Joseph Dykes (November 10, 1896 – June 15, 1976) was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a third and second baseman from through , most notably as a member of the Philadelph ...

as Himself * Mervyn "Merv" Shea as Himself Agnes Moorehead, who played the role of Monty Stratton's mother, was only seven years James Stewart's senior.

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

contract player Ronald Reagan sought the title role, but the studio refused to loan him to MGM because it believed that the film would be a failure.

Van Johnson Charles Van Dell Johnson (August 25, 1916 – December 12, 2008) was an American film, television, theatre and radio actor. He was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during and after World War II. Johnson was described as the embodiment o ...

was announced at one stage to play the lead.

Historical inaccuracy

The movie falsely indicates that Stratton's debut for the Chicago White Sox was part of a catastrophic 16–0 loss to the New York Yankees. However, Stratton's MLB debut occurred on Saturday, June 2, 1934 in a White Sox home game at Comiskey Park versus the Detroit Tigers. Detroit already held a 10–0 lead and had two runners on base when Stratton entered the game in relief with two outs in the sixth inning. Stratton retired the Tigers in that inning without any further runs scored. Over the game's final three innings, Stratton allowed two more runs (both earned) on four hits as the Tigers won 12–0. It was Stratton's only major-league appearance of the 1934 season.

Production

Scenes were staged at various baseball parks, including: * Brookside Park in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

, a spring training site for the White Sox * Comiskey Park in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, the home field of Stratton's team, the White Sox *

Gilmore Field Gilmore Field was a minor league baseball park in Los Angeles, California, that served as home to the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League from 1939–57 when they, along with their intra-city rivals, the Los Angeles Angels, were displa ...

, the home of the

Hollywood Stars The Hollywood Stars were a Minor League Baseball team that played in the Pacific Coast League during the early- and mid-20th century. They were the arch-rivals of the other Los Angeles-based PCL team, the Los Angeles Angels. Hollywood Stars (192 ...

of the Pacific Coast League, used in the final scenes of the film that were set in

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...

(Los Angeles) Stock footage was used to depict several other

baseball parks in

establishing shot An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme-long shot at the beginning of ...

Reception

According to MGM records, the film earned $3,831,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $657,000 overseas, resulting in a profit of $1,211,000. It was one of the most popular films of the year.

Radio adaptation

The story was adapted for a one-hour

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

Lux Radio Theatre ''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company ...

'' episode broadcast on February 13, 1950 that was entitled "The Stratton Story." Stewart and Allyson repeated their roles for the program.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stratton Story, The 1949 films 1940s biographical drama films 1940s sports films American baseball films American biographical drama films American black-and-white films Biographical films about sportspeople Chicago White Sox Cultural depictions of American men Cultural depictions of baseball players Films about amputees Films directed by Sam Wood Films scored by Adolph Deutsch Films that won the Academy Award for Best Story Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Sports films based on actual events 1949 drama films Photoplay Awards film of the year winners 1940s English-language films 1940s American films Films about disability