The Pride of the Yankees

The Pride of the Yankees starring Gary Cooper

Synopsis of The Pride of the Yankees

The Pride of the Yankees is the life of Yankee baseball great Lou Gehrig.  Known as the ‘Iron Horse’ from his childhood, through his baseball career, battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to his final tribute where he declared that he was “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

Sam Blake: Let me tell you about heroes, Hank. I’ve covered a lot of ’em, and I’m saying Gehrig is the best of ’em. No front-page scandals, no daffy excitements, no horn-piping in the spotlight… 
Hank Hanneman: No nothing. 
Sam Blake: …but a guy who does his job and nothing else. He lives for his job. He gets a lot of fun out of it. And fifty million other people get a lot of fun out of him, watching him do something better than anybody else ever did it before. 
Hank Hanneman: You’d be right, Sam, if all baseball fans were as big boobs as Gehrig. 
Sam Blake: They are. The same kinda boobs as Gehrig. [pause] Only without a batting eye. That’s why I’m putting my money on Gehrig. 

Product Description 

Gary Cooper is “nothing short of wonderful” (The Motion Picture Guide) in this moving true story of Lou Gehrig, the Hall of Fame ballplayer who reached the heights of stardom…only to face tragedy with a dignity that inspired a nation. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards , including Best Picture, The Pride of the Yankees is a “glorious [and] inspiring” (The Hollywood Reporter) sports classic.

Cast of characters

• Gary Cooper (The Fountainhead, Sergeant York) … Lou Gehrig
• Teresa Wright (Shadow of a Doubt, Mrs. Miniver) … Eleanor Gehrig
• Babe Ruth … Babe Ruth
• Walter Brennan (To Have and Have Not, The Princess and the Pirate) … Sam Blake
• Dan Duryea (The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street) … Hank Hanneman
• Elsa Janssen (Claudia) … Mom Gehrig
• Ludwig Stössel (House of Dracula) … Pop Gehrig
• Virginia Gilmore (Orchestra Wives, Tall Dark and Handsome) … Myra
• Bill Dickey (The Stratton Story) … Bill Dickey
• Ernie Adams (The Man with Nine Lives, Invisible Ghost) … Miller Huggins
• Pierre Watkin (Her Husband’s Affairs, Stage Door) … Mr. Twitchell
• Harry Harvey (Ace in the Hole) … Joe McCarthy
• Bob Meusel … Robert W. Meusel (as Robert W. Meusel)
• Mark Koenig … Mark Koenig
• Bill Stern … Bill Stern
• Addison Richards (Edison the Man, The Mummy’s Curse) … Coach
• Hardie Albright (Angel on My Shoulder) … Van Tuyl
• Edward Fielding … Clinic Doctor
• George Lessey (Edison the Man) … Mayor of New Rochelle
• Edgar Barrier (The Giant Claw) … Hospital Doctor
• Douglas Croft (Batman 1943 serial) … Lou Gehrig as a Boy
• Gene Collins … Billy (Age 8)
• David Holt … Billy (Age 17)
• Veloz … Specialty Dancer (as Veloz and Yolanda)
• Yolanda … Specialty Dancer (as Veloz and Yolanda)
• Ray Noble and His Orchestra … Orchestra

Editorial review of The Pride of the Yankees courtesy of Amazon.com

You’ll be proud to introduce your kids to this film about virtue, courage, and an indomitable spirit. Like Treasure Island and Tom Sawyer, Pride should be required viewing for every family. Gary Cooper plays Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Horse” New York Yankee first baseman who became a record-setting legend in baseball. Sure, Cooper’s a little long in the tooth to play a collegian, and he tries to capture Gehrig’s innocence with a kind of eye-batting dopiness. But the last moments of the film, before Gehrig’s final, famous farewell, transform the picture. Gehrig happens across a young man whom he had encountered years before in a children’s hospital, and with this sequence, Pride becomes something more than a movie about innate talent and athleticism, or a lost era of America, it crystallizes into a film about (gulp!) human will. An absolute must. –Keith Simanton