History Film / ThePrideOfTheYankees

''The Pride of the Yankees'' is a 1942 {{biopic}} dramatizing the life of New York Yankees great Lou Gehrig. It was directed by Sam Wood and stars Creator/GaryCooper as Gehrig, along with Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan, and Creator/BabeRuth {{as himself}}.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Like most other biopics of the era, there wasn't a lot of worry about staying true to the facts. A couple of examples: in RealLife, Gehrig played in 34 games scattered over three seasons before his famous streak started on June 1, 1925. The streak did ''not'' start when Gehrig entered the lineup in place of Wally Pipp, but with a pinch-hitting appearance. And the sequence where Gehrig hits two home runs in a game of the 1928 World Series to inspire a little boy is all fictional--Gehrig did hit two homers in Game 3 but nothing else about how the game is shown in the movie is true. There wasn't any "Billy", either, and the scene seems to be loosely inspired by a real-life incident in which Ruth promised to hit a home run for a sick child in the 1926 World Series, and followed through. In real life, no one knew Gehrig was dying during his "luckiest man on Earth" speech; he had kept the seriousness of his sickness a secret, and the public wasn't aware of the deadlieness of ALS (only 10% of sufferers survived past two years.)

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Like most other biopics of the era, there wasn't a lot of worry about staying true to the facts. A couple of examples: in RealLife, Gehrig played in 34 games scattered over three seasons before his famous streak started on June 1, 1925. The streak did ''not'' start when Gehrig entered the lineup in place of Wally Pipp, but with a pinch-hitting appearance. And the sequence where Gehrig hits two home runs in a game of the 1928 World Series to inspire a little boy is all fictional--Gehrig did hit two homers in Game 3 but nothing else about how the game is shown in the movie is true. There wasn't any "Billy", either, and the scene seems to be loosely inspired by a real-life incident in which Ruth promised to hit a home run for a sick child in the 1926 World Series, and followed through. In real life, no one knew Gehrig was dying during his "luckiest man on Earth" speech; he had kept the seriousness of his sickness a secret.

* AutobiographicalRole: Babe Ruth does a fine job playing Babe Ruth, getting some good comic business, like one scene where his teammates wreck Ruth's straw hat.[[note]]Ruth had been an aspiring actor and starred in three films, most notably ''Babe Comes Home''. [[TheDanza All three had him playing a character named Babe]] [[{{Typecast}} who played baseball]].[[/note]] Gehrig's teammates Bill Dickey, Bob Meusel, and Mark Koenig also appear as themselves, as does sports announcer Bill Stern.

* AutobiographicalRole: Babe Ruth does a fine job playing Babe Ruth, getting some good comic business, like one scene where his teammates wreck Ruth's straw hat. Gehrig's teammates Bill Dickey, Bob Meusel, and Mark Koenig also appear as themselves, as does sports announcer Bill Stern.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Like most other biopics of the era, there wasn't a lot of worry about staying true to the facts. A couple of examples: in RealLife, Gehrig played in 34 games scattered over three seasons before his famous streak started on June 1, 1925. The streak did ''not'' start when Gehrig entered the lineup in place of Wally Pipp, but with a pinch-hitting appearance. And the sequence where Gehrig hits two home runs in a game of the 1928 World Series to inspire a little boy is all fictional--Gehrig did hit two homers in Game 3 but nothing else about how the game is shown in the movie is true. There wasn't any "Billy", either, and the scene seems to be loosely inspired by a real-life incident in which Ruth promised to hit a home run for a sick child in the 1926 World Series, and followed through. In real life, no one knew Gehrig was dying during his "greatest man on Earth" speech; he had kept the seriousness of his sickness a secret.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Like most other biopics of the era, there wasn't a lot of worry about staying true to the facts. A couple of examples: in RealLife, Gehrig played in 34 games scattered over three seasons before his famous streak started on June 1, 1925. The streak did ''not'' start when Gehrig entered the lineup in place of Wally Pipp, but with a pinch-hitting appearance. And the sequence where Gehrig hits two home runs in a game of the 1928 World Series to inspire a little boy is all fictional--Gehrig did hit two homers in Game 3 but nothing else about how the game is shown in the movie is true. There wasn't any "Billy", either, and the scene seems to be loosely inspired by a real-life incident in which Ruth promised to hit a home run for a sick child in the 1926 World Series, and followed through.

* {{Biopic}}

''The Pride of the Yankees'' is a 1942 {{biopic}} dramatizing the life of New York Yankees great Lou Gehrig. It was directed by Sam Wood and stars Creator/GaryCooper, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan, and Creator/BabeRuth {{as himself}}.

The film starts with Gehrig as a boy in New York City, a child of immigrant parents who want him to go to Columbia University and become an engineer. Lou's mother is dismayed when Lou's feats on the Columbia baseball team draw the attention of the New York Yankees, who wind up pulling Lou away from his studies to play baseball.

''The Pride of the Yankees'' is a 1942 film dramatizing the life of New York Yankees great Lou Gehrig. It was directed by Sam Wood and stars Creator/GaryCooper, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan, and Creator/BabeRuth {{as himself}}.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pride-of-the-yankees-gary-cooper1_6302.jpg]]

''The Pride of the Yankees'' is a 1942 film dramatizing the life of New York Yankees great Lou Gehrig. It was directed by Sam Wood and stars Creator/GaryCooper, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan, and Creator/BabeRuth AsHimself.

Lou becomes a huge big-league star, but the film pays more attention to his romance with and marriage to the stylish, feisty Eleanor Twitchell (Wright). Theirs is an ideal, loving marriage, as Lou racks up award after award, playing over 2,000 consecutive baseball games for the Yankees--until he is struck by a terminal illness, amytrophic lateral sclerosis, which afterwards would be popularly known as "Lou Gehrig's disease". A dying Gehrig has to retire from baseball, and the film ends with his iconic speech to the fans in Yankee Stadium.

The film starts with Gehrig as a boy in New York City, a child of immigrant parents who want him to go to Columbia University and become an engineer. Lou's mother is dismayed when Lou's feats on the Columbia baseball team draw the attention of the New York Yankees, who wind up pulling Lou away from his studies to play baseball. Lou becomes a huge baseball star, but the film pays more attention to his romance with and marriage to the stylish, feisty Eleanor Twitchell (Wright). Theirs is an ideal, loving marriage, as Lou racks up award after award, playing over 2000 consecutive baseball games for the Yankees--until he is struck by a terminal illness, amytrophic lateral sclerosis, which afterwards would be popularly known as "Lou Gehrig's disease". A dying Gehrig has to retire from baseball, and the film ends with his iconic speech to the fans in Yankee Stadium.

* AutobiographicalRole: Babe Ruth does a fine job playing Babe Ruth, getting some good comic business, like one scene where his teammates wreck Ruth's straw hat. Gehrig's teammates Bill Dickey, Bob Meusel, and Mark Koenig also appear as themselves, as does Yankee broadcaster Bill Stern.

The film starts with Gehrig as a boy in New York City, the child of immigrant parents who want him to go to Columbia University and become an engineer. Lou's mother is dismayed when Lou's feats on the Columbia baseball team draw the attention of the New York Yankees, who wind up pulling Lou away from his studies to play baseball. Lou becomes a huge baseball star, but the film pays more attention to his romance with and marriage to the stylish, feisty Eleanor Twitchell (Wright). Theirs is an ideal, loving marriage, as Lou racks up award after award, playing over 2000 consecutive baseball games for the Yankees--until he is struck by a terminal illness, amytrophic lateral sclerosis, which afterwards would be popularly known as "Lou Gehrig's disease". A dying Gehrig has to retire from baseball, and the film ends with his iconic speech to the fans in Yankee Stadium.

The film starts with Gehrig as a boy in New York City, the child of immigrant parents who want him to go to Columbia and become an engineer. Lou's mother is dismayed when Lou's feats on the Columbia baseball team draw the attention of the New York Yankees, who wind up pulling Lou away from his studies to play baseball. Lou becomes a huge baseball star, but the film pays more attention to his romance with and marriage to the stylish, feisty Eleanor Twitchell (Wright). Theirs is an ideal, loving marriage, as Lou racks up award after award, playing over 2000 consecutive baseball games for the Yankees--until he is struck by a terminal illness, amytrophic lateral sclerosis, which afterwards would be popularly known as "Lou Gehrig's disease". A dying Gehrig has to retire from baseball, and the film ends with his iconic speech to the fans in Yankee Stadium.

-> ''"But today... today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."''

-> ''"But today... today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."

''Pride of the Yankees'' is a 1942 film dramatizing the life of New York Yankees great Lou Gehrig. It stars Creator/GaryCooper, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan, and Creator/BabeRuth AsHimself. The film starts with Gehrig as a boy in New York City, the child of immigrant parents who want him to go to Columbia and become an engineer. Lou's mother is dismayed when Lou's feats on the Columbia baseball team draw the attention of the New York Yankees, who wind up pulling Lou away from his studies to play baseball. Lou becomes a huge baseball star, but the film pays more attention to his romance with and marriage to the stylish, feisty Eleanor Twitchell (Wright). Theirs is an ideal, loving marriage, as Lou racks up award after award, playing over 2000 consecutive baseball games for the Yankees--until he is struck by a terminal illness, amytrophic lateral sclerosis, which afterwards would be popularly known as "Lou Gehrig's disease". A dying Gehrig has to retire from baseball, and the film ends with his iconic speech to the fans in Yankee Stadium.

''The Pride of the Yankees'' was released three years after Gehrig's retirement and just one year after his death from ALS. It received 11 AcademyAward nominations, it is often on lists of the best baseball movies of all time, and it is guaranteed to make a Yankees fan cry.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: One of the most iconic examples, as Gehrig, who knows perfectly well that he is dying, gives a moving, optomistic speech. The speech was condensed and rearranged from what the real Gehrig said, with the "luckiest man on the face of the Earth" line moved from the beginning to the end.

[[caption-width-right:350:Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939]]

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Like most other biopics of the era, there wasn't a lot of worry about staying true to the facts. A couple of examples: in RealLife, Gehrig played in 34 games scattered over three seasons before his famous streak started on June 1, 1925. The streak did ''not'' start when Gehrig entered the lineup in place of Wally Pipp, but with a pinch-hitting appearance. And the sequence where Gehrig hits two home runs in a game of the 1928 World Series to inspire a little boy is all fictional--Gehrig did hit two homers in Game 3 but nothing else about how the game is shown in the movie is true. There wasn't any "Billy", either, and the scene seems to be loosely inspired by a real-life incident in which Ruth promised to hit a home run for a sick child in the 1926 World Series, and followed through.