Just Finished Watching The Natural And Was Wondering ...

JackWESQ

I just finished watching "The Natural." Great film. So I was wondering, when the movie was casting for Bobby Savoy (the bat boy), this must have been the character description:

Wanted: Short pudgy looking kid to say a line or two ... who would be very unlikely ever to land another role in, well, anything.

And who answered the call? None other than George Wilkosz.

/s/ JackWESQ

Hoopster

In 1909 Honus Wagner made one of the first baseball movies, and the casting director for that movie was also looking for a young boy to play side kick to the star. Only this young boy did go onto better things later on...

The boys name was Moses Horwitz...better known as Moe Howard of the Three Stooges!





Some more info quoted below....

"One of the earliest baseball movies was a short produced by the Vitagraph Studios in 1909. The movie showed Honus Wagner teaching a little boy the art of batting. The little boy, one Moses Horwitz, stayed in acting as Moe Howard, one of the Three Stooges. Perhaps the most bizarre bit of Wagnerian trivia was his appearance in a 1919 film, Spring Fever, whose cast included Moe and Shemp Howard. Who would ever have imagined this Hall-of-Famer appearing in the same movie as two future members of The Three Stooges?"

bigfische

<< <i>In 1909 Honus Wagner made one of the first baseball movies, and the casting director for that movie was also looking for a young boy to play side kick to the star. Only this young boy did go onto better things later on...

The boys name was Moses Horwitz...better known as Moe Howard of the Three Stooges!





Some more info quoted below....

"One of the earliest baseball movies was a short produced by the Vitagraph Studios in 1909. The movie showed Honus Wagner teaching a little boy the art of batting. The little boy, one Moses Horwitz, stayed in acting as Moe Howard, one of the Three Stooges. Perhaps the most bizarre bit of Wagnerian trivia was his appearance in a 1919 film, Spring Fever, whose cast included Moe and Shemp Howard. Who would ever have imagined this Hall-of-Famer appearing in the same movie as two future members of The Three Stooges?" >>




I just read about that in Crazy '08.

stevek

Whew...I thought this thread was gonna be about somebody having a crush on Glenn Close.

Hoopster

Of all the stretches of imagination in that movie, I believe the biggest stretch of imagination was when Glenn Close was trying to portray a 17 year old girl in the beginning of the movie. Redford didn't look like a 17 yr himself, but Close looked pretty worn. I think those scenes called for a different younger actress to play the high school parts.

stevek

Watching Redford perform in the baseball playing scenes was painful to watch. One scene whereby he hits a ball that looks like a popup to shortstop, the camera angle immediately switches to a homerun in the upper deck. LOL

Still of course a great baseball movie!

Bosox1976

You know Wilkosz tried to get over on Kim Basinger.

frankhardy

<< <i>In 1909 Honus Wagner made one of the first baseball movies, and the casting director for that movie was also looking for a young boy to play side kick to the star. Only this young boy did go onto better things later on...

The boys name was Moses Horwitz...better known as Moe Howard of the Three Stooges!





Some more info quoted below....

"One of the earliest baseball movies was a short produced by the Vitagraph Studios in 1909. The movie showed Honus Wagner teaching a little boy the art of batting. The little boy, one Moses Horwitz, stayed in acting as Moe Howard, one of the Three Stooges. Perhaps the most bizarre bit of Wagnerian trivia was his appearance in a 1919 film, Spring Fever, whose cast included Moe and Shemp Howard. Who would ever have imagined this Hall-of-Famer appearing in the same movie as two future members of The Three Stooges?" >>







I would love to see a clip of that.