Babe Ruth 100th Anniversary Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/12/2014
It's not often that you can turn on an old Jimmy Stewart movie and see something in your very own collection right there in Technicolor - but with this impressive photo mural of Babe Ruth, you can! This 61 1/2" x 64 1/2" black and white graphic once hung above the concession stands located inside Gate 4 and 6. Back in the 1950's through the early 70's this was one of the first things you saw after handing your ticket to an usher and rushing inside. If you were born before 1970, the chances are you walked right past this very image, perhaps your father or uncle pausing just long enough to point to it and say: "That is Babe Ruth: The greatest ballplayer of them all". Towards the end of 1959's "The F.B.I. Story" you can watch the now-famous scene where a Commie agent is followed by G-Men through Yankee Stadium during a football game. Besides the great footage of Yankee Stadium in all its 1950's glory you can see this Ruth graphic in its original context as part of a montage of famous Yankees. Besides the Hollywood connection, we've been able to locate a photo taken during the 1958 World Series showing this Ruth graphic as well.
As can be seen in the photo and movie, The Babe and the other pinstripe greats were originally mounted in a chrome frame. Each one was finished in a style reminiscent of the 1939-66 Exhibit cards, with the image of each player standing out against a neutral gray background. The Ruth image is of course the most recognizable and desirable. It's interesting to think of all the baseball history that unfolded while this piece hung in The Stadium, or how many millions of fans gleefully filed past Ruth's iconic pose on their way to their seats. The classic Ruth image was printed on a heavy paper stock and mounted to a white board. Sometime after its removal over 40 years ago a heavy wood frame was professionally added. Condition of this unique piece of Yankee Stadium shows its age and displays the type of wear one would expect from something that once resided in the busiest ballpark in the world. There are some scuffs and paper loss in some areas, as well as slight tears in the heavy paper stock. The edges of the piece are rough from its removal from the original wall frame and there is a 4" area in the upper left corner where this wear is more visible than anywhere else. As you can see from the photographs, none of these effect the tremendous display value of this piece, in fact, in our opinion it actually enhances it. With one glance you know it once hung in a heavily trafficked place, and that place was Yankee Stadium. The ORIGINAL pre-renovation Yankee Stadium. Letter of provenance from the original owner who purchased it at auction.