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Auction History Result 5p0174 PLAY BALL WITH BABE RUTH TC 1920 batting, pitching, catching, and close up, ultra rare! Date Sold 12/19/2023 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. A Paperbacked Original Vintage Theatrical Movie Title Lobby Card (LC TC; measures 11" x 14" [28 x 36 cm]) (Learn More) Play Ball with Babe Ruth, the 1920 Benjamin Stoloff (billed as "Ben Stoloff") silent sports baseball instructional short ("Christy Walsh All American Sports Reels"; "The only baseball reels officially sanctioned by the All America Board of Baseball"; "Slide Babe Slide. Just Pals, Perfect Control, Fancy Curves, Over the Fence"; "Stories by Lou Breslow") starring Babe Ruth (billed as "King of Swat"). Note that this short featured Babe Ruth giving tips and pointers on how to play baseball. NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography. Important Added Info: Note that we auctioned this very card in 2023, but the person who purchased it returned it (because it is very heavily restored), and we ask those who bid on it now that we are re-auctioning it to look very closely at our super-sized image and read our condition description closely BEFORE bidding on this card, and only bid on it if they can accept that it has very extensive restoration. Also note that ANY 1920 movie paper from this movie is incredibly rare. We had never auctioned even a single 1920 movie paper item from this movie until we received this lobby card (we had sold a number of S2 re-creation posters from 2001, but NO original 1920 items). In 1995, we auctioned a complete set of lobby cards from the other 1920 baseball movie Babe Ruth starred in called "Headin' Home", and that set of cards sold for $20,700! Note that this lobby card has been paperbacked. What is paperbacking? This means the lobby card was backed onto a light paper backing (acid-free), that keeps the "feel" of the lobby card similar to that of the original lobby card. Some restorers prefer to paperback lobby cards on to a heavy backing, while others prefer to use a very lightweight backing. The advantage of a lightweight backing is that the card still "feels" like a regular lobby card, but a heavier backing makes restoration easier to do and less noticeable. Also note that we have a scan of both the front and the back of this lobby card, which should greatly help you see what defects it has. What IS paperbacking? Learn More Overall Condition and Pre-Restoration Defects with Quality of Restoration: fair to good. Prior to paperbacking, the card had a diagonal crease or tear running across the center through the waist of the catcher and across the center of the face of the pitcher, and through the chin of the headshot at upper right. It had some other creases, tears, and tiny paper loss scattered throughout, with tears and areas of paper loss around the edges, with creases and tears in the head and shoulders of the image at upper left. Overall, the lobby card was in fair to good condition prior to paperbacking. Given the card's many defects, the restorer did a pretty good job, but from close up, you can clearly see signs of the many defects and the restoration is very extensive. One would certainly prefer to find a better example of this card, but we don't know that another exists, and it seems remarkable that it survives at all, given that it is from a short subject, where virtually no theaters figured to order any movie paper, especially lobby cards. Bear all of the above in mind before bidding on this incredibly rare and historic lobby card. Learn More about condition grades 
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