The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)

The Jackie Robinson Story lobby card set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Alfred E. Green and Eagle-Lion Films delivered The Jackie Robinson Story to movie theaters in 1950. Jack Roosevelt Robinson stars, with Ruby Dee as his wife and Minor Watson as the legendary Branch Rickey.

Mort Briskin Produces The Jackie Robinson Story

Mort Briskin produced The Jackie Robinson Story for Legend Films and Eagle-Lion. Arthur Mann and Lawrence Taylor penned the screenplay from a story by Louis Pollock, with Alfred E. Green (Ride a Crooked Mile, Appointment in Berlin, The Fabulous Dorseys) in the director’s chair. Herschel Burke Gilbert created the original music score and Ernest Laszlo served as cinematographer.

Jackie Robinson heads the cast. Other players include Ruby Dee (Rae Robinson), Minor Watson (Branch Rickey), Louise Beavers (Jackie’s Mother), Richard Lane (Royals Manager Clay Hopper), Harry Shannon (Frank Shaughnessy), Ben Lessy (Shorty), William “Bill” Spaulding (Himself), Billy Wayne (Clyde Sukeforth), Joel Fluellen (Mack Robinson), Bernie Hamilton (Ernie), Kenny Washington (Tigers Manager), Pat Flaherty (Karpen), Larry McGrath (Umpire), Emmett Smith (Catcher), Howard Louis MacNeely (Jackie as a Boy), George Dockstader (Bill), Jimmie Dodd (UCLA Scout) and Roy Glenn (Mr. Gaines).

Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey did not give his imprimatur to the project until the production company hired Jackie Robinson to play himself, even though Robinson had no background in dramatics.

The Jackie Robinson Story Filmed in Hollywood

The Jackie Robinson Story began filming at Motion Pictures Center Studios in Hollywood on February 10, 1950. It was a low-budget movie with a short production schedule, two factors which Robinson complained of in his 1972 autobiography I Never Had It Made.

Stock footage was used in the picture, including shots of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the UCLA campus, Robinson in action at Brooklyn’s fabled Ebbets Field and President Eisenhower presenting Freedom House Medals to Robinson, Ralph Bunche and Herbert Hoover.

The Jackie Robinson Story Movie

The Jackie Robinson Story begins in grand fashion, with a silhouetted gray shadow of a ballplayer coming up to the plate. He takes his cut, and the crack of the bat against the ball can be heard along with the accompanying roar of the crowd. The movie title appears, The Jackie Robinson Story, with the silhouetted figure running, throwing, sliding into bases and fielding balls.

The movie traces the rise of Jackie Robinson, beginning with his humble roots as a the son of a sharecropper in Georgia. The family moves to California, where Jackie becomes a standout multi-sport college athlete, first at Pasadena Junior College and then UCLA.

While in the United States Army, Lieutenant Robinson works as an athletic director. Following his discharge, he plays baseball in the segregated Negro Leagues. Brooklyn Dodger scout Clyde Sukeforth convinces Robinson to come to Brooklyn to meet Dodger general manager Branch Rickey, who signs him to a professional baseball contract.

Assigned to the Dodgers’ minor league affiliate in Montreal, Robinson reports to spring training in Sanford, Florida, where he is subjected to the racial Jim Crow laws of the era and the hostility of ballplayers and fans alike. Robinson endures the abuse and becomes a star for the Montreal Royals.

With Branch Rickey as his champion, Jackie Robinson eventually breaks major league baseball’s color line in 1947 when he reports to the Brooklyn Dodgers. But the road to equality has just begun, as Robinson is subjected to more abuse by opposing managers, fellow ballplayers and fans, many of whom wish to see him fail.

The Jackie Robinson Story Opens in New York City

The Jackie Robinson Story came to New York City’s Astor Theater on May 16, 1950, approximately one month after the start of the 1950 baseball season.

“…The magnificent athlete conducts himself with dignity, speaks his lines well and clearly and faces the camera squarely, with neither shyness nor conceit…To be sure, some of the incidents are ‘corny,’ the diamond action is not all as colorful as it might be…But it tells the story of Jackie Robinson with honest pride…” reported Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (5/17/50).

“Robinson is a better baseballer than he is an actor, but still does rather well in a not too self-conscious portrayal of himself,” observed Variety.

The Jackie Robinson Story Notes, Movie Memorabilia, DVD

• Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) was Rookie of the Year in 1947 and won National League Most Valuable Player honors in 1949.
• The John R. Longo Association, an Italian-American organization based in Jersey City, New Jersey, objected to the film’s portrayal of an Italian-American ballplayer who signs a petition stipulating that he will not play on the same team as Robinson. That grievance, filed in August 1950, led to a congressional investigation into Hollywood’s portrayal of Italian-Americans in film.
• Joel Fluellen has a nice role as Matthew ”Mack” Robinson (1912-2000), Jackie’s older brother, who won a silver medal in the 200-meter dash at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Mack finished second to fellow American Jesse Owens at only 0.4 seconds behind.
• Co-scenarist and special adviser Arthur Mann, who had been employed in the Brooklyn Dodgers organization, had toyed with the idea of offering himself to play Branch Rickey. The real Rickey, however, squashed that idea in a memo to his son, Branch Jr.  
• Auction results for original The Jackie Robinson Story movie material, courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries, Dallas, Texas: set of eight lobby cards ($632.50), 1950 movie tie-in paperback first edition ($55.20).
• On DVD: The Jackie Robinson Story in the original restored b/w and color versions (Legend Films, 2008).