Film of Game 7 of 1960 World Series found in Bing Crosby's cellar
A pristine two-and-a-half hour copy of NBC's broadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, thought to be lost to the grains of time long ago, was discovered in legendary actor and singer Bing Crosby's wine cellar.
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The superstitious Crosby, part owner of the Pirates at the time, had the game filmed off a television set with a kinescope while he was in Paris as to not "jinx" Pittsburgh against the legendary Yankees dynasty.
From there, he watched the tape in glory knowing his Pirates won and left the five-reel, 16mm film in his cellar, which doubles as a vault.
The NYT account of the find includes this wonderful detail on Crosby, who had fled to Paris to avoid jinxing the Pirates, listening to the seventh game on the radio:
“We were in this beautiful apartment, listening on shortwave, and when it got close Bing opened a bottle of Scotch and was tapping it against the mantel,” Kathryn Crosby said. “When Mazeroski hit the home run, he tapped it hard; the Scotch flew into the fireplace and started a conflagration. I was screaming and Nonie [de Limur] said, ‘It’s very nice to celebrate things, but couldn’t we be more restrained?’ ”The MLB Network will be showing the game sometime in the winter, and I can almost guarantee it will be more interesting than any game in this year's Series. And that's just as well, because if you were to see this game beforehand - with only five cameras, no instant replay, limited graphics, no gimmicks, and a running time of only a tick over two-and a half hours - I doubt you'd be able to sit through what passes for the National Pastime on television today.
What a find - as someone said, even more than 30 years after his death, Bing keeps on delivering! ◙
