Len Durrant alerted me to this silent film (posted by the National Film Preservation Foundation) showing Goose Tatum of the Cincinnati-Indianapolis Clowns doing his thing in Cincinnati’s Crosley Field during a September 8, 1946, doubleheader against the Kansas City Monarchs. Tatum, of course, is more famous now as a Harlem Globetrotters star, but in the 1940s he may have been just as well-known as a baseball player.

Here are a few highlights:

0:16 Talking in the dugout, left to right: Eddie “Peanuts” Davis (number 14), Goose Tatum, and “King Tut” (Richard King).

1:20 Manager Jesse “Hoss” Walker in the dugout as the Clowns (including Tatum and catcher Sam Hairston) take the field.

1:58 Leo “Preacher” Henry warming up.

3:16 Buck O’Neil being thrown out at first.

3:40 Tatum batting left-handed (demonstrating that he was a switch-hitter).

4:12 Buck O’Neil playing first base.

5:20 Hilton Smith coaching at first base for the Monarchs.

5:43 Tatum attempting a hidden ball trick on Herb Souell (who, frankly, seems less than impressed).

I don’t know if these film clips were distributed in any way at the time, but they were obviously put together to highlight Tatum, not to provide an account of the games that were played that day. As it happens, the Monarchs, who had already clinched both halves of the Negro American League season and were headed to the World Series against the Newark Eagles, swept the second-division Clowns 15-5 and 8-5, clouting nine home runs in the process (none of which we see here). Hank Thompson hit four homers on the day, and Willard Brown three, including one clear out of the stadium. To be honest, I would rather have seen some of that action instead of the clowning.

Most likely the film was made at the behest of Syd Pollock, who was marketing Tatum pretty heavily as the star of the Clowns’ comedy baseball routine: