This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/13/2024
According to the Columbia Record discography, this recording was made by tenor Harvey Hindermeyer in late 1908, resulting in the offered 78. In the midst of the New York Giants exciting and dramatic 1908 season, the song was born during a train ride. The agonies and the ecstasies of the 1908 season home stretch were still months away when, in April, vaudevillian Jack Norworth was riding the New York subway and saw a lithographed poster of a silk-hosed baseball player standing with a bat on his shoulder. Vaudevillians had a knack for turning current events into appealing songs and though Norworth had never been to a baseball game, he began writing lyrics for a baseball song. By the time he reached his destination, he had penned a song about a spunky, baseball-mad girl named Katie Casey. Conceived as a romantic ballad, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" tells the story of how, when Katie's beau asks her to go to a show (vaudeville, no doubt) she, in her Gibson girl manner, asks instead to be taken out to the ball game. Because the two verses are little known and never sung at the ballpark, few realize that the familiar chorus is in response to the beau's invitation. That's why we sing "take me out to the ball game" when we're already there! The record measures 10 inches in diameter and presents with scuffing and some moderate wear to the center hole. Amazing condition for a record produced over 110 years ago. VG condition.