Ruth, George Herman ("Babe")Photograph of the Babe visiting Johnny Sylvester at his home in Essex Fells, New Jersey, signed and inscribed "To my Pal Johnny, Your friend, Babe Ruth"
Gelatin silver print (202 x 253 mm), ca. 11 October 1926; some surface scratching or cracking, minor staining.
Evidently the only signed example of this iconic photograph of Babe Ruth and Johnny Sylvester.
Johnny Sylvester, born in New Jersey in 1915, was injured during the summer of 1926 when he was thrown and kicked by a horse. Doctors were said to have feared for his life, as he was diagnosed with a variety of ailments from osteomyelitis in his skull to blood poisoning. The boy's plight received wide coverage, and he received many gifts from around the country, including a tennis racquet signed by Bill Tilden and a football autographed by Red Grange. But Johnny's most famous gift came from Babe Ruth, whose Yankees were then battling the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Ruth sent the boy a ball signed by the Yankees and added his own promise, "I'll knock a homer for you on Wednesday." (This ball was sold at Gray Flannel Auctions by Sylvester's son in 2014 for $250,000.)
In fact, that Wednesday, 6 October, Ruth belted three home runs in game 4 of the World Series. But the Cardinals went on to prevail in seven games. With the Series concluded, Ruth visited Sylvester at his home, where the present photograph—seeming to show the boy much improved—was taken. Johnny is reported to have commiserated with the Babe, telling him, "I'm sorry the Yanks lost."
The photograph was widely circulated at the time, and Ruth's promise to, and meeting with, Sylvester was featured in the 1948 film The Babe Ruth Story, although the movie shifted the timeframe to Yankees 1932 World Series clash with the Chicago Cubs.
John Dale Sylvester lived to be 74 and died in 1990 (Robert McG Thomas Jr., "Johnny Sylvester, the Inspiration for Babe Ruth Heroics, Is Dead," New York Times, January 11, 1990).
PROVENANCE:Superior Galleries, 27–28 January 1994 — Jerome Shochet (Christie's New York, 19 June 2007, lot 1113)
Ruth, George Herman ("Babe")Photograph of the Babe visiting Johnny Sylvester at his home in Essex Fells, New Jersey, signed and inscribed "To my Pal Johnny, Your friend, Babe Ruth"
Gelatin silver print (202 x 253 mm), ca. 11 October 1926; some surface scratching or cracking, minor staining.
Evidently the only signed example of this iconic photograph of Babe Ruth and Johnny Sylvester.
Johnny Sylvester, born in New Jersey in 1915, was injured during the summer of 1926 when he was thrown and kicked by a horse. Doctors were said to have feared for his life, as he was diagnosed with a variety of ailments from osteomyelitis in his skull to blood poisoning. The boy's plight received wide coverage, and he received many gifts from around the country, including a tennis racquet signed by Bill Tilden and a football autographed by Red Grange. But Johnny's most famous gift came from Babe Ruth, whose Yankees were then battling the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Ruth sent the boy a ball signed by the Yankees and added his own promise, "I'll knock a homer for you on Wednesday." (This ball was sold at Gray Flannel Auctions by Sylvester's son in 2014 for $250,000.)
In fact, that Wednesday, 6 October, Ruth belted three home runs in game 4 of the World Series. But the Cardinals went on to prevail in seven games. With the Series concluded, Ruth visited Sylvester at his home, where the present photograph—seeming to show the boy much improved—was taken. Johnny is reported to have commiserated with the Babe, telling him, "I'm sorry the Yanks lost."
The photograph was widely circulated at the time, and Ruth's promise to, and meeting with, Sylvester was featured in the 1948 film The Babe Ruth Story, although the movie shifted the timeframe to Yankees 1932 World Series clash with the Chicago Cubs.
John Dale Sylvester lived to be 74 and died in 1990 (Robert McG Thomas Jr., "Johnny Sylvester, the Inspiration for Babe Ruth Heroics, Is Dead," New York Times, January 11, 1990).
PROVENANCE:Superior Galleries, 27–28 January 1994 — Jerome Shochet (Christie's New York, 19 June 2007, lot 1113)
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