October 7, 1933: "Wild Boys of the Road" Premieres

October 7, 1933: Wild Boys of the Road premieres, directed by William Wellman. It becomes one of the defining films of the Great Depression. Its original trailer billed it as "A Thousand Times More Sensational Than 'I AM A FUGITIVE'" -- a reference to a film from the previous year, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang.

Two boys named Eddie and Tommy decide to drop out of high school and run away from home, to ease their parents' burden of having to care for them, and to find work on their own. They meet a girl named Sally, trying to reach her aunt in Chicago. It turns out that the aunt runs a brothel, and it gets raided by the police shortly after they arrive, and they ride the rails again.

Eddie and Tommy hear from a girl named Lola that the train's brakeman has raped her. They beat him, and, as he tries to escape from them, falls off the train to his death. Eddie, Tommy and Sally jump off the train as it reaches Columbus, Ohio, but Tommy crashes into a switch stand, and falls in front of an oncoming train. He almost gets out of the way in time, but his foot is run over and has to be amputated. While in Cleveland, Eddie steals a prosthetic leg from a store, and their homeless encampment gets shut down by the police.

Eddie, Tommy and Sally get to New York. Eddie gets a job, on the condition that he wear a coat, which will cost him $3.00, which he doesn't have. (With inflation, it's about $67 in 2022 money.) While panhandling, he meets 2 men who offer him $5.00 to deliver a note to a movie theater cashier. But it's a note saying that the men are robbing the theater's box office. Eddie and the robbers are arrested, but the judge at his trial is moved by his speech, and promises to help Eddie, Tommy and Sally.

This film came out a few months before the Hays Code "got serious," and some of its scenes would not have been allowed thereafter. So it is regarded as a "Pre-Code Classic." Aside from Sterling Holloway as Ollie, none of the "boys" became a film star as an adult. The rapist brakeman was played by an uncredited Ward Bond, who became famous for his Western roles.

Actually, as has so often been the case with actors playing teenagers, they were too old for the role. Frankie Darro, who played Eddie, was 15; but Edwin Phillips, who played Tommy, was 22. So was Ann Hovey, who played Lola. Dorothy Coonan, who played Sally, was about to turn 20 -- and, the next year, married the director, and was known as Dorothy Wellman from then on.

William Wellman had directed the 1st film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, the 1927 silent film Wings. He went on to direct the original version of A Star Is Born in 1937, and The High and the Mighty in 1954. Despite the 17-year age difference between himself and Dorothy, they remained married until his death in 1975. Dorothy lived on until 2009. Frankie Darro died in 1976, Edwin Phillips in 1981, Ann Hovey in 2007.

*

October 7, 1933 was a Saturday. The World Series was decided in Game 5, when Mel Ott homered in the top of the 10th inning, for a 4-3 New York Giants victory over the Washington Senators. I have a separate entry for that event.

The only other scores on this historic day were in college football:

* The University of Michigan, with future President Gerald Ford as center on both their offensive and their defensive line, beat Michigan State, 20-6 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines would go on to be Big Ten and National Champions.

* Ohio State beat Virginia, 75-0 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Notre Dame and Kansas played to a 0-0 tie at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. It was the 1st game of a bad season for Notre Dame: They went 3-5-1, although they did close the season with a win over Army at Yankee Stadium.

* The University of Pittsburgh won their annual "Backyard Brawl" with West Virginia, 21-0 at the old Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia.

* Alabama and Mississippi played to a 0-0 tie at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. 'Bama would end up winning the Championship of the Southeastern Conference, in this 1st season of SEC history.

* Most SEC schools had previously been members of the Southern Conference, which was also a progenitor of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Duke won the Southern Conference, including, on this day, beating Wake Forest, 22-0 at Duke Stadium in Durham, North Carolina. In 1967, the stadium would be renamed Wallace Wade Stadium, for Duke's coach at this time, and previously a National Championship winner at Alabama.

* Arkansas beat Texas Christian University (TCU), 13-0 at The Hill in Fayetteville, Arkansas, their home field before Razorback Stadium was built in 1938. They finished 1st in the Southwest Conference, but it was discovered that they had unknowingly used an ineligible player. The SWC did not recognize a champion for that season, but since intentional misrepresentation on the Razorbacks' part could not be proven, that denial was the only punishment they received.

 

* Nebraska beat Texas, 26-0 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Cornhuskers went on to win the Big Six Conference, which would become the Big Eight (and, later, most of the Big Twelve).

* Stanford beat Santa Clara, 7-0 at the old Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California. Stanford and Oregon were named Co-Champions of the Pacific Coast Conference, forerunner of the Pac-12, but Stanford was selected as the league's Rose Bowl participant.

* Army beat Virginia Military Institute (VMI), 32-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* Navy beat Mercer University, 25-6 at Thompson Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* In New York City, Columbia beat Lehigh, 39-0 at Baker Field in the Inwood section of Upper Manhattan. The Lions went 8-1, and were invited to play Stanford in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. Columbia won, 7-0, in a great upset. It remains the last time that any of the teams now in the Ivy League participated in a bowl game.

* New York University lost to West Virginia Wesleyan, 3-0 at Yankee Stadium. Located in Buckhannon, West Virginia, WVW now plays in NCAA Division II. Even at that time, this was considered an upset.

* City College of New York had an embarrassing loss of their own, 33-0 to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at (Class of 18) '86 Field in Troy, New York, across the Hudson River from Albany. RPI now play in NCAA Division III.

* Fordham beat Muhlenberg, 57-0 at Murphy Field in The Bronx. Muhlenberg now compete in NCAA Division III.

* In New Jersey, Princeton beat Amherst, 40-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton. Amherst now compete in NCAA Division III.

* And Rutgers beat Providence College, 21-0 at Neilson Field in New Brunswick. Providence suspended their program after the 1941 season, due to World War II, and have never restarted it.