In a recent biography of Burt Lancaster I read that Lancaster had to learn the sport of football in order to play Jim Thorpe. It wasn't something he played growing up on the streets of East Harlem back in the Teens and Twenties. Of course Burt's natural athleticism stood him in good stead in this part. He got a better biographical treatment than Babe Ruth did who was the runner up in the competition for greatest male athlete of the century.
Both Thorpe and Ruth certainly abused their bodies, the difference being that Thorpe did it primarily after his active sports career was over. Both films of their lives have the presence of Charles Bickford in it, playing the real life mentors both men had. In the Babe Ruth Story, Bickford played the real life Brother Matthias who was one of the Catholic brothers that ran St. Mary's School in Baltimore where Ruth grew up. Here in this film, Bickford played legendary football coach Pop Warner, whose own career as a pioneer in the sport began with his discovery of Thorpe while coaching at the Carlisle Indian school.
I did a review of We Are Marshall when that film came out and in it remarked about how the NCAA relaxed its arcane rules when the tragedy involving the Marshall varsity football squad happened in order that the team compete the following year. Where was this crowd when Jim Thorpe needed them? Thorpe came from a poverty stricken background and between semesters at Carlisle, he had to do real physical manual labor just to put food on the table and pay his rent. He took an offer to play semi-professional baseball one summer, thereby causing unforeseen consequences down the road.
Those consequences were while as a track and field star and winner of several medals in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Thorpe was stripped of his medals and trophies and his records stricken from the books. Of course it was all reinstated 70 years later in 1982 after intense lobbying of the NCAA. New and somewhat human beings were in charge then. The episode damaged his soul for the rest of his life. It was like Sir Cedric Hardwicke ordering the name Moses stricken from all public records in Egypt.
The film ends after Thorpe attends the 1932 Olympics and Pop Warner notes that the guy opening the Olympics held in Los Angeles that year was Vice President Charles Curtis. To date Curtis is the only man to be either President or Vice President to be not completely Caucasian, he was American Indian on his mother's side. It's about the only distinction Curtis had in office as Herbert Hoover's Vice President.
The film ends around 1932 and the rest of Thorpe's life after the action in the story is his attempts to make ends meet. Money went through his hands like water, he did a lot of bit roles in films, playing Indians of course in westerns of varying quality. He died in debt in 1953, living off the income that he got from Warner Brothers selling his life story to them. I'm sure he wished his life had come out the way the film did.
Still Jim Thorpe -- All American is a nice tribute to our greatest athlete ever.
Both Thorpe and Ruth certainly abused their bodies, the difference being that Thorpe did it primarily after his active sports career was over. Both films of their lives have the presence of Charles Bickford in it, playing the real life mentors both men had. In the Babe Ruth Story, Bickford played the real life Brother Matthias who was one of the Catholic brothers that ran St. Mary's School in Baltimore where Ruth grew up. Here in this film, Bickford played legendary football coach Pop Warner, whose own career as a pioneer in the sport began with his discovery of Thorpe while coaching at the Carlisle Indian school.
I did a review of We Are Marshall when that film came out and in it remarked about how the NCAA relaxed its arcane rules when the tragedy involving the Marshall varsity football squad happened in order that the team compete the following year. Where was this crowd when Jim Thorpe needed them? Thorpe came from a poverty stricken background and between semesters at Carlisle, he had to do real physical manual labor just to put food on the table and pay his rent. He took an offer to play semi-professional baseball one summer, thereby causing unforeseen consequences down the road.
Those consequences were while as a track and field star and winner of several medals in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Thorpe was stripped of his medals and trophies and his records stricken from the books. Of course it was all reinstated 70 years later in 1982 after intense lobbying of the NCAA. New and somewhat human beings were in charge then. The episode damaged his soul for the rest of his life. It was like Sir Cedric Hardwicke ordering the name Moses stricken from all public records in Egypt.
The film ends after Thorpe attends the 1932 Olympics and Pop Warner notes that the guy opening the Olympics held in Los Angeles that year was Vice President Charles Curtis. To date Curtis is the only man to be either President or Vice President to be not completely Caucasian, he was American Indian on his mother's side. It's about the only distinction Curtis had in office as Herbert Hoover's Vice President.
The film ends around 1932 and the rest of Thorpe's life after the action in the story is his attempts to make ends meet. Money went through his hands like water, he did a lot of bit roles in films, playing Indians of course in westerns of varying quality. He died in debt in 1953, living off the income that he got from Warner Brothers selling his life story to them. I'm sure he wished his life had come out the way the film did.
Still Jim Thorpe -- All American is a nice tribute to our greatest athlete ever.