Babe Ruth (George Herman Ruth) was an American baseball player. He was born in 1895 and died in 1948. He started his career as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, but is best known for his batting, regularly driving balls out of the park, and in 1919 set a home run record of 29 which he broke in 1920 with 54 when playing for the New York Yankees. In 1927 he set another season record of 60 home runs. By the time he retired in 1935 he had set a record of 714 home runs, which stood until it was beaten in 1974 by Hank Aaron. Research Babe Ruth
Henry Louis Aaron (Hank Aaron) is an American baseball player. He was born in 1934 at Mobile, Alabama. An outstanding batsman, during his twenty-three season career with the Milwaukee, later Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers he made 755 home runs, breaking Babe Ruth's long standing record of 714 home runs. Research Hank Aaron
Lou Gehrig (Henry Louis Gehrig) was an American baseball player. He was born in 1903 at New York and died in 1941. He was nicknamed the Iron Horse for his incomparable stamina and strength, he was signed by the New York Yankees in 1923 and voted the American League's most valuable player in 1927, 1931, 1934, and 1936, he achieved a remarkable lifetime 493 home runs, a .340 lifetime batting average, and a record 2,130 consecutivegames played. He stayed with the Yankees' for 17 years as their first baseman and most consistent hitter. Diagnosed with a degenerative muscle disease (now known as Lou Gehrig's disease), he retired from baseball in 1939. A film biography, Pride of the Yankees, appeared in 1942. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. Research Lou Gehrig
Theodore Samuel Williams (Ted Williams) is an American baseball player. He was born in 1918. He played for the Boston Red Sox from 1939 to 1960, and was the best batter of his era making 2654 hits and 521 home runs, with a lifetime batting average of .344 and in 1941 hitting an average of .406. His career was disturbed by his service in the army during the Second World War and Korean War, otherwise his totals would have undoubtedly been much higher. Research Ted Williams
Chuck Connors (Kevin Connors) was an American professional basketball player, baseball player and later actor. He was born in 1921 and died in 1992. Research Chuck Connors
George Francis Hayes (Gabby Hayes) was an American actor. He was born in 1885 at Wellsville, New York, and died in 1969 of heart failure. As a young man, he worked in a circus and played semi- pro baseball before appearing in vaudeville and on the legitimate stage, primarily in stock companies. He gained fame as Hopalong Cassidy's sidekick Windy Halliday in many films between 1936 and 1939. Leaving the Cassidy films, he was legally precluded from using the 'Windy' nickname, and so took on the name 'Gabby', and was so billed from about 1940. One of the few sidekicks to land on the annual list of Top Ten Western Box-office Stars, he did so repeatedly. In his early films he alternated between whiskered comic relief sidekicks and clean-shaven bad guys, but by the later thirties played almost exclusively as a Western sidekick to stars such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers and Randolph Scott. After his last film, in 1950, he starred as the host of a network television show devoted to stories of the old West for children, 'The Gabby Hayes Show'.
Offstage he was an elegant and well-appointed connoisseur and man-about-town devoting his time to financial investments. Research Gabby Hayes
Robert Redford is an American actor. He was born in 1937 at Santa Monica, California. After attending the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship, he dropped out and spent a year in Europe studying art before returning to the USA and studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Early show business work included television appearances during the 1960s with his break coming in 1969 playing opposite Paul Newman in the film 'Butch Casidy and the Sundance Kid'. Research Robert Redford
Laraine Day (real name Laraine Johnson, also known as Lorraine Hayes, Laraine Johnson, and Lorraine Randall) is an American actress. She was born in 1917 at Roosevelt, Utah. Born into a prominent Mormon family in Utah,
Laraine Day's acting career began after her parents moved to Long Beach, California, where she joined the Long Beach Players. She appeared in her first film in 1937 in a bit part, then did leads in several George O' Brien westerns. Signing a contract with MGM, she achieved popularity playing the part of Nurse Lamont in that studio's 'Dr. Kildare' series. An atractive, engaging performer, she had leads in several medium-budget films for various studios, but never achieved major stardom. She was married for 13 years to baseball manager Leo Durocher, and took such an active interest in his career and the sport of baseball in general that she became known as 'The First Lady of Baseball'. Research Laraine Day
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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