When we first started our Bull Smith project the internet was young and the info on turn of the century ballplayers was thin. There was very little to go on and virtually no pictures of L.O. Bull Smith could be found. When our research brought us to a photo of “Bull Smith” we thought (ok we assumed) that the image was L.O. Bull Smith.
We were wrong. The man in the images are of Bull H. Smith who played along L.O. Bull Smith with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1904. Harry Smith was a catcher and he does appear in our story in a locker room scene where he warns our Bull to be careful of taking on the Barons of Baseball, so we are thrilled to be able to rectify our mistake by removing images that refer to him as L.O. Smith.
UNITED STATES – CIRCA 1903: Half-length portrait of Harry Smith, baseball player, catcher and outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, National League, standing by the grandstand at West Side Grounds, Chicago, 1903. (Photo by Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)
Since then I’ve found two links that show the player in the image is actually Harry Smith (Bull H. Smith) a catcher on the same team in 1904.
Here is a link to the photo: https://explore.chicagocollections.org/image/chicagohistory/87/9g5h84d/
And here is a link to the Pirates 1904 roster where the two Bulls appear. https://www.baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/roster.php?y=1904&t=PIT
And we created this mockup playing card with the W on Bull H. Smith’s chest as a promotional piece. It’s not L.O. Smith and we apologize for the misappropriation.
And what does the “real” L.O.Bull Smith look like? We finally found him. Here he is mentioned in “Seven Football Hall of Famers who Likely Won’t Be Hall of Famers” by John Antonik where the author describes the top seven terrific Pre-World War II West Virginia University football players deserving of hall of fame recognition, but will likely never attain that status. Number one is L.O. Bull Smith. Read here
And what of the Bull story. Well, the screenplay has died the death of development but the interest in Bull Smith has not declined. We are in the process of converting the screenplay into a novel which we intend to self publish as well as produce an audiobook version using a full cast of voice actors. Ambitious but possible. Here is a link to my first foray into self publishing. It’s called “A Guide to the Accurate Presentation of 1858-1869 Base Ball”
Stay tuned for more on Bull Smith and Big Sally’s adventures!!
What would you think about Bull Smith playing in a game against the Cuban Giants in June of 1915? In West Virginia? It happened.
Having discovered the incredible resource at Chronicling America we searched Bull Smith and came up with some very interesting news items. From his early baseball days in Wheeling to his exploits in the Majors the discoveries are mind boggling. Tidbits and clippings of his comings and goings, social and sports related articles, even a football poem about him by Grantland Rice.
I’d like to share some here as we await the next steps regarding our possible film production of BULL SMITH. We’ve been told by our production staff all is “on point” with financials and we are on the “top of the list.” We’ll take that as a good sign.
So, in 1915 the traveling Cuban Giants made a trip to Clarksburg, West Virginia to play a game against a hometown nine. L.O. Bull Smith was in the lineup. Here is how the build up was reported in The Daily Telegram, June 10, 1915.
The last paragraph may have been a bit of fake news (there were supposedly no actual Cuban men on the Cuban Giants and there might have even been a white guy!) but they were no doubt great players. Sol White, one of the pioneers of the Negro leagues was an early supporter of the team but by 1915 the Cuban Giants were in their last incarnation and under control of Nat. C Strong, a white, freewheeling sports entrepreneur who wielded considerable power in black baseball. A lot had changed since Sol White’s days.
According to this scorecard by 1915 there was actually a guy named Mead playing who was a white guy passing himself off as a black player! Issued in Greenville, PA for a July exhibition, the 28-page guide has unmarked scoring grids whose pre-printed lineups feature Giants shortstop Chick Meade, a white player who passed as a Negro for nine years! So, Chick Meade could of played Bull Smith that June!!! Spoiler Alert: It wasn’t until long after his “playing” career that Meade’s secret was revealed. Imprisoned for writing bad checks, Meade was listed as “Caucasian” in the correctional facility.
We know from this clipping from The Daily Telegram, June 15th, 1915 that the hometown nine did not win that contest against the Cuban Giants of 1915. Though it does say they put up a good showing in the second to last paragraph.
But, who are these “fast Collegians” that they speak of? And who was “Dick” Guy? Mentioned in SABR research, Richard Guy was a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Gazette Times who had a traveling all-star baseball team called the Collegians. Several major leaguers got their start with Guy’s Collegians: Jim Shaw, Gene Steinbrenner, Cy Rheam, Jack McCandless, and Elmer Smith. A few of these guys had a cup of coffee in the big leagues much like Bull Smith. They all probably played against each other many times over the years.
Well, the results from that game are not found in any searches. But these two clippings tells us a lot and help us imagine what playing baseball was like for local teams and small leagues around the country. They loved to play ball and would take on all comers. And those who had played in the Major Leagues continued to play locally.
Players like Bull also brought a touch of celebrity back with them to their home towns, finding fame and fortune as well as some ridicule. Bull was written about from the social pages to the sports pages from 1903 through 1915 in newspapers from his home state of West Virginia as well as others, such as The Washington Post. Everything from his wonderfully lavish 1906 wedding to Sally Bogges to a scathing rebuke of Bull’s football playing by the aforementioned “Grandfather of American Sports Writing” penned in 1911.
Amazing light is shone on this compelling figure from the past through these articles and clippings. They tell a tale that follows closely the timeline and events of our movie script. Remarkable all the more when we realize we didn’t have these resources when we started and yet we still got so much of the BULL SMITH story right.
Stay tuned!
UPDATE: We’ve had a lot of encouragement from our producers as BULL SMITH begins to collect a little buzz. It’s been indicated that the pitch sessions have gone well and things are progressing. One part of the “pitch package” is our synopsis. We thought we’d share it with you.
BULL SMITH ~ the story of a real ballplayer from a bygone era.
A ballplayer and a suffragette share love and heartache fighting for the soul of America’s Game … and the heart of the American Dream.
Raised in an orphanage during the end of the 19th Century, Lewis “Bull” Smith caught the eye of the manager of a local baseball team. An exemplary ball player, in 1902 on a scholarship to play baseball he graduated with honors from WVU Law School.
A little too smart and conscientious for his own good, in 1903 Bull was drafted by the Pittsburg Pirates, and almost immediately started rocking the boat. Counseling young, illiterate ball players on bad contracts that they signed and going up against the graft and corruption that were every much a part of the game as peanuts and Cracker Jack. Bull’s new pal, Honus Wagner, even benefited from Bull’s law acumen when big tobacco companies tried to use his image to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products.
While at university Bull met the love of his life, Sally Bogges, an opinionated debutante from the other side of the tracks. Their deep love for one another transcended all their differences for a while, up until the birth of their child, Agnes. With the pressure to conform, Bull started to succumb to such vices as drinking, womanizing and gambling. Sally, being the revolutionary feminist that she was, wouldn’t stand for such behavior and Bull was faced with the ultimatum of straightening up his act and going to work for her father down at the mill. Or else.
Bull had other plans: a big payday with Blondy Wallace, for the Canton Bulldogs against the Massillon Tigers, for the “First Ever Real Time broadcast” of a pro football game. Which ended in disaster and soon Bull finds himself estranged from his wife and child and living alone in a low rent hotel. Sally takes on the powers that be and joins the biggest suffragette protest in history, marching alongside early feminists like Ida B. Wells who, after a run in with some thugs and police, shared a jail cell together. With no one else to turn to she reaches out to Bull who comes to her aid. And the rest is history.
Bull became an ambassador to the game of baseball, and although he didn’t live to see it realized, he was a part of future baseball players getting free agency and becoming some of the highest paid people in the world.
We are proud to announce our screenplay, BULL SMITH, has been optioned by Garden Street Films, LLC. We on the BULL SMITH team feel it was no coincidence the offer came through on Saturday, Opening Day. Our well-schooled legal reps have hammered out the particulars and now it’s all go.
We know an option does not a movie make. Yet we are confident our production company feels very strongly about the timeliness of the material, how it will resonate with an audience and they will do all they can to raise the finances to get this story to market quickly.
The chase to get BULL SMITH to a screen continues but an option on the script is a giant validating step in the process.
Thank you to Heather Smith Lutkin, Lewis Oscar Smith III and all the Smiths for allowing us to share their story. Thank you to Nick Iverson who first mentioned Bull to his workmate, Heather, who knew nothing of her Great Grandfather, setting off the search of Bull Smith.
Thank you to co-writers Chris Lutkin and Henri Falconi who persisted in making the script as tight as it could be. And many thanks to Jack Mulcahy who guided us through the process and encouraged all the rewrites that got us to this point. Many more to thank but we’ll save that when the money is secured and we start principal photography. Stay tuned as we follow BULL SMITH to that next stone on which we step to realizing this beautiful tale.
“An untold story from the Deadball Era, Bull Smith, fighting to play the game he loves, stands up to the crushing powers of wealth and corruption that control the game, threatening not only his career but also his life.”
Wanted to check in and let you all know we are progressing nicely on a new version of Bull and are very excited as we create an extraordinary story of one baseball outsider.
After much debate and much good council we have shuttled the idea of telling a dual story and are concentrated on JUST Bull’s story. Henri and Chris have been working with ex MLB pitcher, Anthony Slama
(who has also signed on as producing/consultant), during our writing sessions and he’s provided great insight into an athletes mind and actions which we’ve been able to use in context to Bull. We have also done extensive historical research, adding many great characters and events of the era that compelling add to Bull’s arc and provides awesome roles for actors to play. Working through the script we been creating additional scenes and filling in much of what was already written to tell what we think is a very resonant story. One that could very well be the grittiest and honest baseball story ever told. As for a tonal clue, we are thinking of it as a “Field of Dreams” meets “There Will Be Blood.”
Stay tuned for more updates!
Here is our iMDB page
Watt Powell Park, Charleston, W. V – built on the grounds of a ball park from 1900’s where Bull played. He may have looked at that same hilltop 100 years ago while in the batters’ box! Here is an account of a game from 1918 we found in Bull’s file in The Baseball Hall Of Fame archives. This, we feel, is written about an opening day in this location, a long, long time ago…..
“SMITH’S HOMER FIRST OF SEASON ON LOCAL FIELD”
“…when Hoss Wiley smote one on a line just over the shortstops’s head, Raines cavorted across the plate gleefully while Bull Smith, the former Pirate player and custodian of the center garden for us, grabbed a willow and strode toward the plate. Mr. Calloway, who used to pitch for us, but who mounted the hillock for Huntington in the first game and won, watched Smith get his position and then threw the ball. Now they are still looking for it!
THE BALL TRAVELLED.
Word was received later that the ball had passed Montgomery at a mile a minute clip and was gathering momentum with every additional foot. In fact the Germans’ long range bombardment of Paris had nothing on this drive of Smith’s for it created all kinds of terror in Calloway’s heart. Maybe the ball passed Hinton — anyhow it was the first home run drive on the local lot and every fan and fannette who was there, waved, shrieked, shouted and stamped their approval of the big fellas wallop!”
In the field it was reported….
“Cal Thomas, who started the game for Charleston, was saved in the early innings by spectacular fielding by Smith in center for the locals. With two men on the cushions, opposing player Hopkins smote a low liner to center. Smith started in with a rush, dived headfirst for the ball, turned a complete somersault, came up with the ball in his hand and made a perfect peg to Raines at third for a double play, retiring the side.”
The Charleston Gazette, May 20, 1918 – Written by Sportswriter Sterrett O’Neal
Bull Smith got two runs, batting 2 for 4, with 5 put outs playing centerfield that day.
What a time it was…
Field of Dreams field
We are not just blowing smoke!
Many of you have asked where we are in the process of making “Bull” a movie. Well, here’s the basic production breakdown. If all the planets align, look for Bull on the big screen in say, two years! In the meantime we are still in the development phase. We also have the schedule and budget finished. Let us know if you want a package if you’d like to invest
Bull – Production Stages
1. Write first draft – send it out / get readers feed back
some reviews we got back –
enjoyed it a great deal. i thought the characters were terrific, the narrative really interesting, and the ideas sharp—especially how family traits and history get refracted. ~ Chris Smith, Writer/Youth Baseball Coach
Wonderfully layered story that intertwines issues relevant to the world of today: unionizing; alcohol abuse and it’s collateral damage; illiteracy. Issues themselves that have a past, being told in a tale of baseball lineage. ~ Jack Mulcahy, Actor/Writer/Producer/Commissioner Performing Arts Softball League
2. Send revised script to Talent – Fantasy Cast List: Jason Patrick*, Melissa Leo*, John Cusack*, Michael Rooker*, Ed Burns*, Charlie Sheen, David Strathairn, Jack Mulcahy*, Brain Cox*, Judith Molina*, Mark Ruffalo, (*can get script directly to some of those actors).
3. Get actor’s to sign letter of consent – “Attaching” themselves to the project.
4. Prepare Package – Schedule, Budget, Synopsis, Attachments
5. LLC – Bank Account
6. Approach Investors / Seed Money / Co-Finance / Points / Screen Credit
7. Law Firm – prepare and handle all contracts and agreements.
8. Co-producers / Executive Producers / Associate Producers
9. Independent Production Companies
Pre- Production
1. Scout Locations / Secure Locations
2. Casting Agent – Audtions – Secure Talent
3. Crew Production Heads – Cinematographer, Production Designer, Production Manager, 1st AD, Wardrobe, etc.
4. Story Boards / Shot List
Production
1. Principle Photography / 6 – 10 week shoot / Location W. Virginia?
Post Production
1. Editing / Transfer / Sync Sound
2. CGI
3. Sound Design / Foley / ADR
4. Music / Original Score / Composer
5. Sound Mix
6. Lock Picture / Color Correction / Test Screenings
Distribution
1. Film Festivals
2. PR / Marketing
3. Distributors – Theatrical Release
The following material was in a folder marked Lewis Oscar (“Bull”) Smith we found in the archives of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown during a visit in 2005. These documents were the basis of our journey to uncover Bull. Remarkably, I was able to get copies and wanted to share them with you. Included:
A New York Times article dated December 29, 1904 entitled, “WILL PLAY FOR NATIONALS – Strong Contingent of Minor League Men Secured for Next Year” mentioning Bull.
Three typewritten letters from Feburary 1905 by Bull to Mr. Garry Hermann who served as the president of National Baseball Commission.
Marriage License of Lewis O. Smith and Sarah Boggus dated January 15, 1906.
Certificate of Death for Bull, dated May 1, 1928.
Copy of the front page of The Charleston Gazette, Wednesday Morning Edition, May 2, 1928, noting Bulls passing as well as another obituary from an unknown paper stating the same.
Correspondence between Brooks E. Smith (Bull’s son) and Bill Haber, Baseball Historian and Statistician, dated 1981 thru 1984.
A 5 page typewritten time-lined description of Bulls life and career compiled by his son, Brooks E. Smith entitled, “Lewis Oscar (“Bull”) Smith (1880-1928).
Let’s start with Brooks E. Smith’s incredibly detailed report. I can only speculate that Brooks’ effort to have Bull recognized by the HOF was the reason this folder even existed. At the time of his father’s death, Brooks was 7 years old. Now 56 years later, in 1984, he wanted the world to know about “Bull.” He contacted Bill Haber, future SABR founder, who requested info and photos, which Brooks sent to him along with a “chronological statement of my father’s baseball career.” He went on to say in his last letter to Mr. Haber, “few people are still alive that could shed much light on his career. My brother and three sisters who are still living – as is my Mother – either knew as little as I did or, for one reason or another, did not want to or were not able to discuss his sports career.” Bull, what did you do?
Brooks’ “chronological statement” is so rich in detail and written with a kind of love and respect, I’ll record it verbatim, interspersed with scans of some of the documents mentioned above as they correspond with the time-line.
LEWIS OSCAR (“BULL”) SMITH
(1880-1928)
Baseball
LEWIS OSCAR “BULL” SMITH was born near Plum, Tyler County, West Virginia, on August 20, 1880. He entered West Liberty Normal as a 16-year-old student in 1897 and studied, history and the classics in 1898 and 1899. West Liberty has no records of athletic contests that are now available.
In the winter of 1900, “Bull” Smith entered West Virginia University as a law student. He did not play baseball in 1900, although he did play football in that year and later in 1902.
I. Amateur
1901 – 1902 – 1903
In the Spring of 1901, “Bull” Smith was listed in the Monticola as a catcher. He batted at a .285 average. The team played only 7 games.
In 1902, W.V.U. had a first class baseball schedule and won 22 games out of a 29 game schedule with opponents including Georgetown, St. Johns Naval Academy, Manhattan, Yale, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Depauw, W. & J., Denison, Western Reserve and others.
In 1903, “Bull” Smith did some pitching and played third base for the W.V.U. baseball team.
II. Professional
In 1904, after “Bull” Smith’s college baseball career at W.V.U., he joined the Wheeling Stogies in the Spring of 1904 in the CENTRAL LEAGUE. This minor league also included teams from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Evansville, Fort Wayne, South Bend and Terre Haute, Indiana, as well as Dayton and Marion, Ohio.
“Bull” Smith played center field, batted fifth and showed speed, good fielding and solid hitting – “one of the hardest sluggers on the team.” His outstanding play won him a late season try-out with the PITTSBURGH PIRATES in the NATIONAL LEAGUE, beginning the last part of August, 1904. His hitting with the Pirates won one game for the major league club. He played in 13 games as a Pirate with 42 times at bat, six hits and one triple. That late in the 1904 season, he was not given much of a chance to show his baseball prowess and Pirates did not keep him on its roster.
At this point Bull was experiencing his first rejection. He found his name mentioned in a NY Time’s article dated December 29, 1904 as “not living up to expectations.”
Names of many other players are mentioned being offered contracts. Some of those names were pointed out to me by Nick Iversen.
E.W. Reulbach is Ed Reulbach
Hugh Jennings is Hughie Jennings, successful player and manager of, among other notables, Ty Cobb
L.D. Wiltse is Hooks Wiltse, well-known curveball pitcher with the Giants. His brother was Snake Wiltse
Otis Clymer was a solid player, Later managed minor league teams such as the Minneapolis Millers
Albert Bridwell is Al Bridwell,a future New York Giant who played with Christy Mathewson on several championship teams.
M Donlin is Turkey Mike Donlin, a colorful future New York Giant, who married a Broadway showgirl and performed with her on tour in the off-season. This pissed of his manager, John McGraw, until the next off-season, Turkey Mike, invited McGraw to join the act, reciting “Casey At The Bat” among other talents. Thereafter, everything was clam between them.
Charles E. Street is Gabby Street, great catcher fo the Senators famous for catching a baseball thrown from a passing aeroplane in the early days of flight.
Elmer Stricklett pitched in for the from 1904 through 1907 .Stricklett is considered one of the pioneers of the spitball.
But best of all is Archie Graham, drafted by the giants out of Manchester, New Hampshire. This was THE “Moonlight” Graham played by Burt Lancaster in “Field Of Dreams.”
Also noted is that “Bull” is the one player referred to by his nickname ONLY!
Do you recognize any names?
Bull went on to write a series of letters to the Commissioner of the day. Gerry Hermann, using Hans Wagner’s name to plead his case. Next time we’ll share those letters and take a look at Bulls desperation to get back to the bigs and join these colorful players. We’ll also continue to uncover Bulls youngest son’s quest to have his dad recognized by Major League Baseball.
Continuing our “Real Players” time-line, we pick up in 1911 when Bull was asked to “teach the finer points of the game” as a coach for the Washington Senators. Bull was given an official at-bat for the big club for his services. He took a walk.
Remember, on that Washington team, Bull meets Walter Johnson. Johnson, in 1911, was not happy with his pay and was not quiet about his feelings. Another player who Bull might have met was a young first baseman, Chick Gandil, who later would become the leader of The Black Sox Eight of 1919. Bull, at this stage of his career, must have had much to share with these players and being highly educated, must have been able to articulate many of the frustrations that ballplayers where feeling about their pay and career choices. Bull is released and goes back to Clarksburg.
For the next 5 years Bull would enjoy large local success and celebrity as a player manager in Clarksburg. But by 1916, with the start of WWI, things in Clarksburg and in baseball had changed. Around 1913, The Progressive Movement had started in W.V. resulting in “No Sunday Ball” among many other protests involving drinking, gambling and playing baseball in general. In Clarksburg, there are ballplayers being arrested for playing on the Sabbath. Along with population and industry moving to the Southern part of West Virginia away from Clarksburg, the start of World War I and a new world view, people’s interest in baseball dropped off and leagues all over declined some 50%.
But from 1912 through 1916, Bull continued to play in and organize baseball leagues around Clarksburg. He started City Leagues, Industrial Leagues, and a Brotherhood League and even arranged benefits for local baseball heroes. But the game was dying in Clarksburg. Bull still wanted to play. He follows the game to the new state capital, Charleston.
1916-1928 Charleston
In 1916, Charleston had a team in the Ohio State League that Bull was called to play in. That league quickly folded and in 1917, an Independent Semi-Pro team was formed that played coal field teams. Bull played for that team also and by spring 1918, the Charleston Gazette is mentioning Bull Smith’s heroics in many of its local game accounts all through that summer.
After 1919, there is no more mention of Bull playing or managing baseball. He is a robust 38-year-old athlete who in 9 short years will succumb to a lumber mill injury in a Charleston Hospital at the age of 47. What happened? In 1919, The Chicago White Sox Scandal had broken and Bull may well remember his teammates on the Senators of 1911 and the talks he had with a young Chick Gandil, who became the lynchpin in “The Big Fix.”
1919 White Sox
Is Bull somehow connected to the scandal? Did it ruin him? On May 2, 1928, The Charleston Gazette prints his obit on the front page. Bull Smith is celebrated as a local hero on his passing. It’s noted that only one of his children is by his side, 19-year-old, Lewis Jr.
West Virginia, 1924
Research references: “West Virginia Baseball, A History, 1865-2000” by William E. Akin
“Crazy ‘08” by Cait Murphy
“Deadball Stars” by David Jones
“The Shortstop” by Zane Grey
“Lewis Oscar ‘Bull’ Smith” HOF file by Brook Smith
Director Enrico Falconi is taking “Bull” to Cannes!!
Every year, Enrico, who is co-writer of our completed screenplay, goes to Cannes to hob-knob and network with his friends and colleagues. This year, he is taking our promo piece for “Bull” to pass out and build some interest. Woot!
Good luck, Enrico!!
"Bull Smith and Big Sally" 