The 1952 World Series Radio Broadcasts

During their trip to Tijuana and then during their return to Los Angeles, Slatzer mentioned that he and Marilyn heard Joe DiMaggio furnishing color commentary for the radio broadcasts of the 1952 World Series. The opening game of the 1952 Fall Classic occurred on October the 1st; and each day thereafter, the Bronx Bombers and the Brooklyn Dodgers played a game, game 4 on the 4th and game 5 on the 5th. Allow me to digress briefly.

In early 1952, Marilyn met Joe DiMaggio on what was essentially a blind dinner date. She was already famous; and he was already immensely famous, even revered. After they began openly dating, Marilyn and Joe became the most famous unmarried couple in America, arguably the world. They were constantly pursued by the press and surrounded by reporters at the Bel-Air Hotel, Marilyn’s residence as the year of 1952 and her relationship with Mr. 56 began. Attempting to evade the press’s scrutiny and privacy invasion, the famous couple leased a house in September at 2393 Castilian Drive in Hollywood Hills.

Marilyn moved into the house on September the 15th, according to Carl Rollyson’s accounting of Marilyn’s daily life; but Joe did not join her in that unique for 1952 living arrangement, according to Gary Vitacco-Robles, until October the 1st. That being the case, in order for Joe to announce game 1 of the 1952 World Series, he had to completely traverse North America on October the 1st. Not impossible, I suppose; but flying from coast to coast, considering ground time and other travel factors, required at least nine hours in 1952. Additionally, non-stop coast-to-coast flights were uncommon in the early fifties. Assuming DiMaggio managed to find a non-stop flight from Los Angeles to New York City, in order to arrive at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn by 1:00 PM eastern, the starting time that year for game 1, then DiMaggio had to depart Los Angeles by 1:00 AM pacific time on October the 1st. Therefore, he must have moved in with Marilyn during the first hour of the 1st and then dashed to the airport; but doing that seems highly unlikely.

Additionally, according to Carl Rollyson, on October the 1st, Joltin Joe introduced Marilyn to the portly comedian and movie star, Lou Costello, one of DiMaggio’s many famous buddies. I suppose that introduction could have occurred while the baseball icon moved in with Marilyn before he dashed to the airport; but that seems highly unlikely as well.

More additionally, biographer Donald Spoto uncovered indications that Marilyn and DiMaggio argued over her provocative wardrobe selections not long after they moved in together, sometime after October the 1st; and apparently a brief estrangement ensued, prompting printed speculations and rumors that the most famous unmarried couple in America just might be experiencing some difficulty; but if DiMaggio departed for New York City to announce the World Series games sometime after October the 1st, then he certainly missed a few of the contests. Also, if DiMaggio was scheduled or contracted to announce any of the World Series games, surely he or Marilyn or the media would have so reported; but I did not uncover any contemporaneous media reports to that effect; and too, there is an additional, more significant problem with Slatzer’s World Series assertion. My research did not locate any type of indication, not anywhere, that Joe DiMaggio provided color commentary via radio for any of the 1952 World Series’ games.

In 1952, the Mutual Broadcasting System broadcast the series games nationally via radio. The MBS broadcast team included Al Helfer, Jack Brickhouse and Bill Corum; but Joe DiMaggio, the Yankee Clipper, was not involved with the MBS radio broadcasts of World Series games that year. Locally, WINS radio 1010 AM, known on air as 10-10 Wins, broadcast the Yankee’s regular season games that year, which Mel Allen, Bill Crowley and Art Gleeson announced; however, Joe DiMaggio was apparently never employed by WINS. I uncovered a vague reference to DiMaggio and WPIX television, a New York station founded in 1947 which began broadcasting in 1948. WPIX began broadcasting Yankee’s regular season games locally in 1951 but Phil Rizzuto was the primary announcer. DiMaggio apparently was a color analyst for WPIX in 1952 in some capacity, probably a guest analyst. Additionally, from September of 1949 until August of 1950, DiMaggio hosted a children’s television program which began on CBS and then moved to NBC, Joe DiMaggio’s Dugout. NBC-TV broadcast the 1952 World Series nationally with play-by-play provided by Mel Allen and Red Barber. As an aside, the kinescope recordings of games 6 and 7, baseball historians believe, are the oldest recordings of World Series’ games.

Finally, the baseball combatants played game 7 on October the 7th. As that game neared completion, Pee Wee Reese fouled a pitch against the backstop, startling the radio broadcasting crew. Television announcer, Mel Allen, mentioned his radio counterparts, Jack Brickhouse and Al Helfer, as the television camera looked into the radio broadcast booth. Although Allen did not mention Bill Corum, he was in the booth. Also, Allen did not mention or otherwise make a comment about the Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio, because DiMaggio was obviously not in the radio broadcast booth.1A link to the video of that game follows. The action described above occurred at the 2h55m40s point in the contest.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqZnPQnxO9U> Certainly, Slatzer’s assertions regarding Joe DiMaggio and the 1952 World Series broadcasts are more than suspect.