I was searching for a way to celebrate our unbeaten season—we completed it, 27 wins and 7 draws, though for reasons I’ll explain later I’m not sure it totally counts—and while I was poking around in the vaults I came across this relic, a badly preserved newsreel clip from Pro Vercelli’s 1911 championship season. It’s in terrible shape—the film is literally falling apart—but it’s now online for anyone who wants to see it. This obviously predates the talkies by a good couple of decades, and its provenance is impossible to trace, but it’s worth a look for anyone who loves silent films or the history of soccer. We’re using it for motivation, as a reminder in our present-day struggles never to lose sight of the glorious shadow of the past.
Read More: Football Manager 2009, Pixel Dramas, Pro Vercelli
by Brian Phillips · December 30, 2008
Looks authentic to me.
Although the crowd scenes are obviously fake.
Forsan miseros meliora sequentur…
Ah yes, must have been filmed from one of those aerogyro machines! I’d forgotten about the early use of floating player identifications in Italian football reels, as well as Vercelli’s vibrant English-speaking community.
A gem!
The origin of the clip is a mystery, but it’s obviously American or (more likely) English rather than a native product of Vercelli—I’m guessing the early newsreel companies wanted to take advantage of “football mania” by providing some rudimentary coverage of games around the world, in the same way they would have covered politics or horse-racing. And let’s not forget, this was a team that played Liverpool in the very early days of European competition, so some international interest was to be expected.
As for the vantage point, I’d guess this was filmed from a nearby clock tower or the steeple of a church…it’s hard to say, but there are early 20th-century baseball clips that get well above the crowd, probably by using specially constructed towers where they couldn’t take advantage of existing architecture. The auto-gyro wasn’t invented until 1919, in any case, and it probably would have been too expensive to film a clip like this in a zeppelin.
The floating identifications were probably painted in during the 1911 equivalent of post-processing. It would have been an impressive special effect for the time, but not unprecedented. Méliès was combining live-action footage and animation as early as 1902. There’s also some possibility that this was added later, possibly by mid-century historians looking to identify the older players. I don’t know—the film obviously shows some evidence of tampering, so it’s possible. What’s amazing is how uncannily similar these markings appear to the style later employed by 21st-century video games like Football Manager. Whoever put this together was well ahead of their time.
A lot of interesting questions, in any case! I’ll let you know if my research turns up any definitive answers.
AUTO-gyro! Of course! I couldn’t remember the name. Otherwise, may I suggest a side career as an crooked antiques dealer? You’d have me convinced my Mickey Mouse mug had been hand crafted by Walt Disney in 1925.
Brian, these just keep getting better. Where can I get my Pro Vercelli jersey for game day? I’m a fan!
Fantastic. I wish contemporary soccer video had such delightful music and comments.
And speaking of contemporary soccer, have you addressed elsewhere, and I just can’t find, minor leaguer David Pratt’s dubious record set last Saturday? This popped up in a random news feed of mine and it seemed pretty talented to get thrown out after just 3 seconds of play. Further confusing things, the Reuters article is written by a Mitch Phillips. Is this you, under half-baked pseudonym? My favorite bit comes at the end, when discussing other quick dismissals:
“Also in 2000 an English amateur player, Lee Todd, was sent off after two seconds when he responded to the referee’s whistle to start the game by saying “xxxx me, that was loud” and was dismissed for foul and abusive language.”