The Catch, The Spill, and The Camera
Two of the greatest baseball photos in history are forever-linked by a camera. Behold, the Hulcher.
Baseball is boring to photograph — until it’s not.
New York Daily News photographer Frank Hurley was positioned behind home plate for Game One of the 1954 World Series. It was Hurley’s first time shooting with a Hulcher, a 70mm film camera invented by Charles Hulcher that was originally designed for NASA to capture high-speed sequences of rocket launches.
In the top of the 8th, the Indians’ Vic Wertz cranked one to deep center field, sailing over the head of Giants legend Willie Mays. Miraculously, Mays chased down the ball and made an over-the-shoulder catch that is often hailed as the greatest play in baseball history.
It’s also one of the greatest photos in baseball history — made possible by the Hulcher.
Everything about Hurley’s photo is sublime: the scale, the moment, the details, the clothes. Scan the crowd and you’ll find dozens of stories happening all at once. See the boy and the cop just over the wall? Or the cheering women? How about that guy peeking from the window? That’s legendary broadcaster Joe Garagiola, who had the best seat in the house.
The Hulcher was the ideal camera to document Mays’ unlikely catch, pivot, and throw. The play, which helped the Giants win the game, was instantly iconic. So much so, it’s often referred to simply as “the catch.”
Other photographers were woefully out of position. Or just missed the moment.
For decades, baseball fanatics have dissected Hurley’s sequence and this clip of Mays’ heroics.
Hurley’s iconic sequence was even immortalized as a baseball card.
“The Hulcher performed as if it had been built just for this job,” Hurley later wrote. “At precisely the right instant, Willie raised his hands and the ball smacked into his glove. Another fraction of a second, Willie whirled, threw a strike to second base and two amazing base runners were chained to the bags. And every detail of the action was recorded on high speed panchromatic film.”1
Frank Hurley (standing) also shot the 1955 World Series with the Hulcher. His colleague from the Daily News, Charles Hoff, is using a “Big Bertha,” a modified Speed Graphic. Look at those suits, aren’t they great?
The Hulcher also played a pivotal part in helping Chicago Tribune photographer Ray Gora make this once-in-a-lifetime image during Game Two of the 1959 World Series.
Gora, positioned over third base, photographed White Sox outfielder Al Smith watching a home run soar into the bleachers, just as a fan spilled his beer. Smith was drenched and the so were the Sox — they lost the game and the series to the Dodgers. Gora’s photo came to define Smith’s otherwise stellar career.
“All of these years, I never made a dime off of it,” Smith said. “Everywhere I go, that’s all the people bring up. Maybe I should make t-shirts and sell them.”2
Gora’s Hulcher documented the whole humiliating sequence at a blazing 20 FPS.
“I always say, that it was the greatest beer I never had,” Gora recalled.3
Motion pictures fall short in capturing the essence of Gora’s sequence. Great moment but it doesn’t stick with you like the stills.
Gora wasn’t the only photographer to capture the spill. Longtime Associated Press photographer Charles Knoblock made this photo from the first base side.
I love the angle, it perfectly highlights the tumbling cup and beer waterfall, but it lacks the added dimension of the crowd and most importantly — THE BALL. Scroll back up and take another look at Gora’s photo. See the ball?
I doubt Knoblock was shooting with a Hulcher; I've never come across a sequence or any other frames besides this one. So it’s more likely taken with a Big Bertha. Of course, the Hand of God always helps.
Another photographer, Sports Illustrated’s Herb Scharfman, also shot the spill, but missed the moment. Maybe Herb should have been using a Hulcher?
Charles “Tom” Hulcher was born in 1910 and started out as a model maker at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which later evolved into NASA. He invented the high-speed camera to help scientists and engineers understand why rockets kept failing.
Here’s the brochure for the Hulcher 70, featuring Frank Hurley’s sequence of Willie Mays. Every camera was hand made at their headquarters in Hampton, Virginia. Note the unique shape of the frame: 2¼ x 2½.
Only three employees remain at the 70-year-old company but it’s still going. In 2022, the reality show American Pickers rolled through Hampton and visited the Hulcher Camera Company. “They bought a copy of the beer photo,” Vice President and co-owner Gary Beasley told me.
There was also interest in this 1955 copy of LIFE, featuring Yale Joel’s photo of golf legend Ben Hogan that was shot with a Hulcher.
It’s a fun episode, well worth watching. Here’s a clip…
LIFE and Sports Illustrated were clearly big supporters of the Charles Hulcher Company back in the day. Co Rentmeester used the Hulcher to capture this iconic LIFE cover of Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz.
Here’s the spread from inside.
A black and white version of this image landed Rentmeester a World Press Photo award.
The Hulcher documented much more than just sports. The most significant series of photos captured by the Hulcher camera harken back to its origins at NASA. On June 18, 1983, astronaut John W. Young shot this incredible photo of the space shuttle Challenger as it surged towards space.
On January 28, 1986, NASA deployed a bank of Hulcher cameras to document the fateful launch of the Challenger. The sequence of the explosion proved vital in understanding what caused the tragedy.
“Mr. Hulcher was very excited NASA was giving us credit,” President and co-owner Betty Giles told me. “They actually sent him a magazine that quoted NASA saying our cameras exposed the problem.”
Undoubtedly, Charles Hulcher deserves a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Or, at the very least, his magnificent camera does.
Bill Madden, 1954: The year Willie Mays and the first generation of black superstars changed major league baseball forever. (Boston: Da Capo Press, 2014), 237.
Joseph Wancho (ed.), Pitching to the Pennant. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014), 204.
Hal Buell and Saul Pett, The Instant It Happened. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1976), 140.
This was fascinating!! Given the years in which those baseball photos were shot, the detail is incredible. I love studying still shots of crowds and imagining the stories. It's like people watching in real life.
And the Challenger. 😐 Ugh...moments I'll never forget from 7th grade.
Wow! Every moment of reading/examining this is amazing -- thank you for writing/composing this fascinating historical-technical-aesthetic-athletic crossroads!