Series: Paul Parrott Director: James D. Davis Producer: Hal Roach Writer: Charles Parrott Photography: Editor: Stars: James Parrott, Jobyna Ralston, Eddie Baker Company: Pathé Exchange Released: 13 August 1922 Length: 1 reel Production No.: C-48 Filming dates: May 11-13, 1922 Rating: 4/10

Touch All The Bases

Paul (James Parrott) is waiting in line at the stadium with his girlfriend to buy tickets to the ball game. The guard (Eddie Baker) spots Paul holding his money behind his back and gets a goat to take it out of Paul's hands before pulling the goat over to him with a rope and extracting it from the goat's mouth with force. When Paul asks for two tickets, for him and his girl (Jobyna Ralston), he notices he only has enough money to buy one ticket. The guard escorts the girl inside the stadium whilst Paul is refused admission. Paul grabs a hose (where from?) and aims it into the air, spraying water over the wall and down onto the crowd who quickly evacuate the stands. In the confusion, Paul manages to squeeze into the stadium via the turnstiles when nobody is watching and then climbs to the top row in the stands. He loses his balance and falls backwards about fifteen feet to the ground [see "favourite bit"]. The game continues inside the stadium as one of the batters hits a ball out into the parking lot. An eager fan runs to retrieve the ball as the guard appears through a panel in the fence and tells him to give the ball back because they only have one. Paul spots three boys trying to climb the fence outside to get into the stadium and steals their balloon to lift himself over the fence. The guard chucks him out again and again. Paul bores two holes in a fence (where did he get the tool from?) so that he can watch the game. After boring more holes in the fence so that others can see the action on the field, the opposing team, "The Tigers" apprehend Paul and dress him in a uniform to make him play for their team. Paul takes to the bat and hits his first ball (a ball-sized bomb which has been delivered from the angry guard.) With a home run in his sights, Paul runs all over the field, grabs his girl and runs into a registry office with her...

Favourite bit When Parrott falls from the rafters, backwards and then lands on the ground. Not sure it was James Parrott who performed the stunt but it's a pretty brave one nonetheless.

Trivia • Copyrighted July 20, 1922. • There is some confusion with this film being mistaken for a different Paul Parrott one-reeler, "Busy Bees". • The goat's name is Lulu. • Both the goat and the ticket collector have "BEES" written on their jackets. The baseball game is between "The Bees" and "The Tigers". • When the hose rains down on the crowd before they evacuate, the water appears to be falling in two different directions. Also, it would have been impossible for a hose with such a small nozzle to have created such a powerful water spray as to have covered such a wide area of the stand. • The guy hitting the baseball clearly hits the ball down onto the grass, yet in the next shot seen outside near the fence Paul Parrott and another spectator look up into the air as the ball comes flying over the fence. • The billboard where Eddie Baker stands is for the "Owl Detective Agency", their motto is "we seldom sleep" and features a painting of an owl with bored-out holes for eyes. My opinion • A fast-paced, sometimes disjointed comedy with a couple of clever gags (the bored out hole for his cigarette in the fence is one).

	James Parrott Baseball fan
	Jobyna Ralston The girl
	Eddie Baker Guard
	Sam Lufkin Ticket seller
	Wallace Howe Well-dressed spectator
	Chet Brandenburg Man in line
	Sammy Brooks Tigers player with donkey
	Roy Brooks Bees player
	George Rowe Umpire
	Jack Ackroyd Bees catcher
	Charles Lloyd Tigers player

UNIDENTIFIED CAST

Acknowledgements: David Glass (help with film) Tommie Hicks (help with film) Jesse Brisson (identification of Roy Brooks, Charles Lloyd, Jack Ackroyd) Stéphane Maltais (identification of Sammy Brooks) The identification of George Rowe is my own opinion. This page was last updated on: 23 May 2023