The King of England watches a baseball game - 1920 film (Video)

“Me? I was a lousy king.”

An interesting slice of history that took place in 1920, when the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy baseball teams played each other in London. King George V, grandfather of the current Queen Elizabeth, has trouble following the sport, then meets the players and an umpire, who he recognizes as a fellow autocrat (says the cheeky title card). For some reason, the camera man neglected to film any of the action on the field, but no matter, it’s enough to see the people who were there that day. One of them is Sir Thomas Lipton, son of Glasgow who founded the Lipton Tea dynasty and challenged for the America’s Cup five times. He and the others in his party seem most amused at being filmed, which was a novelty back then. The Great War had only been over for two years, so diversions such as this were probably very welcome for Londoners.