The Stratton Story
1950 film by Sam Wood
The Stratton Story is a 1949 American biographical film directed by Sam Wood that tells the true story of Monty Stratton, a Major League Baseball pitcher who pitched for the Chicago White Sox from 1934 to 1938. The film is the first of three to pair stars Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson, followed by The Glenn Miller Story and Strategic Air Command. Stratton commented that Stewart "did a great job of playing me, in a picture which I figure was about as true to life as they could make it."
The Stratton Story was a financial success and won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture Story.
Plot
Texas farm boy Monty Stratton demonstrates a knack for pitching a baseball. With the help of Barney Wile, a retired catcher who is now a scout, he manages to arrange a tryout with the Chicago White Sox during the team's spring training in California. He shows promise and is given a contract.
On his first evening at spring training, Stratton is introduced to a young woman named Ethel. They start dating and fall in love, but Stratton must leave Ethel to travel to Chicago. When he is sent down to a minor league team, he proposes marriage. He is called back up to the White Sox and returns to Chicago with his newlywed bride, and by the end of the season, they are expecting a child.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Stratton Story” as 1950 film by Sam Wood. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1950 film by Sam Wood. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2292080. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1934 and 1938.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Stratton Story”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Stratton Story primary sources, The Stratton Story archive and Stratton research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “The Stratton Story” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.