Rare 101-Year-Old Footage Shows How Kentucky Derby Was Brought to the Public Forefront as One of the Most Anticipated Horse Races

The city of Louisville, and especially the Churchill Downs Racetrack, is soon to be filled with race lovers from around the country. America’s most anticipated equestrian event, the Kentucky Derby is here. The race, which is 148 years old, holds a special significance in most American horseracing lovers’ hearts. However, 47 years after its inception, a silent film by King Baggot played a huge part in popularizing this event to the masses.

In 1922, a groundbreaking silent movie titled ‘The Kentucky Derby’ used some footage from the real race in the film. The film, when it hit the theatres, gave the common public access to knowledge about the annual race. Thus grew the reputation of the Kentucky Derby.

How a silent movie changed the way people perceived the annual event.

A rival decides that his horse will have a better chance of winning if the son of the owner isn’t around. He hatches a plan, gets the horse shanghaied onto a freight, gets a jockey in debt through a gambling game, and many more unfortunate adventures lie ahead of him before the race. Thus goes the synopsis of the 1922 film The Kentucky Derby. But what’s interesting is how the makers got the audience hooked from the very beginning by adding relevant footage from the 1922 race.

As per the Louisville Courier Journal, Jessica Whitehead, the archivist for the Kentucky Derby Museum, explained that the film gave a huge boost to the popularity of the event in the US. She said to the Louisville Courier Journal, “Capturing (this) for people who may never have been to a Derby, that was a big deal”.

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Hollywood came to Louisville on 13th May 1922 and captured the footage from the Derby. The horse Morvich and the jockey Albert Johnson won the race. Up until then, for the first 47 years of the race, people who weren’t at the race could only read about it later in the newspapers. Baggot and his crew’s camera footage of Morvich and Johnson’s win in 1922 changed all of that. Although not live, people did get to see the race in motion, albeit in the form of a film.

The impact of the Kentucky Derby more than a century later

The film was based on the Broadway play ‘The Suburban’ by Charles T. Dazey and starred Reginald Denny in the lead role. The movie industry was booming at the time and adding the real-life clip from the race at the start of the film worked both ways. The people got more in tune with the Kentucky Derby race and the film got its boost as it ran in the US theatres nationwide.

Today, more than a century later, the Kentucky Derby has become a premium sporting event in the US. People flock to the stadium with their fascinators and adorned hats and cheer their favorite racehorses. They also bet huge sums of money during the event. Predictions are also rife, like the one Jodie Demling made on Two Phil’s above Forte, the more likely contender. With around a week to go, fans are soon going to find out.

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