King Kelly - Slide Kelly, Slide!

Slide Kelly, Slide!

The song, "Slide, Kelly, Slide" was America's first "pop hit" record, after its release by Edison Studios, and in 1927 inspired a film version of "Slide, Kelly, Slide." Prior to that song, most recordings (cylinders), were opera, religious or patriotic in nature. Kelly is also considered to have been the first man to popularize autographing, as fans pursued him on his way to the ballpark for his signature in the 1890s. Prints of a painting of him sliding into second hung in most Irish saloons in Boston, and he was among the first athletes to perform on the vaudeville stage. His own autobiography, "Play Ball", was the first written by a baseball player. The book was put together by "Boston Globe" reporter John Drohan.

Howard W. Rosenberg’s 2004 biography of Kelly dispelled any notion that Boston reporter Jake Morse had been the ghostwriter, by quoting Drohan’s involvement with the book at length, including unearthing the following sentence from a biography of Drohan in an 1889 book about the Irish in Boston: "His only literary work outside of his newspaper was the preparation of M. J. Kelly’s book, 'Play Ball.'"