<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2> "A League of Their Own": Making movies in Chicago<BR>
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by <A HREF="mailto:JimDBB@aol.com">Jim Beebe</A><BR>
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In 1992 the movie "A League of Their Own" was released and it quickly became a big hit. It was highly entertaining and was based on a unique period in American history.<BR>
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In 1990, I got a call from a woman who said that she was with Columbia pictures. She said that they were making a movie that would be filmed mostly in Chicago. The movie was about the Women's Baseball League that was formed in 1943 to fill in the gap left as so many men in professional baseball went off to fight in World War II.<BR>
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The cast would feature such big names as Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna, and Rosie O'Donnell and would be directed by Penny Marshall. The story would center around the Rockford Peaches and the Racine Belles, two of the prominent Women's League teams and would be titled, "A League of Their Own."<BR>
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The woman from Columbia Pictures went on to explain that they had leased Fitzgerald's Club, located just west of Chicago in Berwyn and they were going to film some night club scenes in it. One would feature Tom Hanks and Madonna in some hot jitterbug dancing and they wanted an authentic jazz band on the bandstand while this was going on. She said that the music had been recorded and the band in the film would be sidelining.<BR>
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"Sidelining" is the common practice in the movie business where the music is prerecorded and actual musicians are miming along with the recorded music on camera so that it looks real or authentic.<BR>
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The Columbia woman said that my band had been recommended to them and she asked if I would be interested in this. I replied that I would. She said that the filming would commence in about a month and that they wanted to come now to see my band to consider us for their nightclub scene.<BR>
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I told her the places we were working and she elected to come and see us at Dick's Last Resort in Chicago where we were in residence three nights a week. I hesitated about Dick's Last Resort as Dick's was a noisy place with contrived rowdiness as its ambience and hot jazz groups as its backdrop. It was not a choice place to check out a band with the din that prevailed and with waiters and waitresses periodically blowing up condoms.<BR>
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A few nights later two young women and a young man came up to the bandstand, told me that they were from Columbia, and and said that they really liked our group. It was hard to talk with the ongoing din but I was encouraged by what they said. They were bright and enthusiastic and had the appearance of college graduate students.<BR>
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The next day I got a call from one of the young women. "We love your band but we cannot use it in this picture." I was stunned and puzzled. She explained, "The band for this scene, because of the period, has to be either all white or all black. That is the way it was in the '40s. Your band is mixed, and it just won't work for this movie."<BR>
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I saw my chance at eternal movie fame fleeting by and it seemed there was nothing I could do to save it. The Columbia woman effused as to how sorry they were that they couldn't use us and then she rang off.<BR>
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A couple of weeks later I heard that the Columbia movie people had engaged Lester Stephens for the Nightclub scene. Lester Stephens was a long time jazz drummer and his band, Lester Stephens Modern-Traditional Jazz Band, had been a vital part of the Chicago Jazz scene for some years. The guys in Lester's band were seasoned veterans from the Afro-American tradition in Chicago Jazz and they had been active on the scene for many years.<BR>
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I had to concede that Columbia Pictures made the right choice. Lester was a friend of mine and would often come to where my band was working and sit in on drums with us. At times I would go and sit in with his group. I was happy for him.<BR>
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<IMG SRC="http://jazzinstituteofchicago.org/jazzgram/otherchicago/images/!lesterstephens.jpg" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="280" BORDER="0"><BR>
The Lester Stephens band.<BR>
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A month passed by when I suddenly got a call from Columbia pictures again. The same woman said that they were going to do another night club scene and that they wanted me to have an all white band and asked if I would do it. I agreed before I was given the conditions, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake.<BR>
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These movie people were always rushed and in a hurry. The woman said that we would be on stage with Madonna, who would be singing an old tune, "Daddy." I was told that they would be filming this the following Monday at Fitzgerald's and that I would have to get my group to their building on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago by Friday to be fitted out with clothes. I could only have one young guy in the band as in the period of this movie most of the young men were off to war. No beards and no ponytails, as we had to look reasonably authentic.<BR>
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I hung up the phone and started making calls. I couldn't use most of my regular guys. Three of them were the 'wrong' color and one had a beard. In my zeal for fame and riches, I overlooked that fact that my regular musicians were going to be affronted at being left out. Other guys that I had worked with they were all tied up in one way or another and were not available for the following Monday when we were scheduled to started filming our scene, early in the morning<BR>
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Columbia FedEx'd me a tape of the recording that we were to 'sideline' to and the music for it. This old tune, "Daddy" was done in a small band swing style and had been arranged by Dick Marx. I later discovered that a number of Chicago jazz greats including Bobby Lewis, Cy Touff, Eric Schneider, Ed Peterson, and others were on this recording that would be used on the movie soundtrack.<BR>
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I made copies for the band. Judi K, who sang with my band, was delighted to hear about the movie even though there was no place for her in it. Judi's cousin, Lou 'Erickson' Sauer, had been one of the Rockford Peaches. Judi has her picture, in her Peaches uniform, hanging on her kitchen wall. After a full day of phone calls, I lined up a group of musicians that I rarely worked with, at least one of whom I had never met.<BR>
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We gathered at a building that Columbia had leased, with rooms that the cast used to rehearse their scenes. We were amazed to find a huge room full of clothes from the '40s—authentic clothes and shoes, not reproductions.<BR>
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Curiously, we were fitted with an outfit that I felt was wrong for a nightclub band in that era but I thought it best that I didn't say anything. I gave each guy a copy of the tape and the music that they were to play so they could get familiar with it. They would have to mime along with the recording with the right fingering and positions on their instruments so that they would look authentic in the film. And they were to wait for the call from me.<BR>
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Columbia was going to call me Sunday night to tell us what time to come in on Monday and the guys all had to be at home to get my call. Well, that Sunday night began a nightmare of phone calls and delays that to this day still rankles me. Sunday night I got a hurried call, "Keep your band on hold for in the morning, we are behind schedule...I will call you in the morning."<BR>
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Morning came. . . "We're behind schedule, keep the band on hold." This went on through the morning into the afternoon and evening. The band guys were getting ready to strangle me. Finally that night a hurried call came, "We are going to cancel this nightclub scene. We are way behind schedule and have to go to Indiana to film some outdoor baseball stuff. Thanks for your help." That was it.<BR>
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It dawned on me that I never had a contract or anything. Everything was so rushed, I assumed that we would get paid whatever the union agreement was; as this was a famous movie company, there wouldn't be any problem. I made a quick call back to the Columbia person and asked about payment. I was abruptly told that since we weren't used in the film they couldn't pay us but they would send me $200 for my efforts and my phone bills. And she rang off.<BR>
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My subsequent calls never got through. They were gone that day. I decided that it would be prudent to visit relatives in Wisconsin as I knew that the musicians I had engaged for movie fame would be coming with baseball bats to 'sideline' me to Wrigley Field.<BR>
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The movie was an enormous hit and Lester Stephens and his band were just right for the jitterbug scene. Lester told me that Penny Marshall was great to work with and that she really liked his band. When they finished filming their scene, the band played the cast a swinging, "When the Saints go Marching In."<BR>
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Lester and some of his band have passed on now. They were a vibrant part of Chicago Jazz history. Their music represented a special niche in Chicago Jazz as it embraced a wide palette of styles, just as their name, the Lester Stephens Modern-Traditional Jazz band, implied. The Rockford Peaches and the Racine Belles reclaimed their place in Baseball history memory. All of the women involved in the Women's Baseball League are now in the Baseball Hall of Fame and will forever be in the American consciousness.<BR>
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And now you know the rest of the story to "A League of Their Own."<BR>
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