Springtime is finally rearing its sunny head, and the Wexner Center for the Arts is celebrating the way a lot of Midwesterners do: with sports.
Somewhere inside a cluster of sports-themed programming (Expanding the Field: Sports and Culture, The Nation’s Finest, Lady Wrestler) sits that shiny gem we’ve been missing, Rare Baseball Films: The Newsreels.
The film center’s popular and long-running program has been AWOL since 2015 due to a dearth of unused content, says programmer and Wex’s Director of Film/Video David Filipi.
“There were a couple of years where I wasn’t able to find a new source of material,” he says.
Finally, Filipi was able to tap a new resource the University of South Carolina, providing more than enough material for another go—maybe even a few programs. This is good news, as Filipi says he fields many emails and calls asking for the program.
“I’m glad we’re able to do it again,” he says. “It’s a passion of mine, and I know the audience for it is really excited it’s coming back.”
Does Filipi look for anything in particular, or just whatever jumps out?
“More the latter,” he says. “Everyone loves to see Babe Ruth, everyone loves to see Jackie Robinson. They could be brushing their teeth, it’s going in the program. And then the things that seem really far removed from our times, like wacky publicity stunts—just things that would be too corny to happen now. I certainly have my radar up for things like that. Things that really seem of-their-time.”
It does take quite an effort to pull the program together, though.
“I usually kind of work on it in three bursts,” he says. “Really far out, I start working with the archives to identify what looks interesting. And then when they send me the footage initially, that probably takes the longest. I go through it all, do a little bit of research. There might be a clip that doesn’t seem that exciting on the screen but turns out to be really historically relevant, so that period takes quite a lot of time.”
Once Filipi has weeded through all the options, he begins the work of creating a single product, working with one of the Wex’s staff editors on a rough edit and later a final edit.
“I definitely try to give it some structure,” he says. “If we have a number of, say, spring training clips or presidents throwing out first pitches, I tend to put that at the beginning. If themes do kind of emerge, I kind of bunch those together.”
“I try to save most of the really entertaining ones for the end so there’s a big finish,” he says. “And then it’s just pacing.”
“And then I start all over again,” he says. “Go back to the clips with a fine tooth comb and looking at every detail.”
One interesting detail emerged during this added layer of research.
“This year has a perfect example,” he says. “There’s a clip of Christy Walsh’s birthday party. Christy Walsh was this famous agent—he was Babe Ruth’s agent, and he was Lou Gehrig’s agent, Knute Rockne’s agent. You see Babe Ruth singing happy birthday, and Al Smith, who used to be the governor of New York, is singing happy birthday. And there’s this guy, and he looked so familiar. I could not figure it out, was he a player or what?”
“And then something made me look up Eddie Rickenbacker, and I saw a picture and realized, ‘That is the guy.’ He had the same agent as Babe Ruth, so that’s why they were hanging out together. And those are the kind of moments I just live for and love. It’s my favorite part of the program when something comes together like that.”
Columbus-native Rickenbacker is not the only surprising local connection Filipi found.
“From 1943, there is footage of a charity old timers’ game with the aim of selling war bonds,” he says. “You have Walter Johnson, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins, Tris Speaker, Hank Greenberg. But what’s interesting about his clip is Hank Gowdy, who was born in Columbus and died in Columbus and played in the major leagues and managed in the major leagues. This is the first time I’ve found footage of Hank Gowdy.”
Rare Baseball Films: The Newsreels runs Friday and Saturday, March 23 and 24 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $6 for members, students and seniors; $8 for the general public.
Read more from Hope at MADDWOLF and listen to her weekly movie review podcast THE SCREENING ROOM.