Built in 1930, Engel Stadium has seen a lot of baseball magic. Now, over a decade after the Chattanooga Lookouts vacated the stadium to move to AT&T Field, Engel is seeing a different kind of magic: the magic of movies.
It’s mid-morning on May 22 at Engel. Near the first base dugout, an assistant director raises a megaphone to his mouth and says, “Rolling,” prompting vendors in the stands to begin hawking peanuts and fans dressed in ‘40s garb to jump to their feet and shout toward the field. Jackie Robinson enters the frame, intent on catching a foul ball. His eyes are skyward as he follows the arc of the ball, and he runs perilously close to the edge of the dugout. To keep Robinson from falling, a white teammate leaps off the bench and catches him. Incensed, the crowd shouts racial epithets at the black ballplayer.
Two expensive-looking cameras capture all of the action, and then the crew begins to set up for another take. This isn’t the first time many of them have labored to tell an inspiring sports drama. They did it in 2003 while shooting the acclaimed “Friday Night Lights.” Today, they’re making a movie called “42,” named after the number on Robinson’s uniform.
Robinson made history as the first African American to play Major League baseball. This was no small act of bravery in the ‘40s, when “negroes” were relegated to their own league. Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, decided it was time to integrate the sport and refused to back down against the forces that railed against him and Robinson.
Written and directed by Brian Helgeland (“Man on Fire” and “Robin Hood”), “42” will tell the story of how Robinson overcame intense discrimination to break color barriers and become Rookie of the Year in 1947. Slated for release on April 13, 2013, it will also recount the love he and his wife, Rachel, shared. Robinson died in 1972, but his widow is still alive at 89. Helgeland consulted with her on the film’s story.
The illusory magic of the movies is on full display at Engel. Hundreds of mannequins topped with fedoras and stiff wigs double as people in the upper reaches of the stands, while towering green walls extend the stands and raise the outfield fence, obscuring the view of the surrounding city. Visual effects artists will replace the green with skylines, scoreboards and other details appropriate to the ballpark at which the action is taking place. Today, Engel is doubling as Ebbet’s Field, the home of the Dodgers.
To prepare the stadium for filming, construction crews arrived in early spring to extend the stands, sink the dugouts and spruce up the field, which was in disrepair. Stepping into Engel today is like traveling several decades back in time – barring the high tech movie equipment and the crewmembers munching on hot dogs.
Lendary Entertainment’s selection of Engel as a location for “42” is a small miracle. As the studio prepared to make the movie, securing tax incentives was a major concern. Georgia stepped up to the plate, as it were, and Atlanta became the hub of operations for the crew.
Next, the filmmakers began searching for nearby ballparks that could double as an old time sports venue. A man in New York who knows every baseball stadium in the U.S. told them about Engel. When the studio saw how close Chattanooga was to Atlanta and the other locations at which “42” would be shooting, things began clicking into place.
Months later, one of the biggest names in movies is coming to the Scenic City to act in “42”: Harrison Ford, who has taken the role of Rickey. Starring with him are veteran actors Christopher Meloni (“Law and Order: SVU”) as Leo Durocher, manager of the Dodgers; Hamish Linkliter (“Battleship”) as Ralph Branca, a pitcher that lined up with Robinson before his first Major League game when other players refused; T.R. Knight (“Grey’s Anatomy”) as Harold Parrott, a sports writer that covered the Dodgers; and Lucas Black (“Sling Blade” and “Friday Night Lights”) as Dodger shortstop and Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese, one of the team members who sympathized with Robinson’s plight during the 1947 season.
The cast also includes a local “rookie” – James Ruehling, who hails from Coalmont. Ruehling is essaying ballplayer Spider Jorgensen in his first movie role.
No key cast members are on the field today, though, only doubles, including an actor filling in for Chadwick Boseman, who’s performing the role of Robinson. When the foul ball incident plays in theaters, viewers won’t see Boseman, even though the magic of movies will make it appear as though he’s the one on the screen.
It’s now late morning. The assistant director raises a megaphone to his mouth and says, “Rolling,” prompting vendors to begin hawking peanuts and fans to jump to their feet and start shouting toward the field. Jackie Robinson enters the frame, intent on catching a foul ball.
Just beyond the walls of Engel, Chattanoogans go about their daily business, driving to work, school or the doctor, and passing only a few feet from where footage that will appear on movie screens around the world is being captured.
That’s the magic of movies.