Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 132

4Q DETROIT FREE PRESSSUNDAY, APRIL 5, 1992 Hollywood is pitching the Babe Ruth legend in a mighty big way Sp Camera keeps eye off things that would give Wrigley Field away iling imcs i -vV has no equivalent of Yankee Stadium's -famed right field the area where so many of Ruth's shots landed. So whenever the Babe connects, the camera has to cut from Goodman to. the foul territory along the first base side, which, with its overhang, can pass for Yankee Stadium's right-field deck. Most of all, the camera has to low enough in center field to avoid the; scoreboard with its alien teams: Atlari- ta, Houston, Seattle, Minneapolis, Los Angeles cities with no better than Triple A minor-league teams decades ago. A more modest scoreboard be-; neath it waits for scores from the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants' and Philadelphia Athletics names from a time when seven of ihe16 big-, league franchises still were located in the cradles of the American Revolu: tion: Philadelphia, New York and Bos: ton.

By Allen Barra CHICAGO For the upcoming movie "Babe," John Goodman hopes moviegoers will find his portrayal of Babe Ruth grounded in reality. He'll have help on screen from Wrigley Field. Wrigley's old-style girders and famous bleachers (with brick apartment houses in the background) make it a passable double for most of the pre-World War II, inner-city ballparks that Ruth played in. On this particular day of filming last summer, its famous ivy-covered outfield walls are covered by billboards: Arrow collars, Esco hosiery, Gem Safety Razors and a dozen other small businesses that in today's game couldn't afford a TV ad. Even with this cosmetic job, Wrigley can't pass for a Ruth-era ballpark without adroit camerawork.

Chicago's downtown skyscrapers have to be screened out of every shot. Wrigley John Goodman takes the plate in "The Babe" for George Herman Ruth's legendary "called shot." The movie about the great baseball player is scheduled to open April 17. BABE, from Page 1Q say as Ben (the Alabama Flash) Chapman, who was sitting on the Yankee bench, claims "You SOB, you do that again and I'll knock you The historical jury is out, and always will be. But those who are making "The Babe" aren't agonizing over ambiguities. "When the legend becomes fact," says the reporter in the movie "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "print the legend." "The Babe" is printing the legend.

In the filmmakers' defense, it ought to be pointed out that even the facts are of legendary proportions. If Ruth didn't wolf down 16 hot dogs before a game, he ate enough to make fellow players wince. If he wasn't really making $100,000 in 1927 the year he supposedly defended earning more than the president of the United States by saying, "I had a better year than he did" he was at least making $70,000 at a time when other superstars were lucky to get $10,000. And if he didn't actually call that home run, he sure did something that looked an awful lot like it. Nearly two decades after Hank Aaron surpassed his lifetime total of 714 home runs, Babe Ruth is probably still the most famous athlete America has ever had.

And yet, amazingly, he has never been the subject of a major motion picture (1948's "The Babe Ruth Story," starring William scarcely qualifies as a movie). Baseball films are older than the World Series (Thomas Edison made the first film in 1902; the Series began in 1903), and nearly 200 have been made. But, until now, they have avoided the greatest and most famous player of all. "I swing big," Ruth once said. "I hit big, or I miss big.

I like to live as big as I can." It's almost as if the biggest hero of an age of heroes was simply too big for the screen. And, then again, maybe there just hasn't been a star who could fill Ruth's spikes. Whatever is said about "The Babe," no one is going to complain that John Goodman isn't big enough. Walking around Wrigley Field last summer in an old-style wool uniform that, by noon, is already carrying a couple of gallons of sweat, and with a puttied Ruthian nose and oiled, curly hair, bellowing and belching like a Yankee Doodle Falstaff Goodman is a one-man time warp. Ruth's hejght was listed at 6-2 or 6-3, which fits Goodman.

But the actor, best known for the TV series "Rose- The ugly with the good Despite its efforts to portray Ruth as a real person, "The Babe" has some real fluff in it, particularly regarding Johnny Sylvester, the sick boy Ruth supposedly visited in a hospital and promised to hit a home run for. The movie ups the ante: The Babe hits three homers for little Johnny. In real life, Ruth didn't see Johnny until after he'd hit four home runs in the World Series. The following spring, Johnny's father came to the Yankees' training camp to thank Ruth for meet like a swarm of Little Leaguers trying to tackle John Wajme, but eventually they immobilize him. Director Hiller, satisfied, yells'.

"Cut" and we're back in the 1990s! As, the crowd noise dies down, the voices of Goodman and his captors cah.be' heard wafting through the ball park, singing "Take me out to the, ball, game Goodman climbs back over the fence and onto the field. "God, I'm: havin' fun," he roars. "I'm glad they didn't get De Niro to do this creation. On Wrigley Field, Goodman's Ruth bellows at an umpire who has just called him out at second base. Then he turns to face a barrage of lemons and taunts from hostile fans.

Livid, he grabs a bat off the dugout rack and climbs into the stands, heading for a fan he has zeroed in on as his chief tormentor. Faint hearts which in this case means just about everybody scatter. As Goodman waves the bat and rages, a few brave-looking actors in Yankee uniforms sneak up behind him and grab his arms and legs. They look ed. "Everyone forgets what a great pitcher Ruth was before he became an outfielder," Goodman says.

"I'll never say something like 'He throws like a girl' again. It's not easy to learn how to throw." And then there was the trot. "When you think of Babe Ruth, what pops into your head? The films of him circling the bases after a home run, right? Those running little steps, that broad grin on his face. One day, I was sitting with (director Arthur) Hiller and (screenwriter John) Fusco, and I thought, Til do it I'm And I got up and did my home-run trot around the living room. They said, 'You're "My only real fear and I guess this may sound silly is that I'll come off too big for the role.

I guess Babe Ruth is an easy guy to overplay." Tremendously fast and funny from first joke to last." Uwram FnrKelb. US MAGAHNI important is that Goodman can, in an instant, convince you that he is Babe Ruth. Like the the old joke, John Goodman is just like everyone else only more so. That's precisely the quality in Ruth that appealed to people. And it's precisely what makes Goodman perfect to play him.

Learning to be Babe The role scared him at first, Goodman admits. "I thought, 'Kee-ryst, if I try and play Babe Ruth, they'll skewer I mean the critics, the public, everybody. How do you play a legend?" So how did he? "I finally decided to hell with it you're not going to please everyone; just play him as much like a real person as you can, and let people's reactions fall as they may. First, get the outward particulars right, then concentrate on showing people that there was a real inner man there a man with a powerful need to be loved and who suffered great disappointments in his life. "For me, one of the keys was this: Babe symbolized the eternal kid in America, but most people never saw the tragic side of that.

He was an orphan, and to make him an eternal kid was, in a way, to stick him with being an orphan forever." The outward particulars of Ruth included his famous sweeping left-handed swing, which Goodman, a former high school athlete and a natural right-hander, had to learn. "That was tough enough I mean, you can't keep fooling people by pulling the camera away; sooner or later, you've got to actually show Babe Ruth hitting a home run," he says. Harder still was throwing left-hand MY COUSIN mm ing his son. After he'd left, Ruth asked, "Now, who the hell is Johnny Sylvester?" That scene is not in the movie. On the other hand, "The Babe" doesn't gloss over some of the more unsavory aspects of Ruth's character, aspects that sportswriters of the day virtually ignored.

Ruth quarreled with management, fans and teammates; once, he held his manager by his ankles over the end of a moving train. He played hungover and he drove drunk. He attacked umpires. "America wanted a big kid for a hero, and once they got that, they had no need for Ruth the man," says screenwriter Fusco. "The really sad thing about Ruth's career is how badly he wanted to manage, and he was never allowed to.

In Ruth's time, it was something the greatest players aspired to. Not getting to manage was kind of a symbol to Babe. He took it to mean, 'You're never going to take me The ferocity of Ruth's destructive (and often self-destructive) behavior must have been terrifying, because it's frightening enough to watch its re A COMEDY OF TRIAL AND ERROR lie McwoirM wesTl 1:20 5:10 8:20 dMC G1STUMD 5 rtMCSOUTHHCLD QTV j. 5:15 8:00 IQT 1:45 6:00 8:30 5:00 7:40 9:40 anne," is a few pounds heavier than the 230- or 240-pound Babe, who wasn't exactly known for his conditioning program. "Yeah," Goodman sighs, "I figure it's a pretty sad commentary when you've got to lose 40 pounds to play Babe Ruth." Does Goodman's made-up face look like one of the most famous mugs in sports history? Close enough.

Far more IMC SOUTHL1MD G4MTOM CinCMl MCA1ICS Al MIRWrlC 1:30 5:00 8:15 5:00 7:20 9:50 4:00 7:00 9:30 John Goodman portrays Babe Ruth during a hospital visit to a terminally-ill young fan. MOMIS L4KSID RcrwisMnce MOV1ICS1T12 01KS 2:30 4:30 7:00 9:15 2:30 4:45 7:10 9:30 12:45 3:10 5:35 7:45 10:00 SHOWCdS ajwwi nils SHOWC1SmMC6-i9 SHOWOISC STCRUMG HCTS, 'Barney' and pals add PBS to their resumes 4:50 7:25 10:00 4:45 7:45 10:10 4:05 7:10 9:40 STrtR CMTIOT SHOWCrtSe wcsTwno ST4R JOHN rtT 1 4 Emphasizing songs and activities, 2:30 5:00 7:30 10:00 11:20 4:30 7:40 10:15 12:10 2:50 5:30 8:00 1 VERONIQUE STdR UMCOLM PMK urfTEDim WSTRNR SMR ROCHSTR NOW SHOWING 1:45 5:45 8:00 10:45 1:30 4:00 6:45 9:45 11:40 2:20 4:50 7:30 10:00 2:30 4:45 7:15 9:30 BY MARTIN F. KOHN Free Press Staff Writer Barney the Dinosaur gets 1,500 fan letters a week, and he hasn't even been on TV. Until now. The singing purple dinosaur, star of eight "Barney the Backyard Gang" videotapes since 1988, comes to PBS versity and was a special education teacher in Burton and Otisville before moving to Texas.

She and her husband, Phil, a former math teacher who writes songs for "Barney," have a daughter, Kaitlin, 6, and a son, Ryan, 15 months. And a 4-year-old purple dinosaur who seems to keep growing and "Barney and the Backyard Gang" home videos sold more than 500,000 units. The TV series is an outgrowth. "I still want to look over my shoulder and say, 'Who really is doing said Parker. Born in Harbor Beach, Parker grew up in Davison, has bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Eastern Michigan Uni this week (3 p.m.

weekdays on Detroit's Channel 56) in 30 half-hour programs called "Barney Friends." Barney, a costumed character with a person inside, like Big Bird, is the brainchild of Michigan native Kathy O'Rourke Parker and her partner, Sheryl Leach, both 38. They live in the Dallas area, where Barney was born. "TWO ENTHUSIASTIC THUMBS UP for 'WHITE MEN CAN'T a very funny, very smart new comedy." -S1SK1-I. l-HHKT "IN YOUR FACE LAUGHS! A very funny movie that will score and score and scorc.Don't miss it." (J(XP MOKNINli AMHRIC'A ttrrif nn( iilfit Ar niruw A 5J WinnCr Rod Lurie, LA MAGAZINE Provocative. Gripping.

Brilliant." Roger Hurlburt, FT. LAIMRDAU NEWS A splendid film.iwTowwost "We jokingly, smilingly say there was this big thunderbolt on the Central Expressway," Parker said during a recent Mich gives a funny, knowing performance with a lot of physical verve." M.iNlin, NKW YORK TIMKS "A sassy, urban fairy tale that finds laughs in some very clever places. Snipes and Harrelson are the Laurel and Hardy 1 CTAVICIII' igan visit. The truth is a little more mundane. A few years Parker -Jf Itrtj I tons, S.M4K fRKMHS, CNBCTHE REAL STORY ago Leach, Or searching for programming that would hold her 2'2-year-old son's attention for 15 minutes, came upon one of the videos in the "Wee Sing" series and he sat through it.

Neither Leach nor Parker could find many other videos that could keep preschoolers entertained without mak of the half-court game." Turan. I.OS ANCKLES TIMKS TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX A RON SHELTON "WHITE MEN CANT JUMP" WESLEY SNIPES WOODY HARRELSON ROSIE PEREZ BENNIE WALLACE 'TPAUL SEYDOR DENNIS WASHINGTON RUSSELL iKMlCHELE RAPPAPORTDON MILLER. DAVID LESTER .52 RON SHELTON 'rIBBS WHITE in CANT JUMP "DRAMATIC." -Jack Canwr. GANNETT NEWS SERVICE "EMOTIONAL." Fin, CANVETT NEWSPAPERS "ENTHRALLING." -11m Swjdt, KAX RAWO HKfWINTCTMCCNTUIHHll dMCIBBO dMClMCRICIMIWCST 1:30 2,5,5:40 7:30 10:05 1:30 5-30 8:00 ing them dumber. 1 his gave them an idea.

"We both had marketing experience and education experience and we're both moms," Parker said. Leach was a software manager and Parker an early childhood product manager for an Allen, Texas, firm called DLM, which, coincidentally, had just built video production facilities. "We sat with our children," said Parker, "and took notes. We went to our preschool and asked, "What are your children's favorite What sort of character should the AMC L4URCL MRK IMC SOuTHfHOD CITY IMC BL dIR IMC SOUTHQITC 1:30 4:30 7:00 9:30 1:00 1:20 5:00 5:20 7:20 7:50 9 50 1:40 4:40 5:10 7:40 8, 10:30 10:50 1:30 5:00 IMC WOODS rtMC STRUMG OR. IMC WOMDCRWMD MCRCURY 1:40 5:20 8:00 2:00 5:00 7:40 1:30 5:45 8 20 12:30 2:45 5:00 7:30 9:45 MOVJI TOWM CTR.

mcnics Ai wiRwne QUO VMDIS RCMIISSIMCC 1:00 3-15 5:25 7:40 9:55 12:35 3:00 5:25 7:45 10:05 1:30 1:45 4,4:15 7,7:30 9:30 10 8I 30 SHOWGISeSTeRllMGHGTS. STIR GMTIOT SHOWCdSC pomwc 6-12 SHOWG4SCIUBUW1 HILLS video be built around? "Initially, it was going to be a teddy bear," Parker said, until Leach pointed out her son was crazy about dinosaurs. A dinosaur is fine, Parker said, but "it must be purple with gfeen spots." Purple with green spots it was, and a star was born. 1:00 3:15 5:30 7:50 10:10 12 45 1:45 3.415 515 7 20 745 945 1015 13:30 2:45 5 30 7:50 10:10 '135 Ml 33C Hi 550 730 t15 10 1050 NOW SHOWING I fORD WVOMIMG SMR UMCOLM P1RK utiiTeo mmri WCSJMRINCR 4MR WIMCHSTR I 12:15 2:30 4:45 7:15 930 12:00 2 30 5 00 7:30 10:10 (MII MOV1I aiMOi KM MOWTIMU.