Back in 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey changed the game, and many say the course of American Civil Rights as well, by bringing Jackie Robinson into a game that until then had only allowed white ballplayers on the field.
That story was first told on film in 1950 in the The Jackie Robinson Story, with Robinson playing himself in a movie perhaps less powerful than it could have been given that the major events of the civil rights movement were still more than a decade away.
Now a new film called 42 tells the Jackie Robinson saga again, and it’s of particular interest to UVM Professor Emeritus of English and Film Frank Manchel, who grew up in Brooklyn, and as a kid got to interact with the Dodger legend in a way most baseball fans could only dream of, when he worked selling concessions at the old Ebbets Field. Frank Mancel visited recently to tell that story and speak with VPR’s Mitch Wertlieb about the new film “42.”
Click listen to hear the interview.
