The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
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| The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings | |
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| Directed by | John Badham |
| Produced by | Berry Gordy Rob Cohen |
| Written by | Hal Barwood William Brashler |
| Starring | Billy Dee Williams James Earl Jones Richard Pryor |
| Music by | William Goldstein |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 17, 1976 |
| Running time | 110 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976) is an affectionately comedic sports film about a team of enterprising ex-Negro League baseball players in the era of racial segregation. It starred Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor.
[edit] Synopsis
Tired of being treated like a slave by team owner Sallison Potter (Ted Ross), charismatic star pitcher Bingo Long (partially based on Satchel Paige and played by Billy Dee Williams) steals a bunch of Negro League players away from their teams, including Leon Carter (James Earl Jones portraying a Josh Gibson-like slugger) and Charlie Snow (aka "Carlos Nevada" and "Chief Takahoma", played by Richard Pryor, as a player forever trying to break into the segregated Major League baseball of the 1930's by masquerading as first a Cuban, then a Native American). They take to the road, barnstorming through small Midwestern towns, playing the local teams to make ends meet. One of the opposing players, 'Esquire' Joe Callaway (Stan Shaw), is so good that they recruit him.
Bingo's team becomes so outlandishly entertaining and successful, it begins to cut into the attendance of the established Negro League teams. Finally, Bingo's nemesis Potter is forced to propose a winner-take-all game: if Bingo's team can beat a bunch of all-stars, it can join the league, but if it loses, the players will return to their old teams. Potter has two of his goons kidnap Leon prior to the game as insurance, but he escapes and keys his side's victory.
Ironically, there is a Major League scout in the audience. After the game, he offers Esquire Joe (a thinly-veiled Jackie Robinson) a chance to break the color barrier; with Bingo's permission, he accepts. Leon foresees the decline of the Negro League as more players follow Esquire Joe's lead, but Bingo, ever the optimist, cheers him up by describing the wild promotional stunts he intends to stage to bring in the paying customers.
[edit] Trivia
- Early in his career, Satchel Paige called in his outfielders in the ninth inning of a 1-0 game and pitched his way out of a jam. Bingo replicated the stunt in this movie.
- The Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings are loosely based on the Ethiopian Clowns, a barnstorming baseball team that joined the Negro American League in the 1940s.
- Stephen Spielberg originally wanted to have a hand in producing the movie until the success from his movie Jaws got his full attention.
- Bertha, the character played by Mabel King, is a thinly-veiled Effa Manley.
