In 1988, notices for extras started popping up around Milwaukee, posted in universities and coffee shops. A film production was coming to town – Major League, a comedy about a down-and-out Cleveland Indians baseball team. The movie needed Milwaukeeans to play background baseball players and fans in the stands.
It was the hottest summer in the city in 75 years, with six days over 100-degrees, as semis rolled into the city carrying film equipment, cameras, gear, scaffolding and lights. The movie crew set up its headquarters at the old Marc Plaza Hotel (now the Hilton), and tens of thousands of extras showed up for scenes filmed in Milwaukee County Stadium.
This year, Major League, which was released in 1989, celebrates its 35-year anniversary. The film was a box office hit, taking the number one spot on release and making $75 million on an $11 million dollar budget. It has since cemented itself in pop culture history, and its fans are still legion in Milwaukee, where memories of the summer of filming remain strong.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Major League was filmed in Cream City as opposed to Cleveland largely because Municipal Stadium in Ohio was unavailable for shooting, while County Stadium was. The film’s writer and director, David Ward is from Cleveland, but quickly came to view Milwaukee as a second home.
He told Milwaukee Magazine that he was extremely pleased with the turnout of fans who wanted to be extras. Ward said he was able to get about 27,000 people to show up at the stadium for shooting nights.
“I was stunned and I think the actors were surprised by the turnout as well,” Ward said. “On some nights the crowds weren’t as big as 27,000 people, but that didn’t matter because the shots were no longer wide and we needed extras directly behind the mound and in the batter’s box.”
Ward said there was a group of about 200 to 300 extras who showed up every day, and he came to know some of them, as did the film’s actors.
The movie has more Milwaukee to it than just its shooting locations – Mr. Baseball himself, Bob Uecker, plays radio commentator Harry Doyle.
“I’d seen Bob on television and Miller Lite commercials,” Ward explained. “He was hysterical. The guy was perfect. I can’t think of a better Hollywood actor to play Harry Doyle.”
Ward said it was onerous to film around the Brewers schedule at County Stadium, and the script called for mostly night shooting. “A critical reason the film was shot in Milwaukee County Stadium was because management was very good about allowing us to turn on the lights at night, but in retrospect I guess we paid for that,” he joked.
He said the opportunity to film in Milwaukee worked well for the film, perhaps better than he could have imagined, and he felt he pulled off a magic trick.
Filming wasn’t entirely limited to County Stadium. Some exterior shots took place on Milwaukee’s lower East Side, including the apartment of aging catcher Jake Taylor’s romantic interest Lynn Wells, (Rene Russo). Gritz’s Pzazz, a long defunct restaurant in Brown Deer, was used as a location as well, and a mansion on Lake Drive in Whitefish Bay served as the home of the Indians’ third baseman, Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen). A major celebration scene during the film’s climactic win was shot at 4th Base in West Milwaukee, which remains open. The restaurant has even hosted staged reenactments of the very scene, jamming patrons inside and screaming wildly at the team’s fictitious success.
Many of the actors from Major League went on to major Hollywood success, including Wesley Snipes, Dennis Haysbert, Rene Russo, Charlie Sheen and Tom Berringer. All these years later, many seem to have retained a fondness for the offbeat comedy about underdogs and misfits.
It’s nice to think Milwaukee had a bit to do with that.
