Jay Rohr
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings is a slice of Americana that tells a too familiar U.S. tale. This is more than just a baseball story. It’s the mythical American Dream, warts and all. Every bit of ugliness obscured by a Hollywood happy ending. Yet there’s a strange potential lurking within that could be a homerun in the right hands.
The movie is loosely based on a book by William Brashler. As an author and journalist, he spent some time interviewing members of the Negro National League, founded circa 1920 by Rube Foster. African Americans had been a part of baseball since its beginning. As John P. Rossi observed in his book Baseball and American Culture: A History, “they played at every level of professional baseball, including the highest leagues in the years after the Civil War. As the nation resegregated in the 1880s, they were gradually frozen out of professional baseball.” What became known as the color line was essentially an unwritten rule: one could sarcastically call it a gentleman’s agreement between racist owners.
Escaping worsening conditions in the South, economically and socially, African Americans migrated to northern industrial cities. The resulting swell in community sizes provided an opportunity for baseball teams as well as other businesses to emerge in “the east, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest, but also in upper south cities such as St. Louis and later Baltimore.” Since pay was not nearly as astronomical as it is today, many players supplemented their income by taking up the practice of barnstorming.
This essentially involved athletes from any variety of sports, but especially baseball, going on small tours playing exhibition games. These encounters took on all comers, often allowing the line between races to fade in favor of friendly competition. Teams often rallied around marquee players who made the games a draw such as Satchel Paige’s All-Stars. In addition, barnstorming could often be more financially rewarding than league play which is why teams like the Kansas City Monarchs dropped out of the Negro League from 1932-36 to barnstorm as did the Indianapolis Clowns from 1956-1988.
William Brashler amalgamated this mix of history with pieces of real players into his novel The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings. He borrowed bits of individuals such as James Thomas “Cool Poppa” Bell, who’s legendary speed resulted in him “taking two or even three bases on a bunt, beating out ground balls back to the mound, and registering as nothing more than a blur around the bases for 27 years.” The fictional power hitter Leon Carter is based on Josh Gibson, who Larry Doby considered a more impressive player than Jackie Robinson. Bingo Long is inspired by Satchel Paige, while the rookie “Esquire” Joe Calloway is a blend of the legendary Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson.
This assortment of fact and fiction eventually attracted Hollywood. The 1973 novel was slated for a film adaptation which caught the attention of a then little-known director named Steven Spielberg. However, when he hit it out of the park with Jaws (1975), the budget could no longer afford him, allowing John Badham to take over. Although The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings would be his directorial debut, the English director wouldn’t go on to notoriety until his next feature Saturday Night Fever (1977).
The production pulled together an impressive ensemble cast. Billy Dee Williams (The Empire Strikes Back) took the mound as the charming Bingo Long. James Earl Jones (Field of Dreams) stepped up to the plate as the fiery Leon Carter. Richard Pryor claimed a role as Charlie Snow, a player trying to sneak across the color line by pretending to be Cuban. Stan Shaw (The Monster Squad) gives “Esquire” Joe an interesting mix of youth and shy power. Mabel King (The Jerk) is excellent as a team owner who is habitually insulted and ignored by the vile Sallie Potter played by Ted Ross (The Wiz).
The story is a little different from other baseball movies. Bingo Long is primarily about two players sick of being under the thumb of odious owners. In that respect, it’s bizarrely closer to Major League (1989) than 42 (2013). Inspired by quotes from Marx and W.E.B Du Bois which Leon delivers, the fictional Bingo Long establishes his own All-star team and goes barnstorming without the permission of league owner Sallie Potter. It’s essentially a workers’ rebellion set off by the cruel mistreatment of injured player.
As such, the owners spend the rest of the movie conspiring how to undermine the team’s burgeoning success. Every obstacle they produce requires a shift, resulting in Bingo’s team gradually turning more into a circus than a baseball team. They acquire a little person as a catcher (Dero Austin), a one-armed hitter (Steve Anderson), and occasionally play in costumes. Although there is a certain historical reality to that, it can also be uncomfortable to watch.
At one point, in order to drum up excitement to increase attendance, the All-stars are encouraged to put together an impromptu parade through a small town. It’s hard not to see the specter of minstrel entertainment casting a distasteful shadow over the scene. There are other similar instances, but the movie never really explores them. Consequently, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings oscillates in tone without ever solidifying into something entirely satisfying.
Many of the characters have names yet lack personalities. They fill up the screen as well as the field without really contributing to the story. When necessary, players appear then idle onscreen until needed to turn some plot cog or another. Anything heavy, though, is set in the lap of Billy Dee Williams and James Earl Jones.
For instance, at one point, Leon and Bingo argue about whether to throw a game out of fear the white crowd will lynch them. Fortunately for the team, some comical antics accidentally ensue alongside quick thinking by Bingo to lighten the mood. Still, there’s an ugliness to the moment the film is trying to escape rather than recognize.
The downside is that the feature never settles on what story it wants to tell. It’s a historical drama that doesn’t care to fully acknowledge facts which may discomfort a white audience, while it teases at comedy that never fully becomes humorous. Richard Pryor is basically a background character for the most part, making his casting a waste. Meanwhile, the prideful bitterness in Leon Carter is better seen in James Earl Jones’ portrayal of Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Fences”. That production at least allowed the character to be multifaceted which is partly what Bingo Long lacks.
The aim to remain lighthearted robs the movie of a chance for darker shades of reality to saturate the story. Characters never get to be dynamic. Still, to a certain degree, the film does what critic Micheal Phillips said all interesting baseball movies do: “they show us life off the field, and what it takes, what it costs, to even get close to a dream of glory.”
Consider, the movie is a tale of the American Dream in action. Several talented people with a burning ambition set out on their own. Through sheer grit and determination, they overcome obstacles. Sure, it’s a bumpy road they don’t always navigate expertly, but in the end, they triumph because opportunity comes to those who work hardest. Woven within is implications of systemic racism, the struggle against capitalism, and importance of entertainment in dark times. The film does take place during the Great Depression with signs of World War II right around the corner.
As such, it’s easy to see how someone with a willingness to delve into the bleaker topics could resurrect The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings as a more captivating feature. It remains the only full film centered the Negro League. Other features may mention it like 42, but the emphasis on race in baseball has often been on the graciousness of white folks erasing the color line. Even Soul of the Game (1996) is more about Branch Rickey fighting to integrate baseball than Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, and Josh Gibson. And let’s not forget A League of Their Own (1992) when a black woman throws a ball hard, resulting in a nod of approval from Gina Davis.
The point being that Hollywood hasn’t really explored this era to the extent in could. Documentaries have been the primary outlet for this topic such Only the Ball was White (1980). Oddly enough, that’s probably a good thing because it means there’s a fertile field for someone aiming to make a fresh feature. Although I’m not typically one to advocate for remakes, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings meets the criteria I tend to find acceptable.
This is a movie full of potential. One that could explore the lived experience of African American’s in the 1930s, depicting the Jim Crow South as well as the realities, positive and negative, at the time. Buck O’Neil certainly wasn’t a fan of Bingo Long, expressing the opinion it misrepresented the Negro League.
He said, “Baseball was black entertainment and was important to black communities… we were very happy that integration happened, but it killed our business… clubs like the Monarchs could have been used as farm clubs for the major leagues. But our businesses were taken away from us and there was nothing we could do about it.”
There’s a similar sentiment in Bingo Long. The film ends on a sidewise high note. The team defeats the odious owner, and they have a chance to be real players, but integration is coming, which Leon realizes will mean the league’s demise. It’s only the optimistic Bingo who can’t see what lies beyond their victory, content in the moment with no regard for tomorrow. There’s no doubt, in the right hands, a remake could easily romanticize the bittersweet aspect of such an era.
The point is that The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings may be entertaining enough on its own. Meanwhile, its contradictions and imperfections lay the groundwork for a picture full of potential. Sports films aren’t always specifically about the game. Yet the spectrum of peoples explored by baseball features is intriguingly narrow. That’s odd considering it’s the American pastime.
Biopics like The Babe (1992) or The Pride of the Yankees (1942) celebrate legends. The Natural (1984) and The Rookie (2002) highlight second chances. Bull Durham (1988) is a fable about love and living the best life. The Scout (1994) and The Phenom (2016) are thematically the same movie, about players dealing with childhood abuse, the trauma of which is preventing them from being legends. Eephus (2024) is a phenomenal quiet meditation on existence. But none of these movies say much about life that doesn’t involve whiteness. One could argue baseball is universal, that such messages apply to all people, although that begs the questions why hasn’t some sliver of that universality been rendered into something specific to the African American experience other than crossing the color line?
The closest may be the recent release Sugar (2008), about a Dominican baseball player questioning his singular focus on professional baseball. However, that feels adjacent to themes seen in other films like Everybody Wants Some (2016), Summer Catch (2001), and Rookie of the Year (1993) — there’s more to life than baseball. Something like The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings is about a people as well as an era, who significantly contributed to the history of a national pastime, but have not yet gotten a cinematic representation worthy of that contribution.
Film studios have shown an increasing interest in such material these last several years. In addition, there are a number of award-winning moviemakers who could shepherd, if not outright helm, such a production into authentic meaningful territory. That’s one of the few good reasons for a remake. It offers the opportunity to do what the original missed out on accomplishing.
