Doris I. Walker Meets Hank Aaron

With another baseball season about to get underway, I thought it would be a good time to take a trip back to the summer of 1958. In the middle of August of that year, my mother Doris Isaak Walker paid a visit to a major league baseball game in Cincinnati, Ohio as part of her job as editor of Brunswick's Chalk Talk in-house publication.

From 1958 to 1960, my mother worked for the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company at their headquarters at 623 South Wabash Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. My father Jack worked there too (in fact that’s where they met and married this same year of 1958.)

Selected Chalk Talk issues. Photo by author.

Before becoming the editor of “Chalk Talk,” my mother had worked at Walgreens (also in Chicago), editing their "Pepper Pot" publication. Here are some of the Chalk Talk issues she produced as editor-in-chief (more on Chalk Talk and Brunswick in a future post).

Selected Chalk Talk issues. Photo by author.

Besides manufacturing the bowling and billiards equipment for which they were most famous, Brunswick extended its business into other areas--from furniture to aerospace. (At one point they had also made phonograph records, but they sold off their label nearly three decades earlier--though it continued to be known as Brunswick Records.) In 1958, not long after Doris Isaak joined the company, Brunswick acquired MacGregor & Co.--a Cincinnati-based sporting goods manufacturer. A number of top major league baseball players used MacGregor gloves and other equipment, including future home run king Hank Aaron. Aaron remained a MacGregor endorser for many years (proving an advertising boon to them during the 1974 season when Aaron broke Babe Ruth's all-time home run record).

MacGregor magazine ad, 1959.

As part of her job with Brunswick, Doris visited the Cincinnati headquarters of MacGregor, then attended a baseball game pitting the Cincinnati Reds against the defending champion Milwaukee Braves (winners of the 1957 World Series). The game took place on Saturday, August 13, 1958, at Cincinnati's Crosley Field. Mom was photographed with a number of players that night who used MacGregor equipment, including the Braves’ all-star right fielder Hank Aaron--then in the fifth season of what would become a Hall of Fame career.

Here’s my mother Doris Isaak Walker with Hank Aaron in Cincinnati on August 13, 1958 (just a few days short of her 25th birthday; Hank would turn 25 the following February). At this point, Aaron had only hit about 130-140 of his eventual 755 home runs.

Doris Isaak Walker, Henry "Hank" Aaron.

Mom poses with the Milwaukee Braves 1958 all-star catcher Del Crandall, who's modeling a MacGregor catcher’s mitt.

Doris Isaak Walker, Del Crandall.

Milwaukee’s first baseman was Frank Torre. Frank's younger brother Joe Torre (later a top player and manager) wouldn’t enter the major leagues until two years later. Here mom gets a good look at Frank Torre’s MacGregor first baseman’s mitt.

Doris Isaak Walker, Frank Torre.

Playing second base for the Braves was Red Schoendienst--so named for the color of his hair. Schoendienst later managed the St. Louis Cardinals to a World Series victory and is enshrined in Baseball's Hall of Fame. The name of the gentleman who appears in this and other photos is unknown to me, but he may be a MacGregor representative. Whoever he is, he’s sporting some very stylish 1958 threads.

Unidentified, Doris Isaak Walker, Red Schoendienst.

This is another shot of Mom and Red Schoendienst which provides a great view of Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The team played here until 1970. (During that final year, the stadium also was the site of a rock and roll concert--broadcast live on television--during which Iggy of the band The Stooges smeared peanut butter on himself. But at this time in 1958, the only peanut products present at the stadium came roasted in their shells.)

Doris Isaak Walker, Red Schoendienst, Unidentified.

Mom hailed from Cleveland, and had been a diehard Cleveland Indians fan since she was very young. One of the great thrills of her life came at age 15 when her Indians won the 1948 World Series. But here she is with some of the members of the other major league team from the state of Ohio, the Cincinnati Reds--or, as they were known at the time, the Cincinnati Redlegs (having temporarily changed their name in 1954 at the height of Cold War paranoia; they dropped the "legs" in 1960).

Here’s Mom with Cincinnati center fielder Gus Bell. His son Buddy Bell and grandsons David and Mike Bell would eventually follow him as second and third generational major leaguers.

Gus Bell, Unidentified, Doris Isaak Walker.

Doris Isaak Walker chats with first baseman Walt Dropo, who’d been picked up on waivers by the floundering Cincinnati team less than two months earlier. Dropo was traded to Baltimore in the middle of the next season.

Unidentified, Walt Dropo, Doris Isaak Walker.

Here’s Doris and Cincinnati manager George “Birdie” Tebbetts (and the other unidentified man) with a MacGregor bat and catcher’s shinguards. I was able to date these photos because of a note mom wrote on the back of one of the shots of Tebbetts, identifying him and saying that he was fired the next day. Officially, Tebbetts announced his resignation (though possibly under duress from management) on August 14, 1958, with the team having fallen into last place in the National League, which would mean this photo was taken August 13.

George "Birdie" Tebbetts, Unidentified, Doris Isaak Walker.

Mom shares her July-August 1958 issue of Chalk Talk with Cincinnati trainer Joe Taylor. On the back cover, she announced her debut as editor. Looks like the Redlegs were well stocked with Coca-Cola.

Doris Isaak Walker, Joe Taylor.

Here’s a close-up of the back cover with mom’s introductory message to her corporate readership.

Back cover of Chalk Talk, July-August 1958.

And here’s the masthead of the same issue of Chalk Talk, listing mom as editor. In a few issues her signature would change to Doris Isaak Walker.

Masthead of Chalk Talk, July-August 1958.

In a blog post in the very near future, I’ll go into more details about both my parents at Brunswick in the late 1950’s, which will include many photographs which will certainly appeal to fans of “Mad Men.”

The Death Race 2000 Family Location Adventure

In 1975, my mother Doris Walker (1933-2011) was one of several Orange County news reporters who were recruited to play--of all things--reporters in a movie being shot at the “ziggurat building” in Laguna Niguel, California. The building was so nick-named because of its shape--which dated back to Mesopotamia but at the same time looked very futuristic. It was built in 1971 as headquarters for the Rockwell aerospace company. However, Rockwell never took possession, so it remained an empty white elephant until the U.S. government acquired it. (It’s known today by the highly-dynamic monicker, “the Chet Holifield Federal Building”).

The film was called Death Race 2000, and was produced by a company called New World Pictures. The company was founded by Roger Corman, but I had know idea who he was then, nor about any of the previous films he’d directed or produced. I had heard of the film’s star--David Carradine, then star of TV’s “Kung Fu.” I was also familiar with one other person in the cast: the Real Don Steele, one of the original KHJ Boss Radio DJs of the 1960’s who had a weekly dance show on Channel 9 in Los Angeles called “The Real Don Steele Show.” In fact, when I got to visit the set as an extra in the climax scene (more about that later) I was probably more excited about seeing Steele than Carradine (though my interest in Corman’s earlier movies would shortly afterward eclipse my interest in either).

At the time, none of us had any idea that the film would become a “cult classic.” Nor did we have an inkling that it’s director (Paul Bartel) would make another heralded “cult classic” called Eating Raoul. And there was certainly no clue that one of the film’s supporting players, Sylvester Stallone, would shortly more than a year later make Rocky and become a far bigger “movie star” than anyone else involved in the film. I remember some disappointment and confusion when I saw a cameraman wearing a 20th Century-Fox T-shirt, and I thought that maybe it was  indeed a big studio production. However, I was soon informed it was being produced by New World Pictures, whatever that was.

My mother took part in two scenes: the first near the beginning of the picture (an interior scene), the second at the film’s climax (all exteriors).

Doris Walker, center.

I was not present during the shooting of my mother’s first scene, which took place inside the cavernous ziggurat building. In the scene, near the film’s beginning, David Carradine is introduced as “Frankenstein” -- the greatest driver in a cross country auto race held in the United States of the year 2000. The country has become a sort of futuristic, fascistic and overpopulated Roman Empire, where the masses are appeased through a race in which drivers are awarded points for running down pedestrians and spectators.

Frankenstein’s introduction comes when he is wheeled out on a hospital gurney after surgery. A group of denim clad reporters surround him, throwing questions at Frankenstein and the surgeon (played by director Bartel). However, in reality, only one reporter actually asks any questions, and has any lines. That is Grace Pander, played by Joyce Jameson--the only “reporter” who is in reality an actor, rather than a real-life reporter. As I later discovered, this was standard operation procedure for Roger Corman. Go to a location with just a few principal actors, and round up locals to play the rest of the cast for a box lunch and a few bucks.

Despite the fact she has no lines, at one point the camera pans the faces of the reporters, and my mother’s face nearly fills the screen.

Doris Walker as seen in the movie.

One of the perks for the reporters playing reporters was that they had an “exclusive” on the production, which of course was something that was even more beneficial to New World Pictures. My mom brought her 1972 Minolta SLR (not the prop camera with flashcube she held in the film) along and shot four rolls of black and white 35mm. When she was doing her scenes, she gave her camera to someone else to shoot shots (mostly her boyfriend Leo, or perhaps other news photographers).

In the below shot, actress Joyce Jameson is at left, my mother Doris Walker is holding a camera just to the right of the crewman with backpack, and director Paul Bartel (playing a doctor in this scene) is in the lab coat at right. Everyone in denim coats are reporter extras, mostly played by real reporters.

Joyce Jameson, Doris Walker, Paul Bartel.

Between scenes, my mom (Doris Walker) reacts to David Carradine in his Frankenstein costume. She said she really didn’t get a chance to talk to him much, and he spent most of the shoot inside his RV outside, where she heard him playing guitar and singing “Me and Bobby McGee.” It may have been too early for him to start learning Woody Guthrie songs for Bound for Glory.

Doris Walker, David Carradine.

The other big scene filmed at the ziggurat building was the climax, which was the end of the race. In the scene, the president stands on a podium, ready to proclaim Frankenstein the winner. However, in an unexpected turn, Frankenstein drives his car into the podium in an attempt to assassinate the president.
My mother took a number of shots of the production of that scene, including these two that included Carradine (he was replaced with a stunt driver for the scenes involving the actual podium stunt).

David Carradine (in bathrobe).

David Carradine getting ready for the shot.

As she often did when she got wind of a big event that was happening during school hours, my mother got permission to pull myself, my brother, and my friends David Hayes (my later co-author on The Films of the Bowery Boys) and Eric Farr out of school. We would all queue up as extras alongside the curbside during the finale, though you can’t see any of us on camera. (David re positioned himself so that he might be closer to the action, but I don’t believe he was visible in the final released film.)

L-R: Brent Walker, Blair Walker, David Hayes, Eric Farr.

My mother’s boyfriend Leo was also drafted into duty as an extra, playing one of the government security forces who try to hustle off opposition leader “Thomasina Paine.” Leo is at the center of the picture in black beard and glasses. Note the patch on Leo’s left shoulder--the “fist” insignia that was the official government emblem in the film.

Leo Suhostavsky (center) holds actress Harriet Medin.

Here are the actual patches Leo wore, which my mother saved and I now have (below the patches are contact sheets from my mother’s photos):

Original costume patches from Death Race 2000.

Here is the president and cabinet on the podium in front of the ziggurat building. Note the Death Race 2000 logo on the camera:

This is not the actual scene in which the stunt driver drove through the podium, rather any earlier shot. During the scene in which the stunt driver drove the car into the podium, I was standing along with other extras along the curb dotted with trees behind the car, and got a good view of the action.

This was where I learned another piece of information about a Roger Corman movie. They didn’t plan on doing a second take, if they could help it. During the first shot of the car going into the podium, ripping the canvas beneath the fist logo, something went wrong that forced an unplanned second take. And they apparently didn’t have backup canvas, so the crew had to stitch up the ripped canvas, which seemed to take a long time.

And it was at this point that I realized why they cast The Real Don Steele in the film. Somebody had to be the “tummler,” keeping the extras engaged and enthused during the long delay. And The Real Don Steele did the job, with his constant patter and Boss Radio schtick which had us all engaged.
Here’s The Real Don Steele dancing a little jig during downtime in an earlier podium scene (pre-rip).

The Real Don Steele (center). Director Paul Bartel right (back to camera).

Some of my mother’s photos taken during the shooting later ran in a local newspaper. 

Here she is posing with the Frankenstein car.

And here’s my brother Blair and mom’s boyfriend Leo inside the car.

Blair posing with the car again:

And one final shot of the grille: