posted by Brandon Gollotti

on July 24, 2007

Another long segment of the film is a piece on the Philadelphia Stars, an all-black Baseball team playing in Philadelphia. In this segment, there were several interviews by former players recounting several memories of the players, the team and their schedule. They said that their field, at Belmont and Parkside Avenues in Fairmount Park, would host sold-out games and that they even won the Negro National League Pennant in 1934.

The film does not speak of too many racial issues in the city but there are two main stories that are featured in the film. One is with the election of Wilson Goode in 1984. This was a monumental occasion in Philadelphia’s long history as Goode was the first African-American Mayor in the city’s history. Goode was mayor during the MOVE house bombing in 1985 and preceded Mayor Ed Rendell in 1991. The other issue was with the Girard College, as it did not allow African Americans to be admitted until 1968. Girard College has a very long history since its founding in 1833 by Stephen Girard, at the time of his death he was the richest man in the United States, and it has such notable alumni as Russell Johnson, an actor made-famous by his role as the professor on Gilligan’s Island.

Black Philadelphia Memories is a good film showing audience viewers a side of Philadelphia that they may not know about. Although the film is somewhat long and the interviews are pretty boring, I recommend the film if you are interesting in learning about Black Philadelphian pop culture during the twentieth century. From showing recipes to interviews of former baseball players, the documentary takes an interesting of part of Philadelphia and makes a kind of history piece that all Philadelphians can enjoy.