Movies

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by Ocala Mike

Anyone familiar with "The Wrong Man" (1956), an Alfred Hitchcock "film noir" that I am very close to? I was a youngster, but I somewhat knew the Henry Fonda character portrayed, Manny Balestrero, as he was a co-worker of my dad's at the Stork Club.

Interesting Mike, you saw the real character...I remember watching the movie and once on late nite movies on tv...Was Manny connected?

Originally Posted by bigrun

Interesting Mike, you saw the real character...I remember watching the movie and once on late nite movies on tv...Was Manny connected?

Not at all, big; a middle-class Italian-American guy living in Jackson Heights, NY (we lived two towns over) who played the bass in the Stork Club rhumba band in the early 50's. My dad played sax and clarinet and was friends with Manny. When I was about 10 years old, my father and I went to the Polo Grounds with Manny and his son to see a Giants baseball game (1952?); I was a Dodger fan but my dad and Manny were Giant fans. I remember Monte Irvin hit a long home run.

Anyway, the movie "The Wrong Man" would have been my father's one and only appearance on the big screen except that Hitchcock changed his mind about using the real Stork Club band in the film at the last minute. I remember seeing the release from Warner Bros. which my father had to sign to give permission for him to be referred to tangentially in the movie as Henry Fonda's (Manny's) "pal that I go a buck apiece with sometimes on the horses." I think my father got paid $25 for the release.