Paper Lion

Director: Alex March (1968)

Cast: Alan Alda, Lauren Hutton, Alex Karras, Chuck Knox, Lem Barney and the rest of the1968 Detroit Lions players, coaches and staff.

Four years before he became “Hawkeye Pierce” on the classic television series M*A*S*H* Alan Alda was a respected stage and film actor who was making a name for himself, instead of being the son of actor Robert Alda.  In the film Alda plays real life sportswriter George Plimpton, who had a reputation of doing participatory Journalism, where the journalist is the main piece of the story they are telling.  So, Plimpton is a fourth- string quarterback of the Detroit Lions with no experience in how to play the game and learn as you go, and he had a lot to learn…On the first day of training camp all the rookies had to sing their ammeter fight song and you hear all these songs from well-known schools these athletes played for. Then comes Plimpton, singing the Harvard University fight song, that none of the other players had ever heard. With the help of his teammates and an open-minded team management, the experiment worked for Plimpton and the Lions. As for Alda, his performance added luster to his next big project, about a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Korea.

Fun Facts: First Film for both Lauren Hutton and Alex Karras, who both had long careers in film and television. In 1983 In1974 Alex Karras was a guest star on an episode of M*A*S*H*.