As part of its series of 30 films to commemorate its 30-year anniversary, ESPN tonight (and a few more nights) is presenting The Band That Wouldn’t Die, a documentary by Oscar-winning director and Baltimore native Barry Levinson. The film is about the Baltimore Colts marching band, which didn’t skip town when the rest of the team moved to Indianapolis in 1984. The band kept on playing for the dozen years their city was football-less.
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“When I came across the story of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band, and how it continued to march despite the loss of its team, I found something uniquely Baltimorian about it,” Levinson says on a Web site about the film. Here was a band that played on without a team, marching at civic events, Thanksgiving Day parades, and half-time shows for other NFL teams, keeping football alive in Baltimore. None of them were paid, yet the band held a membership of 150 strong for the 12 years Baltimore didn’t have an NFL team.”
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It should be a fascinating story of interest to people who might not even like football. Almost everything Levinson makes is great (see: Rain Man), and his films about Baltimore are top-notch (Avalon, Liberty Heights).
The Band That Wouldn’t Die airs tonight at 8 p.m. on ESPN and ESPNHD.
It will also air on multiple time which can be found here. You can also view a preview of the Documentary here.
Photo: Barry Levinson. (Kris Connor/Getty Images Entertainment)
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Article taken from About Baltimore.com
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