In 2009, two voices familiar to WIP listeners partnered on The Ultimate Voice of Sports Movies. Fourteen years later, Glen Macnow and Ray Didinger used that book as the basis for a live show that sold out very quickly.
The two men hosted an event at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute called “Sports Movie Night.” The event saw Macnow and Didinger run through eight of the best-known scenes in the history of sports cinema. They also took questions from the audience and offered their thoughts.
All of the tickets for the event were sold well before the two took the stage, much to their surprise.
“I was surprised that this event sold out three weeks in advance, which I think proves that this subject is still popular,” Didinger told the Main Line Times & Suburban. “The year our book came out (2009), we held about 4-5 of these Sports Movie Nights in auditoriums, following the same format with the eight clips, and the shows were popular. When we got this invitation from (Bryn Mawr Film Institute’s) Jacob Mazer 3-4 months ago, we were happy to do it again.”
The show consisted of clips from eight movies: Miracle, Rocky, Hoosiers, The Natural, Caddyshack, The Hustler, Field of Dreams and Invincible. Each clip was followed by a question and answer session.
Macnow, who has been busy with multiple creative projects outside of radio, said he was impressed with the questions they fielded from the audience. He noted that he was impressed with just how much people still respond to the subject of sports movies.
“It was a lot of fun, and we’ll explore doing it again.”
While the two men have deep Philadelphia connections and their association with WIP make them sports authorities in the city, this is a show concept that could easily travel. It will be interesting to see just how big their future plans are.
