Friday, February 03, 2017

Lydia Reeder's "Dust Bowl Girls," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Dust Bowl Girls: The Inspiring Story of the Team That Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory by Lydia Reeder.

The entry begins:
Dust Bowl Girls is an epic sports story about a struggling women’s college basketball team called the Oklahoma Presbyterian College Cardinals. In the fall of 1931, they unexpectedly start winning game after game, and against all odds, become inspirational heroes. Their tough, visionary coach, Sam Babb, was my great uncle. Since it's about real people, I didn't write it with any actors in mind. But many times after I have described the book, those listening comment that it would make a great movie. It’s Hoosiers and A League of Their Own rolled into one.

My great Uncle Sam, the coach, was my grandmother’s favorite brother. He died long before I was born, but his charisma had left a strong impression on those who had known him. Both my grandmother, her sister, and other relatives said that Sam reminded them of Spencer Tracy, especially his Academy Award winning performance as Father Flanagan in Boys Town. Like Flanagan, Sam was always looking out for the underdog.

Dust Bowl Girls is very cinematic. The team of teenage farm girls, all expert athletes, traveled across country in a creaky, old crank-start bus competing against other women’s teams. Their fiercest opponent was the famous athlete Babe Didrikson, who played for the national champion Dallas Golden Cyclones. The fabulous Lori...[read on]
Visit Lydia Reeder's website.

My Book, The Movie: Dust Bowl Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue