Campaign to save the Milan Miracle film footage
Do you remember the famous 1954 championship game at Milan High School? Former Milan player Bobby Plump sure does, and he’s hoping future generations will have the chance to relive the same exciting moment he experienced years ago. Bobby, along with film historian Eric Grayson, sat down with Tracy to chat about their fundraiser to help save the Milan films and how you can help!
Here is more information about the kickstarter campaign and the famous 1954 championship game!
Film historian Eric Grayson of Indianapolis is known for his skill at preserving many rare films. His last-minute efforts have preserved the only known copies of many films that would otherwise be lost to us forever. Please help save these films important to Indiana in our Bicentennial year.
Eric’s Kickstarter campaign, at www.kickstarter.com/projects/1622418422/save-the-1954-milan-basketball-films, will be the focus of the fundraiser being offered by Plump’s Last Shot. The goal is $7,500 in about 30 days’ time. Please help!
Admission to the fundraiser, on Sunday, February 21, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., is $50. Plump’s Last Shot restaurant and bar is located at 6416 Cornell Avenue in Broad Ripple (www.plumpslastshotbroadripple.com.) Bobby Plump and Plump’s Last Shot are generously supporting this effort to preserve these films.
This time, this “last shot” at saving films that are rapidly disintegrating will, if you help reach the Kickstarter goal, preserve the Milan films that have been stored at Milan High School since its amazing victory over the much-larger Muncie Central in the 1954 boys’ state basketball championship, immortalized in the film, Hoosiers. In real life, Bobby Plump threw a “last shot” with about a second to play. The ball went into the basket and Milan won by two points. The character Jimmy Chitwood, playing for tiny Hickory High School in the film, also makes that last shot. Both the 1954 game and the “Hoosiers” game were filmed at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse.
You can go right now to the Kickstarter site and make a pledge of at least $50 for admission to the party. Bring proof of that pledge (you’ll receive an acknowledgement from Kickstarter) to Plump’s. And, for every $50 you pledge, you get one entry into a raffle for some great prizes. Also, if you want to up your pledge at the party, we’ll have it set up so you can do that. For your $50, you also get to have a photo taken with Bobby. There will be a cash bar and hors d’oeuvres, as well as an opportunity to make online pledges to Kickstarter at the event. RSVPs are not necessary. Just come by for a great party for a great cause!
There may also be some actors from Hoosiers and others associated with the famous 1954 game present to add to the fun!
If you can’t attend the fundraiser, please donate by going to the Kickstarter site. There is still about $5,500 to be raised to meet the Kickstarter required goal. And, please, forward this message to your out-of-town and out-of-state Hoosier friends! (For this cause, everyone we know is a Hoosier, right?) On the Kickstarter site is a short film created and narrated by Eric explaining the history of these films and what is needed to preserve them.
If the goal is not met, the pledges are returned, and these films will not be preserved. Eric estimates they will exist, in their current fragile condition, for another six months. On the other hand, the restoration will save them for an estimated 200 to 400 years. The archivally sound 16mm film will be stored at the Indiana University Moving Images Archive.
Since 1954, the film of the Milan-Muncie Central game, as well as the semi-final game between Milan and Terre Haute’s Gerstmeyer High School, have been stored at Milan High School. Eric, a consultant to the Library of Congress, examined the films recently and said they are in dire need of restoration, but there is still time – if you and others make the pledge. There is about one month remaining to reach this goal. The Kickstarter campaign only asks for $7,500 – please join the campaign to save these unique, important films. As with all Kickstarter campaigns, donors will receive gifts, depending on the amount of your contribution. (Will your employer match your donation?)
Once the goal has been met, Eric will apply to the National Film Preservation Foundation, an organization that has supported some of his other key projects, to fund the lab work for the preservation process. Eric and two paid assistants will painstakingly work with each frame of the 16mm film.
For more information on Grayson, visit www.drfilm.net/blog, where you will find his wit and wisdom that deals with many aspects of film from the late 1800s to the present; his website, www.filmeric.com, and follow him on Facebook at www.drfilm.net/facebook.