How “A League of Their Own” tricked audiences: 'We felt it was a gamble'

Thirty-three years ago today, the historical baseball pic A League of Their Own stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. Directed by Penny Marshall and starring Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, and, as their grumbly coach, Tom Hanks, the film was a based-on-a-true-story look at the World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — one of the first substantial women's sports organization in the country.

The film was a box office winner and a critical success, too, becoming an instant summertime classic. The movie had laughs, thrills, camaraderie, classic lines ("There's no crying in baseball!"), and the requisite nail-biter that comes with any self-respecting sports movie. But the English on the ball came in the extra innings — a big ol' tug at the heartstrings when we flash-forward to "today," seeing the gals who kept baseball relevant during the war years finally getting their due with a Hall of Fame presentation.

Everett

Suited up and ready to play ball — the cast of 'A League of Their Own'

The bookending sequences in Cooperstown, N.Y., feature what many viewers may think, at first, is just Geena Davis in some aging makeup. But it wasn't. It was an older actress in the part. However, there was a little movie magic going on there, so don't feel too bad if you were fooled.

AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R15ekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R25ekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframe

As the film's producer Elliot Abbott told The Los Angeles Times in 1992, the wraparound scenes with other actresses had everyone a little nervous.

"We felt it was a gamble,” he said. "We didn’t know whether or not it was going to work, which scared us to death."

There was an extensive casting search done to find older versions of the main cast, and they were thrilled when actress Lynn Cartwright, in her mid-60s, auditioned to play the part of the mid-60s character Geena Davis played, Dottie Hinson.

"We weren't just looking for someone who looked like her," Abbott explained. "We also were searching for someone who had the same behavior, someone whose mouth moved the same way, who said the same words in the same way. Lynn's mannerisms really matched up wonderfully with Geena."

YouTube

Wait, is that Geena Davis in makeup? No, it's Lynn Cartwright

But there's a twist ending. Cartwright's voice was apparently much deeper than Davis', and this "would have pulled you out. It's all you would have thought about," according to the producer. So the decision was made to have Davis dub her own voice in. And that's probably why so many people (maybe even you!) think it's really Geena Davis in those scenes.

Frank Trapper/Corbis/Getty

Geena Davis and Lynn Cartwright at the premiere of 'A League of Their Own'

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Cartwright, the daughter of an Oklahoma congressman, never achieved stardom, but has some great credits beginning in the 1950s. She's in movies like Queen of Outer Space andThe Wasp Woman — which is not set in Westport, Conn., it's about a giant insect. She also appeared in the Academy Award-winning movie The Apartment as a supervisor to Shirley MacLaine and her "elevator girls." Her pinup photo from the '50s is quite something. She was married for 50 years to Leo Gordon, an actor who appeared in an enormous number of film and television roles — everything from Rawhide to SeaQuest 2032. He also was a screenwriter whose work included (aha!) The Wasp Woman.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly