Real-life mind behind ‘Chicago 7’
A juror’s daughter on Aaron Sorkin’s upcoming movie
become involved in the film business after earning a teaching degree in college, met when both worked on a movie being shot in Oklahoma. They would be together, in work and in marriage, for 30 years until Bill’s death at age 93 in 2011.
When Marjorie talks about him, she does so with palpable affection. She reminded me that he shot a lot of the “Blues Brothers” here in 1979, notably the chase scene in which police cars speed wildly through downtown Chicago.
“One of the police cars rolled and hit the station wagon in Bill was in,” she said. “He wasn’t hurt but was knocked down the street. He was fearless and the last of his kind.”
Last week, “The Trial of the Chicago 7” folks were filming all over town and perhaps you caught a glimpse of some of the principal characters such as Jerry Rubin (actor Jeremy Strong), Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), and Bobbie Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II).
It’s unlikely that you saw such courtroom-only characters as prosecutor Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), defense attorney William Kuntsler (Mark Rylance) or judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella).
All are now gone, back in Toronto
or wherever.
There is no doubt that trial and the events leading up to and surrounding it could make a fine film; a few modest or forgettable attempts, dramas and documentaries, have been made. Writers though have found a rich mine here, producing dozens of books, many of which are on display at the museum. One hopes that Sorkin consulted some of these for his script.
“I do think that my mother would make a great character in a film,” Fritz-Birch said. “And I do think that the material is there, so rich, to make an excellent drama.”
We are not alone in this opinion. A Tribune headline on Sept. 15, 1991, read “Return of the Chicago 7: The Trial was great theater, but will it work on stage?”
The answer came a few days later when theater critic Richard Christiansen reviewed a Remains Theatre production of “The Chicago Conspiracy Trial” by Ron Sossi and Frank Condon: “About all one has to do in order to turn the Chicago conspiracy trial of 1969-70 into terrific courtroom drama is to tightly edit the transcripts, hire a large, good cast of actors to portray its gallery of memorable characters and then turn them loose on the issues, passions and personalities that turned this judicial proceeding into one of the great tragicomedies of the American century. … The emotions of the time and the clash of ideologies are so strong that … even this miniature version can still produce a tremendous rush of emotion among its viewers. More than 20 years after the fact, the play stands as a jolting evocation of a dark, disturbing moment in our history.”
Who knows about this movie? But the museum exhibition both evokes and enlightens.
Fritz-Birch is justifiably proud of it, thanking collaborators Kathy Gemperle and Marsha Holland. She is ever eager to talk about it too and makes herself available to any interested group, especially schoolchildren. She’s lively, smart and passionate, as you can see for yourself when she gives an upcoming presentation at the Budlong Woods Library.
The “Chicago 7” movie? Sit tight. It does not yet have a release date.
“The Chicago Conspiracy Trial: One Juror’s Ordeal” is at the Edgewater Historical Society, 5358 N. Ashland Ave.; www.edgewater history.org. Marjorie Fritz-Birch speaks 6:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at the Budlong Woods Library, 5630 N. Lincoln Ave.; www.chipublib.org.