The baseball diamond at Lake Forest Academy was a field of dreams for filmmakers making a movie about baseball great Babe Ruth.
The cast and crew of ”The Babe,” which stars John Goodman of television`s ”Rosanne,” descended upon the private school during the last week of June. Their first task was to transform the school`s baseball diamond into an old-fashioned pro-baseball field, complete with vintage bleachers, backstop and clubhouse. Though completely realistic from the front, the clubhouse was in reality just a hollow, two-dimensional shell, held up by lumber braces from behind. Mark Dryfoss, chairman of the school`s fine-arts department, observed the film crew`s efforts with a practiced eye. The school has also been used as a setting for the movies ”The Package,” ”Omen II”
and ”Under the Biltmore Clock,” as well as several commercials.
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Dryfoss, who teaches film studies, has used those films and the images they created of the school grounds as examples in his classes. ”You know, it`s the idea that this place has been used so many times for film. The kids get a kick out of seeing it in so many places. You utilize the original property, since you know what it looks like, but you can modify it so that you don`t know where it is,” Dryfoss said. In ”The Package,” for example, the school`s main building, Reid Hall, doubled as a German chateau in the film`s opening segment.
Baseball coach David Wick stood watching the film`s extras, garbed in 1920s-era baseball uniforms, as they practiced their moves on his team`s diamond. Wick has coached the academy`s own varsity team to three straight championships in their private school league. ”They are a Yankee dynasty of their own,” commented school communications director Judson Scruton.
Among the team of extras was Steve Karras, a 1988 graduate of the Lake Forest prep school.
The co-ed school occupies what was once Mellody farm, the 193-acre estate built by J. Ogden Armour in 1910.
In addition to the baseball diamond, the film crew planned to use one of the lakes on the property as a backdrop for a love scene, to be shot this month.