The timing is superb. Actress and producer Jamie Lee Curtis will co-produce a film based on the life of Glenn Burke, reports DEADLINE. The former centerfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland A's was the first and only Major League Baseball player known to have been out to teammates and team owners during his professional career.
Ross Katz, who produced The Laramie Project and the superb HBO pic Taking Chance, has signed on to write Out At Home: The Glenn Burke Story. He joins Juma Entertainment’s Jamie Lee Curtis and Robert Horowitz as producers of the film that tells the story of Burke. ...
Out At Home [is] based on a 1995 memoir Burke wrote with Erik Sherman. Drafted by the Dodgers in 1972 and hailed as baseball’s next superstar, Burke played in the majors from 1976-79. He was the only rookie to start in the 1977 World Series, when the Yankees defeated the Dodgers in 6 games. A larger-than-life character both on and off the field, Burke unexpectedly was traded to Oakland in 1978. He retired after his second season with the A’s. Although his teammates and management knew the truth, Burke didn’t go public with his sexuality until 1982, in an appearance on NBC’s Today with Bryant Gumbel.
The news media, baseball players and owners, and sports reporters refused to acknowledge Burke's coming out. "Even his superb autobiography, Out at Home, which published the year he died, failed to stir open conversation about homosexuality in sports," wrote Allen Barra last year at The Atlantic. "Practically no one in the sports-writing community would acknowledge that Burke was gay."
Burke's story was tragic. After reaching the pinnacle of baseball and playing the World Series, Burke began abusing drugs, became homeless and eventually died from AIDS-related causes in 1995. He was only 43 years old. Burke is the subject of the recent documentary Out: The Glenn Burke Story.
New Jersey Nets' free agent center Jason Collins made history as the first openly gay player in the rarefied "Big Four"—the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball or the National Hockey League. University of Missouri's star defense player Michael Sam is preparing to enter the NFL draft as pro football’s first openly gay player.
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I can't wait to see this and bravo to Jamie Lee Curtis!
Posted by: Distant Lover | 10 March 2014 at 17:45
Bravo Jamie Lee Curtis. Will definitely watch.
Posted by: Honut Sinti | 10 March 2014 at 20:24
Thank you Jamie Lee Curtis! I am so there!
Posted by: DeAndre | 10 March 2014 at 20:27
This is great news! But I have to ask this question: Why didn't Tyler Perry sign on to produce the film? Or Lee Daniels?
Posted by: Zambos27 | 11 March 2014 at 21:17