Sports broadcasting historian and former Westwood One exec David J. Halberstam says that in the historic season of 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers were still recreating their road games in the studio back at WHN. That’s actually two historical inaccuracies in the new “42” movie that Halberstam generally likes (“brilliantly done”). #1, the brilliant play-by-play announcer Red Barber liked to be at home at night and in 1947 didn’t travel with the team. (Also, the Dodgers didn’t want the expense of putting him on the road.) #2, Halberstam says “later in the film, there’s a shot of the Ebbets Field broadcast booth with ‘WMGM’ painted on the façade. In 1947, it was still WHN.” More broadly, Halberstam says Red was a stickler for the truth – he didn’t use studio sound effects of a crowd when he was sitting in a New York studio, recreating the game from Western Union accounts. (He even memorized whether each National League hitter was right-handed or left-handed.) And Halberstam says Barber “prided himself on impartiality.” There’s a shot in “42” where “Red is regrettably seen applauding in the Pittsburgh broadcast booth [where he wasn’t, in real life] after emoting ‘Oh Doctor’ on the Robinson home run call.”
But I will say this for the actor who played him (John McGinley from Scrubs). He got Barber's voice and inflections just right. I thought it was an impressive performance. McGinley was just at Wrigley a few weeks ago singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".
