"The Diamond King" Release Dick Perez and Marq Evans return E333

Sports Guard Nations, Hobbies, The People, Weekly news and Interviews. It's your number one song. Sportscarnations hobby is the People. Spawns Gardation.

What's up, everybody? Welcome to another edition of Sports Carnation Podcast, Episode three, three, three, three hundred and thirty three. My favorite number is three, so hopefully that bodes well for this episode. I think it will. We have two gentlemen on today's program, returning to the program, been on more than once already, but the new film The Diamond King is set to release.

It actually releases today if you're listening to this on show podcast release day, it's officially out for viewing and downloading and purchasing. The Diamond King movie obviously about artist extraordinaire Dick Perez, father of The Diamond King and as I always tell him, the first person that made me think about another company other than Tops growing up in Brooklyn, and the director of that film, Mark Evans, both on the program again today. We're going to talk about the process and now that the finish line has met, you know what's next. The process that the film took, their traveling, their escapades, getting to know each other, and we're just kind of putting a bow on it and celebrating the release of the movie.

I saw it at the National. Now, if you did see it prior the final cut, and you'll hear Mark talk about that might be a little different than what you previously slaw, not immensely different, but maybe a few things might be different from the version that you might have already saw in a preview, whether that's at the National or some of the other locales that it did kind of give previews. So we're going to take a quick commercial break and we'll be back with Dick Perez and Mark Evans, and we'll talk about the film and the hobby. For nearly fifty years, Sports Collector's Digest has been the voice of the hobby, bringing you comprehensive coverage of the sports collectible industry from industry news, auction results, market analysis, and in depth stories about collectors and their collections.

Sports Collectors Digest has everything you need to know about the hobby. SCD is also your leading source for listings of sports collectible dealers, card shops, card shows, and the latest from the industry's top companies. To check out all the latest news, or to subscribe to the Hobby's oldest magazine, said Sports Collectors Digest dot com or call one eight hundred eight two nine fifty five sixty one. All right, this is about, I believe the fourth time I've had both of these gentlemen on the podcast.

And it doesn't matter first, second, third, or in this case fourth, always excited to talk to these two gentlemen. And they got a new film coming out, and here on April twenty fifth, the Diamond King. I'm joined by director Mark Evans and the subject of that film, the hobby Icon as I like to call them, along with a few others, but definitely earns that title. Mister Dick Perez, Welcome gentlemen, John, thanks for having us going to see you so.

Like I said April twenty fifth, this has been a kind of a two to three year pri I had you on the show two years ago. I know, Mark, for you, the idea started about three years ago, and now you know, I know on a previous show I mentioned it's it's kind of like your baby and then it gets born and then it grows. And here we are, right three years later, and you've had some premieres like showings, but the final cut version premiere is April twenty fifth, kind of talk about this process for you as a filmmaker over you know, this three year that you know been a thing. Yeah, I mean, first of all, it's been the most enjoyable process of any film that I've made.

And most of that is just working with Dick number one. Just love the guy, you know, So that's been super enjoyable. And then the subject matter of baseball, my favorite sport, and the paintings were being able to work with, you know, tell the story his story and the story of baseball through his work, which I've been such a fan of. So process eyes, which you know, ultimately is the only thing we can really control, is having fun with the process, and it's been it's been a lot of fun.

It's been fun. Sharing the sneak peaks of the film, which we started last summer at the National and Cleveland at Saber in Minneapolis. We screened it at the Theater in Cooperstown, at the Hall of Fame at the Kneber League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, and then the official world premiere because those were kind of these sneak peaks, was in Palm Springs in January at the Film Festival there, and so every step of the way, it's been awesome sharing it with people and sharing Dick's story. And now, you know, like you said April twenty fifth, it'll be available for anybody anywhere to watch online at home.

So we're very excited for that and having you know, anybody that wants to see it. You don't have to be at a certain you know, city or location to see it now, so that's exciting. Dick, get this. You know, your your journey in this process too, is being sort of the subject of a film I don't imagine, and you really thought this would be something that would happen, and yet here you are with the you know, the final premiere here April April twenty fifth.

You know your kind of thoughts as being the subject of I mean, you've watched movies before, but you know, to be the subject of one like kind of like, you know, what's that like? What has this process been like for you? Well, during the creating of The Diamond Kings, I never really got any back full of emails, letters, what have you. And I thought I was just doing it out there and I knew that the company was having a great time with sales, but people that I was aiming the art and my project somebody who I would think would say, nice work, But it turns out that they were Most of them were young, and it took them growing up. Marcus one of those guys, and it took. Them growing up.

And again, I don't know how many dollars requests for for for autographs I get a month, but uh, it's you know, it's just a dream. Has that it I'm guessing the answer is yes. But has that that number increased since this whole well, since this film has kind of launched, as more people may be aware of the man behind the genius R work? Would that be the case? It is probably a safe bet. Are you asking? Yeah, Like, are you getting more of those requests because of the film getting.

I'm getting letters that say I loved your work when I was a kid. I'm now collecting with my kid, whether it be a girl or a boy. And with sharing your work, I'm sharing my you know, the work with them. That is like that.

I mean, I've had letters from a guy who's sadness son was terminal and he was spending a lot of time with him with my work. So I thought that was kind of and then he sent me a picture of his son and told me when he had passed. But there was some very personal things that I've got. I got one from a guy in prison who had served twenty eight years and had sixty eight to go, and I got it and I had to say, that's gotta be murdered.

Guy's in there for a long time. And he was honest and told me why he want to sign up with Stuffies so he can sell and get cigarette at least. At least he at least he was a straight shooter there. And it didn't you know, didn't make up kind of a boloney story just to get well.

I said this previously, I've said this on the show without you guys president, right, Like for me, I'm a Brooklyn kid. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and so Tops was everything from an early age, and it was your Diamond King Dick that were really you know, the first couple of years of Donners and even Flear were no great shakes, to be blunt, honest, and so didn't sway me too much from Tops. But it was that that first i'mon King. I saw that I'm like, what's this? This is so different and it doesn't have tops on, it doesn't have those five letters that I'm overly familiar with, and you know, the rest is history.

And I think I think for a lot of people they probably from that era that they have similar stories. And you know, while the cards themselves are all works of art, when it comes to photography, this was art, pure art, and really turned my head and obviously many many others. And that's a credit to you. And you know, it makes you wonder, like you can't, you can't rewrite history.

But maybe had that not been the case, maybe how would how would hobby be even a little bit different? Or maybe would it took longer for that brand to make its present known. Going back to Mark, you know, you've done films before, You've won awards for prior films. You know, in comparison, how was film different for you as a filmmaker. Yeah, it was different for me in several ways.

And a lot of those ways I intended from the beginning to do. Which one of them was I wanted to find a movie that I could do within a couple of years. My previous couple of films had been like five year projects. And I also wanted to find a film that I thought I could do that I really enjoyed the process and not need like you know, for lack of better terms, like the Hollywood system.

I wouldn't have to wait on other production companies or a lot of outside organizations to finance it or. Something like that. So when I when I thought of this idea and realized that I could make this, you know that I was interested in the subject of Dick Perez and the story of his story and the story of baseball through his work. I originally thought, maybe I'll just interview Dick.

He'll be the only interviews. So I've got a couple favorite documentary filmmakers and they've made films like that before, because that's one way you can keep the cost down because you're not traveling all over the world or all over the country interviewing people. Ultimately, I did do some other interviews. I think there's five other interview subjects, including Dick's wife Lou because I was inspired by their love story.

Really, so she's interviewed. John Thorne, the official historian of Major League Baseball, has interviewed Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro League Baseball Music Peggy Steele, who was along with Frank Steele partners in the pre steel business, and Bill Madden as well to Hall of Fame sports writer and I Missa and everybody. I think those were our interviews, So ended up ended up with just but still just a handful of it. And so that just being a little bit more strict with that.

I enjoyed that process and just kind of made it a little bit tighter, and there's not so many voices in the film where you can't keep track of, you know, who the interview subjects are. And then and then the other thing that we were able to put together in this was an idea that I had had for other films but it never really made sense, which was to have an on camera narrator that kind of tied some of the story together, but also in this case was like the voice of baseball. And so what I wanted that to be was a chance for some written material to be done about baseball, but really is an opportunity to show off more of Dick's work. So whenever this narrator is on camera, we have these massive screens that we built that are projecting images of Dick's work, so you see all kinds of Dick's work throughout the film through his story, but then in these on camera narration components, again it's an excuse to show more of his work and tell more stories about baseball that ultimately tie in with Dick stories as well too.

So we had John Ortiz, great actor, you might have seen him recently in the Apple TV show Bad Monkey or The Madness, which is a Netflix show right now. We're fortunate to get him to do the on camera narration and it was written by Joe Posnanski, you know, just probably the best sportswriter working today, author of Baseball one hundred and Why We Love baseb All and so getting him to write that narration, working with him and then having the narrator with John Ortiz, those were those were new things that I've kind of wanted to do before, and it was pretty awesome to be able to do it in this film. You mentioned travel mark, and I'm sure each film, you know, you have to travel somewhat, whether it be to even a film festival for a screening and that sort of thing. Was this the most you've traveled for a film that you were involved with? No, probably not, only because again only interviewing five different people that said, you know, Dick's across the country in Brooklyn, Peggy was in Philadelphia, John Thorns and Catskill, New York.

Bill Madden's somewhere in Florida, so and Bob Kendrick in Kansas City. So in that regard, and there was a lot of trips back and forth. I didn't Seattle, so so going all across the country. So a lot of a lot of visits with Dick over the course of a couple of years.

Towards the end, and you know, he was kind of like, look, I'm excited to see you, but I thought we were done with this. So my mileage wise maybe, but as far as number of trips, probably less than in the film's past. Time to hear from one of our great sponsors, but Sports Gardenation will be right back after that. Hobby Hotline is the Hobby's only live, interactive call in show.

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You are listening to the Sports cond Nation podcasts. Dick for you, you know, was this you know what this process with the film? Did you do more traveling? Was it something you had to get to a custom. To or no, Well depends on what traveling. If it was for leisure, I did a lot of that.

And I think for any project for sure, I mean the screening is really I mean that which which I thought delightful to number one, Uh, get the reaction of the actual people that the movie was aimed at, and the question and answer period afterwards. I always loved those yes, So it was all enjoyable. And you know, I got to meet the president of the Negro League well not Hall of Fame, but Negro League Museum, and really liked him because he said some nice things about my work and he said exactly the way I felt was doing that. So I just wanted to shake his hand and give him a hug.

Yeah, no doubt. That's Bob. Bob Kendrick and alumnus of this podcast. He's been on they You've seen the hobby through the years, through your lens, through the general lens has kind of your thoughts as how you know, the hobby's obviously changed, like everything in forty fifty sixty years.

Has this experience of doing the film with Mark changed how you view the hobby or not necessarily. Well, But the only thing that I see is that there is more art and TOPS is really I started it with them when they contacted me after Don Rush, and I did some projects with them, but there were a lot of you know, young artists who were called on and therefore what I had set up to achieve I accomplished, and that was to I just think that baseball imagery. Imagery began with paintings, with drawings, especially the color. Ones, and it's back so anyway.

Yeah, No, it's true because I've had ten of the twenty Tops twenty twenty project artists on the podcast as interview guests, and I'd say eighty percent of them when I asked them, And some of them weren't necessarily hobby people, you know, you know, full board, but most of them, a high percentage of them get you know, gave credit to you as an inspiration for what they did for the twenty twenty project, did you you know? I know they came on the podcast and said that do do you get that from artists that will reach out to you and say thank you, mister Perez for you know, kind of being the pioneer if you will, in this genre and you know, make it possible for us to be now involved. Do you get much kind of you know, kudos and things, not that you necessarily need them, you know, your work speaks for itself, but do you get that sometimes? Yeah, especially doing trips that I took to the screenings and doing signing, there would be a. Couple of artists are doing our active now explored or. So yeah, as they should.

You know, Mark, you collect with your son, it's part of the film you show that has that changed, you know, has has the process of making this film even change how you collect with with your own son. Yeah, I would say we're just you know, he's still into it and so we just probably do it a little bit more because you know that then we had prior and then my own personal kind of taste. I have started collecting a lot more Dick Presta, you know. Just because I've just become.

So much more appreciative and a fan even the more as we've gone on. So you know, when I when I first started this, I didn't know anything about the press, steal our postcards. I knew the Diamond Kings from when I collected and which I still love, but I fell in love with the presteel Our postcard series and so I've started collecting autographed versions of those so that that that would be the biggest thing for me personally. It's just trying to surround my office here with more of Dick's work.

There you go, Dick, you you know you mentioned some of the Q and A and meeting some of the fans of your work, myself included in that. Has that does that surprise like? Uh not, maybe you're not surprised, but does the amount of people surprise you? Is it reinvigorating? Kind of talk about that effect on yourself when when someone says to you, hey, you're the reason for this, or you're the you know, you did this for me in the hobby, you changed the hobby for me, you know kind of you know, obviously it makes you feel good. I mean that goes without saying. But even does that, you know, I know you've you've slowed down a little bit as as you've gotten older.

Has has that been sort of reinvigorating or and are you getting more of that than you even anticipated. Like, I'm sure you know some of the impact, but has it surprised you. Yeah, yeah, I'm getting more of that than basic because of the movie. I got to follow it, but I didn't really expect that there was a massive people out there who collected and still have dining you know, grown men and women.

I hope that collected the cards too. But yeah, that's you a question. It's it's uh, it's an incredible and you know, you did a great job Mark with you know, not only showing you know, Dick the artist, but right Dick the husband and Dick the human and and just that human element. And he did such a fine job with that.

Is that does that happen naturally or is that something that you have to sort of try to do as a filmmaker a little both maybe, Yeah, I'd say. It's a little bit of both that and and you've got to know what kind of movie you're making, you know, first of all, so you know, going into it with an idea and then being ready to explore and find and be surprised by things. You know, there was a threat in the film covering Dick's relationship with his mom that I think is really in many ways the heart of the film. And that wasn't something that kind of we hadn't talked about that, And it was maybe midway through making the film where I just realized that maybe there was something there and and you know, and then I pursued that and and that end being an important part of the film.

And then I think there's also you know, documentary in many ways is autobiographical, even when you know, in this case, like I'm not you know, a subject of the film or anything like that. But we make as filmmakers the decisions for what interests us and what inspires us. And I think Dick is somebody that you know, at least myself and many can aspire to have a life like his, you know, from a creative standpoint, The decisions that he makes, the relationship. With his wife.

You know, I hope to have that same with my wife. So those things kind of make their way into the film when I'm directing it because that's what I'm attracted to and that's what I'm inspired by. So yeah, so I think like going in there's there's the things that you know that that are interesting to me, and I want those things to be in there. I would hope that finds a wider audience too, and other people can can appreciate that.

But but you know, there's there's an aspect of that. It's just selfish, is what I want to explore. And for you, Dick, you know, you're the subject of the film. I mean for for many years, right, I mean people you know, people knew who you were, but like you were more behind the scenes, let's say, doing the work and then we see the finished product.

Uh, you know, was it difficult with with this film, like you know, getting more personal and sort of letting that veil down to talk more about you know, you as a person, a husband, a son, and and and and everything else like that? Was it was it easy to do you just never really had to do it before? Or was it kind of guarded where you you know, you didn't want to give away all the secrets per se? No, No, I I think it was a natural feeling that I had a life and about how I mean, I have figured out why I have succeeded as an illustrator, artist, painter, whatever. When many many don't. And to me, the fetuity of my subject matter plays a big part in the popularity of man I mean you had a subject that you had a person who may like to collect art but then also likes to collect baseball player picture and that that was something that I mean, I didn't know right away, but figured it out when talking to other artists and they're they're asking or writing about success. So to me, subject matter is important.

I mean, you are in the painting when you choose a sudden manager that you have a greater love for, and it's and it's the way you do it and the way enthusiasm with which you to create new ways of looking at a portrait. All those things are inspired by the subject matter. Yeah, no doubt. Okay, another reminder, the movie is out today, The Diamond King.

Great film again. I saw the version at last year's National probably close to that, but it's not exactly the same. There's some editing touches on there. But go out.

Obviously you're listening to this podcast, you're probably a hobby fan, a Diamond Kings fan, a Dick Perez fanned, Mark Evans director fan. Go out and watch that movie today. It's probably had a lot of different platforms. Search The Diamond King.

I'm sure it will come up and let me know. If you've seen it, or if you see the finished version, let me know what you think. If you saw an earlier version and the finished version, let me know kind of you know, a comparison between the two. But great having Mark Evans and Dick Perez on the show today.

Guess what, that's only the first half. We're gonna happen back next week for the second half of our interview. To keep these interviews at thirty forty minutes long. So if you enjoyed this week's episode, I hope you did.

I think you'll enjoy next week's as well. So we're gonna have our hobbies, the People Announcer of the Week, some closing thoughts and wrap up this week's episode. Time for our hobby is the People Announcer of the Week. This is your pal Vow from Nashcard Radio.

Never forget the hobby is the people. If you'd like to be the hobby is the People Announcer of the Week to a one four MP three file and send it to Sportscard Nation PC at gmail dot com. Hi. Hi'm Isaac Calpert, a longtime card collector.

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