A packed house enthusiastically greeted Corbin Bernsen and other cast members from 25 Hill when the movie premiered Saturday night at the Akron Civic Theatre.
Before the film began, Bernsen received a key to the city from Mayor Don Plusquellic. Bernsen then spoke for about 15 minutes, declaring: “I am blown away. Akron. Wow.”
He thanked the movie’s investors, cast and production crew; the Civic, the derby, the Italian-American festival going on outside the Civic, his family (choking up when he did) and God for giving him the opportunity and wisdom to make the film.
But Bernsen also made another pitch for support of the All-American Soap Box Derby, whose financial troubles inspired Bernsen. As he praised the Geico car-insurance company, a financial supporter of the movie (and prominently featured in it), he added, “My next step is to get them to be the sponsor of the All-American Soap Box Derby.”
While 25 Hill is done, with a second showing today at the Civic and a DVD of the movie going on sale in Acme markets on Monday, Bernsen continued to push for support for the derby from the money people and from the public at large.
“You’ve gotta keep supporting,” he said. “You can’t stop. I encourage everybody here to bring people who’ve never been to a soap box derby… Bring ’em to the derby.” July 23 is the national race in Akron.
If people do as Bernsen asks, he said, the stands “will start to look like those old pictures” of the derby in its heyday.
It may well be that people will take his advice. There’s no question that having a group of name actors and a movie made in Akron had people turning out. Even 90 minutes before the movie began at 8 p.m., close to 300 people were lined up along the sidewalk outside the Civic, stretching past the booths from the Italian-American festival.
Temperatures in the 80s did not seem to wilt the crowd’s enthusiasm. Indeed, with the premiere, the festival and an Akron Aeros game down the street, downtown Akron was not merely hopping. It was pretty much leaping.
Autographs signed
Moviegoers asked the stars for autographs and to pose for photos, and took a look at props and posters from the movie — including the racers used in the film — that decorated the Civic lobby.
Bernsen was joined at the premiere by his wife, actress Amanda Pays, and their four sons, with son Finley wearing a 1962 soap box derby shirt the family found at a swap meet in San Francisco.
Besides Bernsen, who also acted in the movie, cast members on hand included Nathan Gamble (who plays a young man who helps save the derby), Bailee Madison (Gamble’s main racing rival), Maureen Flannigan (as Gamble’s mother) and, playing Gamble’s dad, Timothy Omundson (whose wife, the former Allison Cowley, is a Firestone High School graduate).
“The turnout is really quite amazing,” said Timothy Omundson. He and Bernsen, who both work on the TV series Psych, may also do another movie in Akron.
“All I do is say, ‘Whatever you need, Corbin,’ ” Omundson said. “I know we start work again on Monday on Psych and then whatever comes around hiatus-wise, we’ll see what he’s got planned.”
Bernsen has plans for a new movie, Three-Day Test, to shoot in Akron in fall or winter, with Omundson starring “if he’ll do it. … It’s about a family where the father has had it with everything, and locks them inside the house, turns off the water, power and electricity and says, ‘Can we survive?’ ”
Madison, who appeared in the movie Just Go With It with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler, was asked how this event compared to that experience.
“Just as much,” she said. “I feel like every experience, you know, has a new level of appreciation. Getting to work with Corbin Bernsen is a complete honor, of course. He really made the environment so fun and friendly.”
And in real life, who would win a race between Gamble and Madison?
“He’ll win,” Madison said. “She’ll win,” Gamble replied.
Grand finale
And what happens after this weekend of celebration ends? There’s the DVD, with some extras. And then?
“We want to make sure the movie gets out in the most effective way possible,” Bernsen said. And by effective, he does not mean a big commercial success as much as something that helps the derby.
“I didn’t start [the movie] for money,” he said. “I didn’t start it for fame. I didn’t start if for anything other than wanting to help the derby. So every choice I make, I’m going to ask, does this help the derby? … My soul tells me I need to work for the next six months pushing [the movie and the derby].”
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, in the HeldenFiles Online blog, on Facebook and Twitter. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
