There Was Always Sun Shining Someplace : Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues

In 1947 Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier and became a hero for black and white Americans, yet Robinson was a Negro League player before he integrated Major League baseball. Negro League ballplayers had been thrilling black fans since 1920. Among them were the legendary pitchers Smoky Joe Williams, whose fastball seemed to “come off a mountain top,” Satchel Paige, the ageless wonder who pitched for five decades, and such hitters as Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard, “the Ruth and Gehrig of the Negro Leagues.”

There Was Always Sun Shining Someplace: Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues chronicles the rich history of the Negro Baseball Leagues that flourished before Jackie Robinson integrated the major leagues in 1947. The exploits of these talented athletes and the times when baseball was a segregated sport are vividly brought to life. Contains rare historical footage showing the ball players as they traveled the back roads of America, the Caribbean, Mexico & Latin America. It's an unforgettable journey.

Join Anthony Bannon and Burchfield Penney Board Member LeRoi Johnson in welcoming the film’s creator Donn Rogosin, a writer, producer, television network executive, and head of his own independent production company, Donn Rogosin Productions.  Local artist John Baker will also do a presentation on the Bye-Gone-Era, his collection of paintings on canvas reflecting the nostalgic history of Negro  League Baseball.  His works of art embody spirit, heritage and their historical significance in our past.  

A graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of Texas, Donn Rogosin helped organize a Smithsonian Negro Leagues  exhibit and is the author of "Invisible Men."  His public television work includes the documentaries “East Wind, West Wind: Pearl Buck, the Woman Who Embraced the World” (1992), “There was Always Sun Shining Someplace” (1982), and “Satchel Paige: Defying Time” (2008), and a Producing credit on Ballad of a Mountain (2000) for The American Experience.  

Fall at the Burchfield Penney sees the start of Ideas Prime, a series of screenings, lectures and conversations which create a forum for an exchange of ideas designed to understand how the local and global issues are interrelated. Through a series of screenings, conversations, and programs, the Burchfield Penney hosts diverse ideas focused on a variety of views. Programs are free with galley admission.