Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/942009
23 Q1 2018 / CINEMONTAGE by Peter Tonguette E ven if she was not a lifelong fan of the New York Yankees, music editor Stephanie Lowry would have been proud of having worked on the made-for-television movie 61*. The film, which made its debut on HBO in April 2001, charts the 1961 Yankees season, which was defined by the competition between center fielder Mickey Mantle and right fielder Roger Maris to top the home run record of Babe Ruth (responsible for 60 homers some 34 years earlier). Directed by Yankees enthusiast Billy Crystal, the film starred Thomas Jane as Mantle and Barry Pepper as Maris. "I can watch this movie again and again and love it every time," Lowry says. "It's due to the skill that everybody brought to the table. The entire cast was amazing. Billy Crystal's direction was superb, and he directed Jane and Pepper so well that they actually seemed to become Mantle and Maris, because Billy had studied these guys for his entire life. The way Billy told it, with his insider information, made it emotionally affecting. To see what Maris had to go through to get that incredibly memorable season is very visceral. "Michael Jablow's picture editing was top-notch," she continues. "And Marc Shaiman's score is one of my all-time favorites; it's just got such soaring, gorgeous melodies." The fact that the film centers on one of the most storied chapters in the history of the Yankees, however, made the experience all the sweeter for Lowry. Born in Manhattan and raised in Queens — where Yankee Stadium is located — the music editor grew up as a devotee of the team. "The Yankee game was always on TV, and if it wasn't televised, I would listen to it on my little transistor AM/ FM radio," Lowry remembers. "[Broadcaster and former player] Phil Rizzuto's and venerable Yankee announcer Bob Sheppard's are the voices I grew up with, and Sheppard was still alive to be a part of the film." Lowry came by her Yankees fandom naturally: Both her father, an IBM systems engineer, and her mother, a homemaker, rooted for the team, as did the rest of her family — for the most part. "I learned a couple of years ago, when one of my uncles passed away, that that part of the MY MOST MEMORABLE FILM Stephanie Lowry on '61*' 61*. HBO/ Photofest Stephanie Lowry.