And The Balls Roll On…: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball won the GOLDEN GATE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL JURY AWARD for BEST DOCUMENTARY 2024 at the awards ceremony November 3, 2024!
Kevin and I want to thank everyone who worked on this project to make it a reality, including Cathie Berrey, Mike Williams, J. Winfield Heckert, who shot the interviews, the Ocean Beach III footage and all of the New Jersey shore footage. Our subject matter experts, John Hepp, Thomas H. Keels, and Patricia A. Martinelli for bringing their expertise about Philadelphia and the Centennial Exposition, Chestnut Hill and Henry B. Auchy, and Vineland, New Jersey History to the film.
Our rollers and interviewees, Gerry Christensen, Elan Footerman, Rafi Footerman, Ed Pohlman, Aaron Re, Tyler Weiss, and Joey Wolf.
A big shout out to the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society and Tom Rebbie at Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters Inc. for graciously giving us access to their respective archives.
We’d also like to thank Rikk Degres of Pinehurst Pictures and Sound for taking the film and making it look and sound great!
And finally, we’d like to thank our narrator Adrienne Grechman, and our voice actors Connor Hudak, Keith Norton, and Harrison Wilkes who brought the people back to life in the film and made it really special!
Thaddeus Cooper is the co-author of Seeking Redemption: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball, a deep dive into the history of the game. You can find more information about Thaddeus, and his co-author, and their book, at their website NoMoreBoxes.com. When he’s not writing about Skee-Ball, he writes about his kitchen escapades, documentary filmmaking (which has to do with Skee-Ball, don’t ya know?), current technology trends, and other topics of general interest to him–and hopefully you.