Legendary Courant sports writer stars in final day of ‘Pep’ shooting

Legendary Hartford Courant sports editor Bill Lee was back at his desk Tuesday night — as a character in a movie about one of Lee’s favorite subjects, Hartford-based boxer Willie Pep.

The movie “Pep” is set in the mid-1960s, when Pep was attempting a comeback after twice claiming the world featherweight championship in the 1940s. Bill Lee is used as a framing device in the film, speaking about Pep’s importance and achievements.

Lee is played in the movie by Michael Siberry. “I did one day of filming at the beginning, and now one day at the end,” the actor says.

Siberry recalls performing in Hartford before, as King Arthur in the first national tour of “Monty Python’s Spamalot” in 2007. His recent credits include recurring roles on the Netflix series “Jessica Jones” and “House of Cards.”

To nail the role, Siberry prepped with a stack of articles Bill Lee wrote about Willie Pep over the years, provided to him by the producers, who reached out to The Courant for research materials. Lee “wrote about all sports,” Siberry says. “He wrote humorous articles about sportsmen, got quite close to his subjects, went to all these incredible events.”

Lee’s son Jeff, himself a Courant veteran who spent a decade in the paper’s advertising department, came to watch the shooting. He’d supplied actual items from his father’s work desk at The Courant to give the set some authenticity: photos, awards, papers and even Lee’s own sturdy Remington Quiet-Riter typewriter.

Jeff Lee and Siberry met the last time the actor was in town. “Every time I see him,” Lee says, “he looks more like my father.”

Tuesday marked the 18th and final day of shooting on “Pep.” It was also the 15th anniversary of the death of Willie Pep. Scenes had been filmed at the Four Ropes gym on Ledyard Street and outside St. Francis hospital on Woodland Street. There was a full week of filming in a West Hartford house made up to look like Pep’s Hartford home.

Over the final four days, the Polish National Home of Hartford on Charter Oak Avenue, “Pep”’s last filming location, was transformed into numerous separate places. A full boxing ring occupied the second floor, modified so it looked as rings did in 1964, when the four-rope style was first becoming popular. A scene featuring Pep’s wife Linda (played by Ruby Wolf) was filmed on a stage area behind the ring. A Boston hotel room had been duplicated on the building’s third floor.

A single small room at the back end of the Polish National Home’s main bar area on the ground floor served double duty as two offices, each set wedged in its own corner of the tight space. Bill Lee’s desk was on one side, and a businessman’s office was on the other, festooned with papers from the ‘40s that were found in the room when they were emptying it to create the sets.

Production designer Sonia Foltarz and set decorator Taylor Barry said the task of evoking the 1960s led to everything from remodeling a house to creating a jelly mold. For Bill Lee’s desk, they recreated a wooden nameplate that they noticed in an old photo of his office.

The movie’s star, James Madio, walked through the building on the last night of shooting, consulting with the crew, greeting visitors and taking an active role in the process. Madio bears an uncanny resemblance to the real Willie Pep. In the old-fashioned surrounding of the Polish National Home, it looked like the living spirit of the famed boxer giving his blessing to the proceedings.

Steve Loff, who is both the writer and producer of “Pep,” said the 18-day shoot “went well. We’re on schedule. We’re almost on budget. We’re excited to have come this far.”

Just before Siberry’s office scene was shot, air was blown into the room for a hazy cigarette-smoke effect. At one point, director Robert Kolodny exited the room, having noticed that Willie Pep’s first name had been misspelled as “Willy” on a file folder by the desk. The offending “y” was quickly covered up and shooting resumed. It was a telling moment about the level of detail and accuracy the “Pep” movie is going for.

In the scene, Siberry, as Lee, reminisces about when “Willie was no more than a bright local prospect.” The journalist reads aloud from one of Lee’s “With Malice Toward None” columns. He notes how, at the time the movie is set, Pep “will be the first boxer ever to fight after being inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame.

“Willie’s success,” Siberry-as-Lee beams, “has been my success, Hartford’s success.”

He holds up a press pass that he says Pep signed for him. There’s an overhead shot of him tapping on the typewriter.

As scenes got shot, dozens of “Pep” crew members, all masked, sat quietly outside the room, staring at video feeds of what was happening, or just checking their phones or pads or laptops or scripts until they were told they could talk and move around again.

The rooms of the Polish National Home of Hartford looked like the aftermath of a chaotic rummage sale, strewn with props and costumes and, in Siberry’s case, 70-year-old copies of Hartford newspapers.

A crew member emerged from the crowded room: “We did it. We’re good.”

There was a little more left to shoot, but Siberry’s work was done. Jeff Lee walked up to shake the actor’s hand, as the “Pep” crew clapped and cheered.

Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.