Jerry Pritikin is a self-described "gay Forrest Gump."
He's been everywhere and always at the right time. When walking into his living room recently, this writer was greeted by a wall-sized photograph of then-presidential candidate Jimmy Carter holding one of Pritikin's photographs of the San Francisco street sign; it read "End Ford." He lived in the City by the Bay for the majority of his early and mid-adult life and has both the stories and the pictures to go with it. "I still don't know anything about photography," said Pritikin.
Pritikin was there with gay icon Harvey Milk in the very center of the Castro and at Milk's photo shop. He was there when Milk led the LGBT community on the now famous march from the Castro to downtown after Anita Bryant and Floridians like her ended protections of gay people from discrimination and defamation. He was there when his friends, Mayor George Moscone and Milk, were killed in 1978. Pritikin is a living LGBT history artifact.
San Francisco was home to many firsts in the LGBT movement, including gay softball. Pritikin has a number of great stories about his days pitching for teams for now-iconic gay bars. "I pitched for the Mint. Do you remember the Mint?," asked Pritikin. There is one day in Pritikin's two-decade softball career that stands out among all of them. "I had just pitched a gamea great game in fact, I got home and decided to light one up and relax and there on PBS was a play, all about the Cubs and their fans."
The play Pritikin saw that day in early 1980 was Bleacher Bums. It's an original story written by Joe Mantegna, and originally starred Mantegna and Dennis Franz. The basic plot is something the Cubs fans of today can appreciate, although the actual bums of the bleachers within the Friendly Confines ( a beloved nickname for Wrigley Field ) are a thing of the past. Pritikin, being a living history and cultural exhibit, brought that old story to vivid life.
"When I first saw that play on PBS I found myself cheering in my seat at the TV," Pritikin said. "It was more than a three-act play. It was a nine-inning game!" Pritikin loved it. He was a native to Chicago and a lifelong Cubs fan. The next day, as Pritikin scoured the want-ads for jobs he would never actually want to do ( a noted hobby of his ) he came across a call for actors for the first touring production of a Chicago play: Bleacher Bums. When he spoke with the producer of the show he told them he couldn't act, but he could sell that show like no one else. He was hired immediately for the show's six-week run in San Francisco.
In part, thanks to Pritikin's natural ability to sell, especially sell his beloved Cubs, the show ran for nearly two years. It became so popular that it was forced from a small, boutique theater seating barely 90 to a larger venue seating four times that number. He said, "I tied that show into everything. I got Butterfingers to be the official candy bar of the show since the Cubs could never hold onto the damn ball. I got the Chicago Tribune to loan 40 pictures from their exhibit '35 Years of the Cubs Dropping the Ball.'"
He got Vienna Hot Dogs to advertise and serve its Chicago original dogs at the play's concession stand. At one point he went as far to get the 1981 San Francisco cast of the show to sing both the "Star Spangled Banner" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during a Cubs game against the Giants at Candlestick Park. Pritikin was the go-to man in San Francisco for all things Chicago that needed to be advertised.
He was never afraid to ask and that is how he has managed for the last 60 years to become a walking baseball fan legend. Pritikin is known both locally and by even some fans, nationally as the "Bleacher Preacher." Part of that is because of his work doing public relations work for the show Bleacher Bums but also for his presence at dozens of Cubs games wearing his trademark solar-powered pith helmet and carrying the "Ten Cub-Mandments." ( For example, number seven forbids people from doing the wave. ) In August 1988, at the Cubs' first night game, Pritikin sold the naming rights to his back to Lakeshore Mazda for $1,000; he made national news doing so. "The night gamesthat was really the end of the actual bleacher bums, if you ask me," said Pritikin.
Pritikin was reluctant to give away too much about the show he has advertised for 30 years. He said, "You've got to see the show. It's updated for today's audiences since they now mention Sosa. That's when the show takes place. The 1990s Cubs. Sosa. McGwire. It's all there." The show follows the exploits of the regulars as they sat in the bleachers and watched a game between the Cardinals and the Cubs. It's a perspective that most people don't get to see since one would have to be a player to watch the antics of the fans in the bleachers.
Who were the bums? Both the play and the men who inspired it were the regulars; the men who spent most of their hard-earned money on seats in the bleachers for day games at Wrigley. "They would sit and watch and then before you knew it, they'd start the betting," added Pritikin. "They bet on everything. The game? Sure, the game, but they'd bet on the number of drops of condensation that would fall from a cold beer before the guy who bought it would actually get it. They'd bet on the wind. If there was a chance of something, they'd bet on it. Once, a guy lost his entire apartment building betting like that." That, in a nutshell, is the essence of the production Bleacher Bums.
His hopes are high this season and still all he wants is to see his beloved Cubs play in the World Series. "It's expensive to sit in the bleachers now. The regulars aren't there anymore." Pritikin's nostalgia for the game is well-earned, considering he's been at it since 1945. "When the Cubs got into the World Series that year, I wanted to go so bad but my Dad only said, 'Next time, son.' Well, that hasn't happened yet."
Pritikin wondered aloud about what might happen if Chicago's "Lovable Losers" might become winners. "Maybe the play will get a revamp or a sequel. Maybe they'll be lovable winners instead," he said.
The show Bleacher Bums is playing at the Pride Arts Center through Sunday, Nov. 6, closing out the run right after the World Series. Visit TheatreInChicago.com/bleacher-bums/8741/ .