Hollywood actor Bing Russell embraced Portland’s wild, weird 1970s and enticed Elvis with Mavericks, Big League dreams
Updated Feb 01, 2021;
Posted Jan 25, 2021
Bing Russell, right, created an unusual kind of baseball team in Portland. Former New York Yankees star Jim Bouton, left, couldn t resist the call of the wild. (Netflix)
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The 1970s weren’t being kind to Portland.
Gas shortages caused cars to queue for blocks outside filling stations. The New York Times ridiculed the city for the “bomb-site look” of its downtown. The population had begun to shrink.
But a Hollywood actor looked around the struggling blue-collar town in 1973 and couldn’t stop smiling. He called Portland his “favorite city in the world.”