The birth of a song

A St. Louis-based musician/director came to Farmington last week to film scenes for a new movie.

“The Birth of a Song” is based upon the story surrounding the creation of the 1972 hit “(If Loving You is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right” sung by Luther Ingram and the race issues in music he and others struggled with at the time. Ingram’s son Eric is the producer of the film and musician Lenny Mink is the director of the film short.

“It’s actually a feature screenplay,” he said. “We have a condensed version of that as a short film that is essentially a couple of vignettes from the life of Luther Ingram, and in particular Stax Records, which is the legendary label out of Memphis.

“It’s a short film, 20-25 minutes long, all of the characters really have an important role in the sense that there is no one central lead character. We have two different key ensembles or groups of actors.”

Mink explained the scenes filmed in Farmington and the locations involved in the process and how they were derived from incidents that happened in two different years.

“We have two locations here in Farmington,” he said. “We filmed over at Dockins Radio. We filmed a little portion of the radio station scene, just the exterior portion. We actually built a complete set of an interior radio station, reception area and DJ booth in Sauget, Illinois. But we filmed the exterior of our radio station, we have our characters pulling up to the radio station [at Dockins Broadcasting].”

“In the 1963 scene, …Archie Ingram is the older brother of Luther, and Luther,” he said. “We have a wonderful kind of brotherly comradery and they tease each other and it’s really quite fun. We have a DJ as well, his character name is Willie Boudreaux.”

The second scene was filmed at Denny Motors at the intersection of Hwy’s 32 and 00. The location was formerly the Ozark Village Motel and Greyhound Bus Station. Mink stressed that they needed a period correct motel and vehicles for the scene, set in 1969.

“We have Lisa, Johnny, and Dino, and they’re sort of a gangster crew,” he said. “Johnny and Dino are tough guys; sort of a De Niro and Pesci kind of vibe. Lisa is the handler, kind of the local connection, they’ve been brought in from Harlem to kind of straighten out Memphis and get some of this music on the airwaves, which was actually quite difficult at the time for certain kinds of artists.

“We have our characters pulling up to a motel and one of our main characters goes inside and has a conversation with the motel owner, and that’s what we’re filming here,” he said. “Of course this scene takes place in Memphis, that’s what we’re trying to create here.”

Mink was impressed with the reaction of Farmington residents involved in the process.

“We’re incredibly grateful for the generosity of the community, and of course, Denny [Boyd] who is well known in the film community in and around these parts for providing vehicles and logistical support,” he said. “He called in some buddies of his that have some lovely classic cars. We want to make it as believable and realistic as possible for that period of time.”

Julisa Powell, who portrays Lisa in the film “The Birth of a Song,” poses in front of the classic Cadillac she drives parked in front of the “motel” that is one of the key sets of the film The scene from 1969 was filmed at Denny Motors in Farmington. Another scene from 1963 was filmed at Dockins Broadcasting.

Several cast members prepare to film a scene for “The Birth of a Song” at Denny Motors in Farmington.

Actress Julisa Powell awaits the cue to enter the motel office for a scene for the film “The Birth of a Song.” The scene was filmed at Denny Motors in Farmington. Some of the cast and film crew are visible in the window to the right.

“(If Loving You is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right” was the biggest hit of Stax Records soul singer Luther Ingram.

Mark Marberry is a reporter for the Farmington Press and Daily Journal. He can be reached at 573-518-3629, or at mmarberry@farmingtonpressonline.com