There are so, so many strange, controversial, and just plain fascinating sports franchise ownership stories. Consider Donald Sterling and the L.A. Clippers, James Dolan’s New York Knicks, and inimitable, ever-detestable Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott. (Not to mention almost sports franchise ownership stories — think Donald Trump’s attempted purchase of the Buffalo Bills. Or better yet, don’t think about it.) Few of these stories are as gobsmackingly unique as the tale of Howard Baldwin’s Russian Penguins. It’s a footnote in hockey history. Yet as Gabe Polsky’s documentary “Red Penguins” shows, the story serves as a compelling cautionary example of the risks in force-feeding capitalism into new worlds.
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Making its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, “Red Penguins” is an involving, humorous, well-made, but also rather slight, film from the director of 2014’s superior documentary, “Red Army.” The subject matter of “Red Penguins” certainly makes it a fitting follow-up. ‘Army’ focused on the heyday of Soviet hockey, the period in which legendary head coach Viktor Tikhonov’s roster was loaded with superstar talent. As ‘Penguins’ opens, the Soviet Union has fallen, and the nation’s greatest athletes — Sergei Fedorov, Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny — could be found in the National Hockey League.
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In the early 1990s, then, the famous Red Army team was floundering. And the sport itself was like “any other business — scrambling for a buck.” It was during this time period that Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner and Hollywood producer Howard Baldwin had an idea. What if he joined the many other Americans pumping new money into Russia, and saved the Red Army hockey team in the process? It was this concept that led to the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins — including the great Mario Lemieux, as well as actor Michael J. Fox — owning 50% of the once-mighty Red Army hockey team.
The name was changed to the Russian Penguins, Tikhonov and general manager Valery Gushin were kept on the job, and a young marketing hotshot named Steven Warshaw was sent to Moscow. In a film of colorful characters, Warshaw might be the most memorable. A hyper-intelligent figure and engaging storyteller, Warshaw provides the film with its greatest moments. His task was both dangerous and rather silly, but without him, Baldwin’s plan was a guaranteed failure. Warshaw recalls “the smell of death at the airport,” and a nation in which “there were no laws.”
Archival photos and videos show what Warshaw found when he entered the bizarro home of the Russian Penguins — “a dump called the Ice Palace.” Ugly and cavernous, with a small, sad trophy case, the venue even included a basement strip club (!). The team had no uniforms or sticks, and tickets were being sold for the U.S. equivalent of 6 cents. The brand, Baldwin knew, had to change. And so it did, replacing the hammer and sickle with a smiling Penguin. The team even had a mascot. By 1993 the Russian Penguins were ready … and became an instant disaster. However, Warshaw’s wild marketing tactics — bringing the strippers from the basement to the ice during intermission, organizing events like free beer night, legitimate merchandise — eventually resulted in a cultural phenomenon. Even Disney took notice, with Michael Eisner himself becoming enamored of the Penguins’ success.
As Polsky’s brisk, 80-minute film moves into its second half, the mood plummets dramatically. Russia was in the midst of a devastatingly violent constitutional crisis, and the chaos in the streets was matched by the anarchy in the Ice Palace. Money was disappearing, dinners with Army officials were overseen by bodyguards holding machine guns, and the mob’s involvement with the team became more pronounced. The underworld controlled 40% of the nation’s economy, and the Russian Penguins were not immune to their reach. A concessions worker was gunned down outside the arena. A player died mysteriously. An assistant coach was murdered.
The joy of the Penguins’ wild and woolly days was gone. Baldwin was left with few options, and this contributes to one of the film’s flaws. After all, what the story of the Russian Penguins lacks is a satisfying ending. A quick search will tell you what Baldwin and his team were forced to do. And it was rather sad, if inevitable. Dramatically, the fate of Baldwin, Warshaw, and company simply was not very interesting. The journey is what was compelling. That is a conundrum for Polsky, and he gets around it by directly connecting the end of the Penguins to the ascension of Vladimir Putin. It feels a bit forced and rather obvious. What’s undeniable, of course, is that Putin’s Russia is a far, far different place than the one entered by the Russian Penguins.
“Red Penguins” is utterly stuffed with memorable stories and unforgettable people. Therefore, the film is unquestionably entertaining for hockey fans. However, it has no more gravitas than, say, any random ESPN Films “30 for 30” entry. It’s also missing a few key figures; it would have been fascinating to hear from Mario Lemieux or any of the Russian Penguins players. It also would’ve been fruitful to catch a glimpse of the Russian hockey world of 2019, especially the KHL. Still, the film deftly illustrates the perils of ownership and the instability of risk-taking on the world stage. As a Russian businessman states near the film’s end, “You want democracy? We’ll give it to you, but it will be our democracy.” The “Soviet” version of democracy is still in play. And that likely means an experiment like Howard Baldwin’s will not be seen again. [B]
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