A Phillies' Beer Vendor Channels Marlon Brando, For Fun and Profit
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- He's becoming a familiar voice at Citizens Bank Park: the beer vendor who summons his inner Brando.
It's a classic Marlon Brando scene ("Heyyy, Stellaaaa!") that beer vendor Tom McGee recreates as he walks the aisles of Citizens Bank Park, selling cans of Stella Artois.
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"Hey, ice cold Stellaaaa!" McGee shouts, with a similar anguished plea.
McGee has been vending for 37 years, including the last seven at Citizens Bank Park. And with the Phillies in last place, he thought, why not have fun with his beer pitch?
"I have a lot of people tell me that I'm the reason they come to the game," he told KYW Newsradio recently.
Still, he admits he occasionally gets questions from confused Phillies fans who may not be dedicated Brando buffs:
"Is it On the Waterfront? Is it Streetcar Named Desire? Which movie is it?"
For the record, it's A Streetcar Named Desire, the 1951 film in which Brando plays Stanley Kowalski to Kim Hunter's Stella.
Meanwhile, at the ballpark, McGee's bellowing sales pitch is routinely picked up by TV and radio microphones and carried onto the game broadcasts.
"I even have people playing a drinking game," McGee says he's been told. "If they hear me at home, they drink!"
Stella Artois, no doubt!