Penny Marshall’s trailblazing 1992 film, A League Of Their Own, is often referred to as the most secretly gay film of all time. Inspired by the reallife All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), which was founded in 1943 while the men were away at war, the film was seriously ahead of its time. It’s not overtly queer, yet it’s full of sapphic vibes – especially with how it portrays the intimate “friendship” between Doris and Mae, played by Rosie O’Donnell and Madonna.
Emmy-nominated actor and creator Abbi Jacobson joins our Zoom call from a brightly lit bedroom, wearing a patterned shirt. A dimpled smile spreads across her face as she fondly thinks back to what the film meant to her growing up as a sporty girl. In the 90s the VHS tape was one of the few circulated in her home, along with Sister Act, Home Alone and The Mighty Ducks. “[It] was revolutionary, just to see a team of women playing professional sports,” she enthuses. “Where[as] in The Mighty Ducks, you’re glued to the one girl who gets to play
