THEATRICAL RELEASE IN SUMMER 2023

FIELDS OF GOLD is the rags-to-riches story of A. E. Staley, who grew up barefoot on a North Carolina farm, and built an empire worth over a billion dollars today. His company, the A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company began in Baltimore, MD, and settled in Decatur, IL. The business became the largest processor of soybeans in the world.

A. E. Staley was also the original owner of the football team that became the Chicago Bears, and owned a semi-pro baseball team that featured George Halas and Joe McGinnity. That team played an exhibition game against the White Sox just months before the scandal they were accused of in the 1919 World Series.

The film includes interviews with the Chicago Bears, the Football Hall of Fame, the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Although A. E. Staley had a real passion for sports, it wasn’t what he could focus on his whole life. What makes his story unique is how he grew through the struggles he had along the way to success.