By James David Patrick
Since 1990, the ‘burgh has hosted more than 120 movie and television productions and boasts the largest sound stage (31st Street Studios) outside of New York and Los Angeles. Among those productions are two Best Picture winners: The Silence of the Lambs (1992) and The Deer Hunter (1978). While Pittsburgh’s recent filmmaking renaissance has come as the result of generous tax breaks and future-resistant locales that stand in for 1970s New York City (and Gotham City!), the old steel town has a storied cinema history in early film distribution and exhibition you won’t see on screen.
The business of cinema in Pittsburgh has long been an under-appreciated supporting player to the production epicenters. In fact, Pittsburgh inserted itself into the business of show even before New York City and Los Angeles flickered into focus.
The world’s first movie theater opened when showman Harry Davis and John P. Harris opened their Nickelodeon on Smithfield St. in downtown Pittsburgh 1905. Admission was, of course, a nickel.
The operators never intended to spark a revolution—they just wanted to make some quick money and seized on the potential of a fledgling moving pictures business. The 96-seat theater opened at 8:00am and closed at midnight, showcasing live vaudeville acts and 15- to 20-minute short films with piano accompaniment. The phenomenon spread rapidly through the city and soon the country.
By 1910, however, other entrepreneurs had primed larger models, expanding into new forms of theatrical exhibition. For a brief moment in time, Pittsburgh and its Nickelodeon became the model for all aspiring motion picture entrepreneurs.
The demand for short films increased with the nationwide Nickelodeon proliferation. Movies rotated daily as the working-class laborers showed their willingness to return multiple times per week to soak in the varied entertainment. In order to satisfy the public’s thirst, distribution businesses sprang up in Pittsburgh because of its natural thoroughfare—three rivers with easy access to many major cities.
Caption: One of Rowland and Clark’s many Pittsburgh theaters. The Strand stood four blocks away from the site of Forbes Field in Oakland.
One of Rowland and Clark’s many Pittsburgh theaters. The Strand stood four blocks away from the site of Forbes Field in Oakland.
In 1906 two Ohio brothers, Harry and Albert Warner, relocated to Pittsburgh to launch Duquesne Amusement. They quickly sold their business and took profits west to California where they founded Warner Brothers Studios with siblings Sam and Jack. Meanwhile, native Pittsburghers Richard Rowland and James B. Clark started the Pittsburgh Calcium Light & Film Company.
In a 1941 interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rowland recalled his big entry into the movie business:
“I wanted to obtain film of the San Francisco earthquake, but I went far beyond that. I established credit at all of the important film supplying companies then in existence—Biograph, Edison, Vitagraph, Pathe Melies—and let a standing order for prints of every foot of film that they would issue… soon we were shipping film not only through Western Pennsylvania but throughout the whole United States.”
When the centralized industry started consolidating patents and muscling out independent distributors, Rowland and Clark sold their company to the General Film Company for millions of 1910 dollars. As Clark found relative contentment with his riches, Rowland dreamed bigger. In 1915, he let his share ride on a business venture called Metro Pictures with offices in both New York and California. Metro produced The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1921), an epic that launched the career of silent film star Rudolph Valentino and topped the 1921 box office, besting Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid. After a few short years, Rowland sold Metro Pictures to exhibitor Marcus Lowe, owner of the Goldwyn Picture Corporation. Lowe then merged his production company with that of Louis B. Mayer. The result was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, aka MGM, thus giving Pittsburgh a direct link into one of the biggest motion picture studios in the history of cinema.
Though the business of show relocated to the sun-drenched coast of southern California, rendering Pittsburgh’s early role in shaping the industry little more than a curious footnote, the city’s ties to moviemaking remain in every new production that strolls into town to take advantage of that latent history (and ample tax compensation).
Recent and Notable Pittsburgh Productions:
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood filmed in the Oakland WQED studio where Mr. Rogers shot the nearly 900 episodes of his beloved television series.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller, 2019)
A troubled journalist, Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), is assigned to cover Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks) for Esquire. Thinking the assignment of covering a children’s television personality is beneath him, Vogel aims to reveal Fred Rogers’ as a false persona for television. Sweet and affecting -- Marielle Heller’s film conveys an important message about acceptance, understanding, and the true value of self actualization.
Fences, starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, shot for 54 days in Pittsburgh, using the Hill District, West End, and the Strip District to recreate August Wilson’s Pittsburgh of the 1950s.
Fences (Denzel Washington, 2016)
Based on the play by Pittsburgh-native August Wilson, Denzel Washington directs himself in this period drama about familial ties, masculinity, pride and pathos, and regret. To say that nothing much happens in Fences is a disservice to the emotional depth found in the performances from Washington and Viola Davis.
The many Pittsburgh filming locations for The Fault in Our Stars included the Mansions on 5th Avenue, the Strip District, Oakland, Lawrenceville—and the church at which my eldest daughter was then attending pre-school.
The Fault in Our Stars (Josh Boone, 2014)
The adaptation of John Green’s hugely popular novel about teenage cancer patients (Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort) who exchange favorite books, fall in love and confront the meaning of life and mortality. The weepie boasts a strong sense of humor and a star-making performance from the talented Woodley.
In addition to a lengthy Batmobile chase scene through Pittsburgh’s downtown, Heinz Field, the home of the Steelers, features prominently in The Dark Knight Rises. Then Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl can be spotted kicking off to the Gotham Rogues.
The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012)
The concluding episode of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy filmed in Romania, India… and Pittsburgh (where it operated under the working title of Maximus Rex to reduce visibility—though seeing the Batmobile rumbling through the streets of downtown Pittsburgh was a bit of a giveaway.)
The North Shore riverwalk, including PNC Park and the Strip District feature prominently (among many others) in Jack Reacher—but this image on 9th St. offers a great view of one of Pittsburgh’s iconic bridges, the Rachel Carson, just over Tom Cruise’s right shoulder.
Jack Reacher (Christopher McQuarrie, 2012)
Tom Cruise’s action thriller was filmed entirely in Pittsburgh. Fans of Lee Child’s popular literary hero weren’t thrilled with the Cruise casting, but Tom downplays his usual big-screen charm and the result is an entertaining crime thriller (and a scenic Pittsburgh travelogue) with some of the best Pittsburgh location photography since Striking Distance (1993).
Highlights include the view from Mt. Washington (above) and Emma Watson’s character flying through the Ft. Pitt tunnel as it empties into the cityscape—one of the greatest gateways to any city on the planet.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky, 2012)
Native Pittsburgher Stephen Chbosky adapts his own novel to the big screen starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, and Ezra Miller. Strong teenage performances anchor this melodrama that avoids the genre’s most cloying pretensions and strikes honest notes about struggling to find your place in the world.
Since Tony Scott’s Unstoppable is largely confined to western Pennsylvania and West Virginia railways, the Appalachian foothills surrounding Pittsburgh become an important supporting player.
Unstoppable (Tony Scott, 2010)
Tony Scott’s fifth collaboration with Denzel Washington was also unfortunately his last film. The Top Gun director committed suicide in 2012 after a long, unpublicized battle with cancer.
Loosely based on the real life events of a runaway train and the two men trying to stop it, this non-stop popcorn muncher perfectly represents Scott’s oeuvre. Style and substance whipped together into an adrenaline-fueled sensory overload.
“I love Pittsburgh,” Scott said of the production. “It reminds me of where I grew up (in North England)... If you saw the movie, I embrace the landscape. I felt I was back home in my youth.”
Quentin Tarantino called Unstoppable one of the best films of the decade, and Christoper Nolan cited the film as an inspiration for building suspense.
...to be continued… stay tuned for Part Two of this cinematic Pittsburgh travelogue when I talk about a few of the Pittsburgh’s most famous big screen personalities.
James David Patrick is a Pittsburgh-based writer with a movie-watching problem. He has a degree in Film Studies from Emory University that gives him license to discuss Russian Shakespeare adaptations at cocktail parties. You’ll find him crate diving at local record shops. James blogs about movies, music and 80’s nostalgia at www.thirtyhertzrumble.com. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.