Our hearts go out to the folks in Aurora—and in light of the early morning tragedy, we hesitated to move forward with our planned post.
We originally intended for this week’s post to correlate with the highly anticipated opening of The Dark Knight Rises, which was filmed in Pittsburgh.
But after last night’s horrific events in Colorado, now is not the right time for exclamation points and pushy social media efforts. Instead we would just really like to give a great book away and hope everyone can enjoy a little film history from the great city of Pittsburgh.
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Today’s #FreeBookFriday giveaway, Pittsburgh Film History: On Set in the Steel City, comes from film scholar and Hometown Hollywood founder John Tiech. You can enter to win by commenting on this post by Sunday, July 22 (12:oo a.m., EST).
….Pittsburgh Film History tells the true untold story of Pittsburgh’s film industry.
It’s a little-known fact that Pittsburgh has been part of the film industry since the days of silent film. Yet it was not until the 1951 classic Angels in the Outfield—set at Forbes Field—that the Steel City had its first major role on the silver screen.
Greater Pittsburgh’s film and television industry has since produced everything from the beloved children’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood to the cult classic Night of the Living Dead. Most recently, Christopher Nolan chose to set the conclusion to his Batman trilogy in the city.
The Catwoman stunt double in downtown Pittsburgh for The Dark Knight Rises. Courtesy of Julio Kuok.
From the first nickelodeon and “film row” of those early days to the locations and cutting-edge sets of today, local author John Tiech takes a behind-the-scenes tour of Pittsburgh cinema. We hope you’ll enjoy this fantastic excerpt and share your thoughts on the “Hollywood of the East” and its incredible film history.
John Tiech is a lifelong resident of the Pittsburgh area and an English college instructor. By a very young age, he had a passion for film and television. After a decade of research, he is one of very few individuals with the extensive and accurate knowledge about the history of Pittsburgh cinema. He is friends with many members of the Pittsburgh film community and has even been part of local movie productions such as The Dark Knight Rises and Won’t Back Down.
Meet the Author
Barnes & Noble @ Settlers Ridge (800 Settler’s Ridge Center Dr., Pittsburgh)
Saturday, August 4 from 2-4pm | For more info, call (412)809-8300
So, my heartfelt condolences to that awful tradegy!
I’m very interesting in film history and hope that I can find some answers to my questions from this book.
Thank’s in advance!
This sounds like a great book! I hope it mentions my personal favorite film, “Silence of the Lambs,” which was at least partially filmed in Pittsburgh.
Hi Matt! The ‘Silence of the Lambs’ was one of the first movies I researched. There is an entire chapter on ‘Lambs’ and a play-by-play on the filming. I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s a really cool behind-the-scenes story. Feel free to follow my Facebook page Hometown Hollywood. I will be posting more ‘Lambs’ pictures in the next few weeks!
I am so sad about what happened today….especially with the Pittsburgh connection, however, we go on and can’t let people like this destroy our freedoms. Going to the movies will always be a great escape and a fun way to stay social…………this book is way past due and I hope it’s just the first volume of others to come.
Our thoughts are also with the victims in Colorado and victims of violence everywhere.
Thanks for the thoughtful post and the lovely book giveaway. What a great-looking history of film. It would be wonderful to win a copy.
Looks like a very cool book, would go great on my desk.
Looks like a great book, am always interested in the history of films outside of Hollywood (physically)
Such a tragedy. Wish people would learn that we are all the same and stop with the mindless violence.
It’s a tragedy that this ever happened, and our hearts go out to all those affected directly. This sounds like a great book, especially since I grew up in the Pittsburgh area, now transplanted to Arizona.
Sounds like a neat book. My husband, who is from the Pittsburgh area, would really be interested in it.
Why would anyone want to film in Pittsburgh, why wouldn’t anyone want to film in Pittsburgh??? With such a diverse arena of architecture, neighborhoods and seasons – you can be anywhere your imagination wants to take you. Pittsburgh & it’s surrounding areas & regions is a filmmakers dream, at a reasonable price. Plus the hospitality of the people in this region makes for a great working environment. We offer the best of both worlds, as far as filming Big budget an independent film projects, something that a lot of cities & states lack. Major film companys & actors, are now beginning to take notice of something we have known for years. The Pittsburgh area is a hotbed, for movie making. “Thus endeth the sermon.” ;-[o>
Commenting!
Hi everybody,
We really appreciate your thoughtful comments. The winner of #FreeBookFriday (picked by the robots at http://www.random.org) is Sandra Speicher. Everybody else–don’t forget you can read more at http://bit.ly/M5GDC9 …and check back in two weeks for our next giveaway.
Looking forward to reading this asap. I’m so proud of my “hoamtahn” for a lot of reasons, but the filming here is climbing up the list. Perfect time to release this book. Don’t blink or you’ll miss me with Cruise in “Jack Reacher”