Saturday Update

This is a rare Saturday update. Alert Reader John has found the trailer for the upcoming documentary about Our Fair City, which was mentioned in the Almanac on Wednesday, and Eric Slagle of the Post-Gazette had a story in Thursday's paper.

The trailer is here. Go watch it. I'll wait.

(Jason whistles tunelessly, checks watch.)

. . .

OK, welcome back.

First things first: In the interest of full disclosure, I was approached last year and asked to help on this project. I met with the philanthropist funding the film, Arthur N. Rupe, as well as Jim Hubbard of American Film Renaissance, who was helping Rupe find a director and screenwriter. I also met with someone doing research for the film.

Mr. Rupe is the founder of Specialty Records and promoted early African-American rock 'n roll talents like Little Richard and Sam Cooke when few mainstream labels would record them. He also gave a young musician named Sonny Bono his start in the music business and one of his employees was Barrett Hansen, aka "Dr. Demento."

If you know that I love '50s R&B and rock, you may also know that I worship the ground that Dr. Demento walks on. To put it bluntly, Art Rupe is one of my heroes. Talking with him was one of the great thrills of my life, and I had to restrain myself from giggling like an idiot.

After selling Specialty Records, Rupe went onto greater success as an entrepreneur in real estate and other fields. He's used his income to fuel a heck of a lot of charitable concerns, and has done a heck of a lot of good, including here in the Mon-Yough area.

Nevertheless, it was obvious to me that I wasn't the right person to help on this project. First of all, my number one priority was finishing the Murphy book. Second, I know nothing about filmmaking or script-writing. (Mr. Mamajek never even let me run the projector in high school.) And third, it was clear that Rupe and Hubbard are working from a different political perspective from mine.

But there are no sour grapes at Tube City Online. There is sour cream, sauerkraut, there are even atomic sour balls, but no sour grapes.

. . .

Earlier this week, I noted that I had made the mistake of mentioning Michael Moore's Roger & Me to Rupe and Hubbard and got my ears blistered.

I was about 15 when Roger & Me debuted, and I saw it with my mother at the Rainbow Cinema in White Oak. We kept nudging each other throughout the film because it rang so true to what was happening in McKeesport. When the movie ended, mom said "they could have made that movie here."

As a documentary, Roger & Me is deeply flawed and often dishonest. But Moore captured the feeling of living in a milltown when the mill shuts down as few others have ever done. Since then, Moore's done some shabby work and has become a parody of himself, and that makes me sad.

The director of the upcoming McKeesport film, Michael Wilson, is also the director of Michael Moore Hates America. Hubbard is the co-founder of American Film Renaissance, which was launched in 2004 as a conservative film festival designed to balance out Hollywood's liberal bias.

Now, I'm no leftist. In fact, a number of people in the local "indymedia" collective think I'm a reactionary. I do believe, however, in the value of public education, trade unionism, separation of church and state, and sensible government regulation, and I think the country has gone too far in the opposite direction.

I think you understand why I wished Rupe and Hubbard every possible success and offered any help I could. I even suggested a list of people they might talk to. But I didn't think in my heart of hearts that I should work on this project.

. . .

Anyway, I watched the trailer. Wilson told Slagle that he is not making a political film, and that it is nothing like Michael Moore Hates America (which, by the way, got generally good notices). Says Wilson:

"One of the things that concerned me about the town was that the government is stepping in and doing this top-down development and that, to me, seems wrong. I believe the government should be involved in as little as possible. But I think there is a point that you get to in a city like McKeesport, where, if that doesn't happen, the city is doomed.

"They're kind of doing it the right way," he added. "They're building infrastructure here ... but they're also giving business big tax breaks."

By George, I think he's got it.

Frankly, approaching the Mon-Yough area's problems from a center-right or right-wing perspective is not a bad idea.

The only people who have paid any attention to the Mon Valley's steel towns for the past 25 years have been liberal academics, professional protesters, and self-styled socialists and labor activists. They talk nice words, but don't ever deliver.

We need to build a culture of entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency in this area --- we need to breed another Edwin Crawford (founder of McKeesport Tin Plate Company) or John Sephus Mack (chairman of G.C Murphy Co.) or Walter Shaw Sr. (Murphy's president) or Art Rupe.

I am just desperately hoping that the film does not take the Democratic Party and the Steelworkers' union and stuff them up our rear ends.

Please, please, if anyone from this project should see this Almanac: The national political climate is completely dysfunctional and the country is suffering. The right has gone farther right and driven the left farther left. Please don't drag a bunch of neo-conservative talking points into this film.

If you do, a certain number of people will instantly write it off as "propaganda." If this film really captures the struggle to save McKeesport, we need people to see it. We don't need them to say "right-wing baloney" and walk away.

. . .

I don't think Art Rupe would do anything to hurt McKeesport. It sounds like Mike Wilson has gone into this project with an open mind. I am looking forward to this with trepidation, but also with a sincere hope that the filmmakers are doing right by us.

If nothing else, just remember that the last two movies filmed in McKeesport were Striking Distance and Dogma.

Hell, even if this movie were a remake of Triumph of the Will, it couldn't possibly be as bad as those two turkeys.