Category: History || By

Andy Warhol was not from McKeesport.

This is not exactly a news flash, but Tube City Almanac is publishing it anyway for the benefit of bloggers, students writing term papers, journalists on deadline and others who will someday Google "Andy+Warhol+McKeesport."

Andy Warhol was not from McKeesport. He was from Pittsburgh.

Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but there you have it.

. . .

I bring this up because Warhol's brother, John Warhola of Beaver County, died last Friday at age 85. In a post on Andi Cartwright's lively and always entertaining "McKeesport Memories" Facebook page, people were wondering if John was from McKeesport, too.

As the old hunkies used to lament, "O, istenem!"

No, John Warhola was not from McKeesport, and neither was his famous brother, Andy Warhol.

Warhol, the celebrated pop artist who died in 1987, often told reporters that he was from "McKeesport." Indeed, a search of the New York Times archives reveals that Warhol was telling journalists this fiction as early as 1968, and the fib was repeated many, many times by other writers, including in an obituary written by the Associated Press and widely distributed to local newspapers.

. . .

But as the Post-Gazette noted in its own 1987 obituary, Warhol had a habit of giving made-up details to reporters for his own amusement. (He also gave out fictional birthdates and told some reporters he was born in Philadelphia.)

According to the Warhola Family Foundation's website, "Andy Warhol was born on August 6, 1928 in the city of Pittsburgh. During his first six years, Andy's family moved and lived in five different houses."

The website notes that in 1934, "Andy's father, Ondreij bought a three story, yellow brick house at 3252 Dawson Street in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. Andy lived on Dawson Street from 1934 until he left for New York City in 1949."

In a 2005 story for the Tribune-Review, art critic Kurt Shaw interviewed Warhol's oldest brother, Paul, and catalogued some of the Warhola family's other addresses. They lived on Orr Street, Beelan Street and Moultrie Street, all in Pittsburgh's Soho section.

(You'll notice there's not a Rebecca Street or Manning Avenue in the bunch.)

. . .

To be specific, the Andy Warhol Museum says that Warhol was born at 73 Orr Street, and that Warhol graduated from Schenley High School --- not Tech High or the "Voc."

A 2001 article for the Post-Gazette by an old classmate of mine, Samantha Bennett, notes that the Warhol family attended St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church at the corner of Saline Street and the Boulevard of the Allies in Oakland.

I wouldn't deny that the Warholas may have kin in McKeesport. They were Carpatho-Rusyn, and there was a healthy Carpatho-Rusyn community in Our Fair City. There still is.

. . .

Maybe Andy visited McKeesport from time to time to visit relatives. He could have walked up to Forbes Avenue and caught a Number 68 streetcar, or even down to Irvine Street to catch a 56. But he wasn't from McKeesport.

Look at it this way: McKeesport can claim a Pulitzer Prize winner (Marc Connelly), a Miss America (Henrietta Leaver), two Olympic gold medalists (Rick Krivda and Swin Cash), the CEO of Lockheed Martin (Robert J. Stevens), a prize-winning fashion photographer (Duane Michals), a French Legion of Honor winner (pianist Byron Janis), the co-creator of "I Love Lucy" (Bob Carroll Jr.), the first female commercial airline pilot (Helen Richey), the first American to become a bullfighter in Mexico (Bette Ford), a Congressional Medal of Honor winner (Franklin J. Phillips), a slew of professional football players ... the list goes on and on.

But McKeesport can't claim to be the birthplace of Andy Warhol. And after all, McKeesport has to let Pittsburgh be famous for something, doesn't it?

You are previewing your comment. Be sure to click on 'Post Comment' to store it.