[PRCo] Re: July 4th, 1982

[Ken & Tracie]

I have photos of crews doing repair work on the Smithfield Street bridge 
during the 1960s. The crew actually let Roberta Hill walk among them talking 
photos.

But like the song says, "City girls seem to find out early how to open doors 
with just a smile."

Of the three P.E. Birneys MGM had, the car used in that movie was the one 
the studio later cut open to film inside shots. The other two remained 
intact and wound up at OERM.

I have to give OERM credit for finally getting carbarns built and "cocoon 
wrapping" other cars still out in the elements. John Smatlak was one of the 
best things to happen to that place, after Dave Garcia.

K.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 7:09 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: July 4th, 1982


> Two (long) comments, Ken:
>
> 1)  My father, who came from Marietta, Ohio, via Cleveland to
> Pittsburgh to finish his college education at Carnegie Tech in 1928
> remembered that they were trying to patch the Smithfield Street
> Bridge together then.   Hmmm.   It's still standing and we're
> worrying about the Birmingham Bridge from 1971?
>
> 2)  The Dennis theater in Mount Lebanon shows in one of the links.  I
> remember going in there in the 1980s and discovering they had it set
> up the projection rooms to show an entire movie spooled on one flat
> disc so that the projectionist could work all sorts of different
> screening booths.  (Conventional technology used 20-minute reels of
> 35mm film.)   Now we've gone to digital.   This spring I saw a
> digital remake of the MGM film Singin' in the Rain on the big screen
> (big meaning a 250 seat theater, not 2,500 like they used to be) and
> it was surprisingly good.   The first time I saw that 1952 film was
> in the 5,933 seat Radio City Music Hall in New York City.  It was
> nice to see the old Pacific Electric Birney again on stage instead of
> bleached in the sun at Orange Empire.
>
>
> On Jul 26, 2008, at 9:55 AM, Ken & Tracie wrote:
>
>> I was wrong about the number....it was a 1600 renumbered as
>> 1787...and both
>> front door sets were open. You can see it heading through an
>> intersection,
>> front doors open. It was a humid evening, maybe the open doors
>> caused a nice
>> breeze through the car.
>>
>> We were visiting from Milwaukee and we rode a "real" 1700 downtown
>> and back.
>> My girlfriend was terrified by the various bridges. I didn't bother
>> to tell
>> her the Smithfield Street Bridge was the only one to worry about.....
>>
>> K.
>>
>>
>> http://www.davesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/pitt409.htm
>>
>> http://www.davesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/pitt405.htm
>>
>> http://www.davesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/pitt406.htm
>>
>> http://www.davesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/pitt411.htm
>>
>>
>
>