[PRCo] Re: McKeesport

[Herb Brannon]

Did you also notice that "McKeesport 2" and "McKeesport 3" were also
available to watch?
On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 15:47, Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>wrote:

> Very interesting.....
>
> I loved the pictures but after about 15 minutes I was running my head into
> a brick wall.  Please understand, I don't need to just look at trolleys or
> trains.   I can look a good history of a town like McKeesport, if done
> right, and really enjoy it.
>
> Honestly, the pictures are good.
>
> Just too many of them!
>
> It's like looking at Charlie Dengler's Pittsburgh Railways pictures.
> (Charlie attempted to take a picture of every car PRC owned, all with the
> car filling the entire negative and no background.)  Grisly!
>
> In the 2010 census, the City of McKeesport is down to 19,731 people,
> slightly more than one-third of its peak of more than 55,000 in 1940.    The
> actual peak, if a census had been done, might have been 1942 before we began
> drafting servicemen.  The loss of the Tube Works and the open hearths over
> in Duquense and other steel mills caused the city to literally fall apart.
> The honorable mayor was demanding that Pittsburgh Railways get rid of the
> streetcars in the 1950s in order to bring back downtown because he felt that
> was the problem.   Well, I think his problem then was the steel workers had
> enough money to move to the hilltops outside of town and do their shopping
> at the new mall on Lincoln Way east of East Pittsburgh.   But then in the
> 1980s the bottom fell out of steel, the mall closed, the rest of the city
> collapsed.  That whole story needs to be told.
>
> I remember staying in the Sheraton Hotel on Lyle Blvd about 1984 on state
> business ... my boss decided to go out in the middle of the night because he
> couldn't sleep.   The desk clerk told Dave it was OK if he was dumb enough
> to walk around the city at night on his own but they were not going to
> unlock the door and let anyone back in before 7 a.m.   At that time they
> were attempting to sell the Sheraton to the city or county to convert it to
> a jail.   It fell through.   I was walking my little orange google man down
> Lyle Blvd a few minutes ago and I discovered the former Sheraton is now
> called "Senior Care Plaza."   You can be sure they can find a little money
> taking care of old people but there are no longer business travelers coming
> to McKeesport.
>
> It deserves a good portrayal of what happened and why it happened and what
> changed.
>
> Good is not necessarily taking every picture you have and inflicting it
> upon the viewers for 25 minutes simply because you have all those pictures
> and therefore someone must look at them and love them as much as the
> portrayer does.
>
> Good is not using every picture you have without explanation of why they
> are important to the history of the city.
>
> Good is also not experimenting with every different fade and dissolve
> software mechanism you can possibly use to drive your view to the point of
> distraction where he wants to throw a shoe through his monitor.
>
> Good is also not using canned, public domain music because someone told you
> not to have dead air time.
>
> In my mind, these three films fit in the same category as railfans running
> trolley museums, antique car nuts running car museums, bottle cap collectors
> creating museums to their artifacts or doll collectors displaying dolls for
> your enjoyment.  Far more often than not they come off conveying to the
> visitor that I love my toys and you must love them too.   That is why I have
> often said that railfans running trolley museums are often their own worst
> enemies.
>
> The man needs to figure out what it is he wants to tell the viewer.   Then
> he needs to write a script to convey that theme.   And only after he
> finishes the script should he select the pictures that illustrate that
> script.   He needs to understand you only pick the best pictures, not
> everything you can find.
>
> He might also be well advised to do what the professionals do ... after you
> write the script, you give it to someone with a good voice and have them dub
> in the sound because most of do not have the voice to do that.   If you ever
> bought any of the tapes or DVD's from Transit Gloria Mundi, Carl Schultz has
> always uses professional narrators because they are easier to understand.
> (Carl got some flack once because of one of his choices for the voice over.
>   He hired his girl friend who was quite talented because she could speak
> both English and Baltimorese.   The film was about the Baltimore light rail
> cars and he wanted her to do it in Baltimorese ... there were a lot of
> people who though it was deliberate put down of women!)   You may recall the
> stories that most of the silent film actors / actresses never made died once
> the talkies came to your theaters in the 1930s because they didn't have the
> right voices.
>
> He also needs to learn some history of not only McKeesport but some general
> history and he needs to understand that no matter who you are ... Fred
> Schneider or the editor of the New York Times, you need a proof reader and
> an editor to keep you from making stupid misteaks (oops, mistakes).   And
> that was intended.   Every single one of us that rights (or is that writes)
>  needs proof readers.   We all make errors.   (Those PCC books by Schneider
> and Carlson were read by the resident English teacher as well as by the
> publisher and there were still mistakes that got through.  The worst was
> renaming a street in Pittsburgh.    I used to admire David P. Morgan for his
> writing but I think a lot of it was Rosemary Entringer's parochial school
> background hammering on David and catching his mistakes, and mine, and
> everyone else's that made Trains magazine so good.)
>
> At 3:05 in the first of the three tapes, its probably 1948-1952, not the
> 1960s because the 99 line was not running in the 1960s.
>
> At 5:05, that scene was probably taken in 1952, not the 1930s.
>
> At 6:42, it is hardly likely that a view with a battle scarred 1939 Chevy
> right in the foreground would have been taken in the 1930s.   I would buy
> early to middle 1940s.
>
> At 8:23 ... Second time he used this image.   The 1400s were not delivered
> until 1942.   Therefore it cannot be in the 1930s.   Note also the
> preponderance of postwar automobiles.
>
> At 9:56 ... Second time he used the same picture.   Note the pristine 1948
> Ford on the left.   It is probably brand new.   Therefore not 1930s.
>
> In the second film, he moved the B&O station to "Fifth Avenue near the East
> End School."
>
> In the third film he has a new part of town called the Prositution
> district.
>
> I leave you with one other story.   My first wife and I stayed in a motel
> just off route 30 up in East McKeesport back in the 1960s.   I was young,
> not overly wealthy, living on about $6,000 a year.   There was no way I was
> going downtown to the Hilton.    The tip off should have been that you
> checked in at the bar because this motel had no office but it didn't
> register.
> In the middle of the night there people talking outside our door that work
> up my wife.  Apparently they were trying to find a room for a short term
> visitor.   The dialogue outside the room that she heard went:
>
> "But you didn't check room 3?"
>
> "Don't need to.   They're legitimate guests in that room."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On May 15, 2011, at 10:58 AM, Ray wrote:
>
> > I agree the special effects were way overboard.
> >
> > You might try clpgh.org to see if these photos
> > are online at the Carnegie  library. I wish PTM could do
> > some thing with the University of Pittsburgh
> > and their Historic Pittsburgh web site and put their
> > collection on line.
> >
> > Ray
> >
> >
> > May 15, 2011 09:14:33 AM, pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org wrote:
> >
> > ===========================================
> >
> > Yes, interesting content but the most hellish video
> > I have ever watched.  A different special effect every
> > photo is massive overkill isn't it.  It is highly
> > annoying.  Does the Carnegie library have online
> > photos?
> >
> > Phil
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Ray
> > To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> > Sent: Sat, May 14, 2011 7:21:06 PM
> > Subject: [PRCo] McKeesport
> >
> >
> > Pretty interesting. Some cool PRCo shots in Part 3.
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw4HgtpGMgI&feature=related
> >
> > Ray
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>


-- 
Herb Brannon
In Cuyahoga Valley National Park