[PRCo] Re: McKeesport

Sun May 15 18:02:10 EDT 2011

I commented on them.

On May 15, 2011, at 5:47 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
> 