Oh I know! Kept at a distance :)

Hey folks. I have to get back to work, but thank you so much for the great questions. We hope you enjoy listening to WHYY’s The Statue.
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Thanks again to the r/philadelphia mods for making this AMA possible!

I recommend reading Philly Inquirer’s Valerie Russ and her ongoing writing about this topic. She has been following this story in meaningful ways. WHYY also reported a few years ago about a really important part of the Tubman story in Philly. You can read more about monuments to Tubman in Monument Lab’s National Monument Audit. For traveling monuments, check out Hank Willis Thomas’ All Power to All People with Kindred Arts.

I would rather do other things with my time, but your question is fascinating. Will be thinking about it!
In the meantime, check out this museum in Berlin, which houses old toxic monuments and contextualizes them in new thoughtful ways.

Thanks for listening!
Rocky III, of course. That’s when the statue comes into the series.
One of my favorite scenes is in Rocky V when Balboa and his son visit the statue at the Museum, and then decide to go inside and see the art.
I had a great conversation about the film series with Mike White at the Projection Booth podcast, if you want to check that out. We talked about the films and the statues

Thank you for listening and for the 5-star rating!
As gratitude, here is a tidbit from the behind-the-scenes of the series. In a future episode, when we visit a Hollywood Museum to see a Rocky Statue there, we found Rocky in the same room as wax Forrest Gump and the wax stars of Men in Black.

Great question! I think a lot about how monuments change over time – and hope we can make that more of a reality for more monuments. I want to see a monument that changes each generation, builds in intergenerational stories, makes room to update itself, and has living detoxifying plant materials as a part of it.
Sadly, there are so many to choose from. Here’s an obvious one: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ugly-nathan-bedford-forrest-statue

There were so many! Maybe we’ll include in a future season, who knows 🙂
One to share: We know of the iconic Rocky Statue, made by A. Thomas Schomberg. What we found is that there are actually numerous other versions. Some we cover in future episodes, but some we will have to save for another time: The Lego Rocky Statue, the recycled materials Rocky Statue, and the candy Rocky Statue, among others.

In the words of Rocky: “Life's not about how hard of a hit you can give... it's about how many you can take, and still keep moving forward.”

I’m always thinking about monuments. Coming off a year-long audit of America’s monuments, I kept driving or walking by the line at the Rocky Statue that fills up every day, and began digging into why millions go there each year. With the release of Rocky-spinoff Creed III coming this spring, it felt timely to look into the story of a statue that bridges the past and present.
There are many notable Philadelphians worthy of monumental spotlight. Among them, William Still, Gloria Casarez, Julian Abele. They and others have been remembered in murals, historic markers, and could be further celebrated and spotlighted.
And just saying: Gritty may be a monument in of itself.

I started thinking about this project several years ago. I went to the Rocky Statue, the line, and the Art Museum steps almost every week for the last two years. I watched every Rocky sequel and all the documentaries on the subject. Poured over every meme and parody. I read everything written by Sylvester Stallone, public art scholars, and just people who live their lives for all of this, the movies, the statue, and all the hype around them.
When the team at WHYY Digital Studios – Tom Grahsler, Mike Olcott, and Michaela Winberg – began working on the project, it really brought the process and the idea to life. They brought such creativity, important perspectives, and angles to the narrative. We workshopped each episode, worked with some great sound designers and musicians at Rowhome Productions and Moqita, and then we tinkered with each episode to bring them to life.
Can’t overstate how important the team was to making this a reality.

-Thanks for your question. Episode 3 (which was released this week) dives into the story of Joe Frazier, in and out of the Rocky films. We looked at his cameo in Rocky I, told the story of how he was almost cast as the co-star in Rocky III, and then spent time looking at places he is remembered in the city.
The gym is an important place. We spoke to Brent Leggs from the National Trust, who was behind the building getting its historic designation. You can also check out a companion doc from WHYY Digital Studios on Frazier.
-Boxing in Philly runs deep! The Rocky story tapped that backstory and expanded it. One of the best places to learn about boxing in the city is Boxers' Trail in Fairmount Park.

When we were preparing for the series, we read through lots of books and materials, to dive into the Rocky story and monuments. Here are a few we refer to in the series and/or who guided our process:

• Laura M. Holzman, Contested Image: Defining Philadelphia for the Twenty-First Century
• Chris Holmund, The Ultimate Stallone Reader
• Lewis Hyde, A Primer for Forgetting: Getting Past the Past
• Mark Kram Jr., Smoking’ Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier
• Monument Lab, The National Monument Audit
• Kirk Savage, Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape
• Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
• Sylvester Stallone, The Official Rocky Scrapbook
• Salamishah Tillet, Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post–Civil Rights Imagination
• Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History
• Alex von Tunzelmann, Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History
• Michael Vitez and Tom Gralish, Rocky Stories: Tales of Love, Hope, and Happiness at America’s Most Famous Steps

Great questions!
For those who may not know the background, the Museum steps was the place where the statue was installed for the filming of Rocky III, left there, moved around to other sites including the now demolished-Spectrum, and then returned to a place at the bottom of the steps. We cover the story and relationship between the Art Museum and the Rockyverse in Episode 1 of the podcast.
The museum and Rockyverse are beginning to co-exist in more meaningful ways. I hope there are more public programs recognizing this. I got a Rocky pin at the museum gift shop!

Thanks for your feedback!

1. A few Philly-specific podcasts to recommend: City Cast (timely discussions of life and culture), Love + Grit (co-hosted by one of Philly’s best, Laiya St. Clair), Serum (made in Philly, fascinating on public health history), and March On (from our WHYY producer Michaela Winberg!).
2. I have a few favorite monuments in the city. The Clothespin, the Octavius Catto statue, the Your Move game pieces on MSB, Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial, are among my favorites. I also appreciate sites of memory like the Boxer’s Trail, the Archives at the William Way LGBT Center, and the President’s House.