In 1982 he earned $3.5 million for "First Blood". The movie went on to earn $225 million on a budget of $1 million. That's the same as around $110,000 today. He accepted a cut-rate salary of $23,000 for the film. He relentlessly pressured the film's producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff to allow him to star in the movie. United Artists was the front runner but they wanted it as a starring vehicle for Robert Redford of James Caan. It’s time to let the world know that there is more to us than a fictitious beefy Italian with a bad Philly accent and “yo” Tourette’s.After writing the screenplay for "Rocky" in just three days, Stallone found interest in his project at multiple studios. She gave up movie stardom to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco - not bad for a Philly girl. Before Princess Di, Grace Kelly was the world’s most famous princess. Clark was born in Mount Vernon, New York, but it was when he moved to Drexel Hill, Delaware County, that he became a star.ĥ) Grace Kelly. He dominated pop culture for five decades with game shows, bloopers and New Year’s celebrations, but it all started with Bandstand in Philadelphia. He lived all of his life in Chadds Ford, Chester County, where many of his children still paint at his studios.Ĥ) Dick Clark. If he isn’t America’s greatest painter, he is in the conversation. Before the world knew Wilt, he was the star of Overbrook High School in West Philly.ģ) Andrew Wyeth. Wilt was so dominant in his time that they had to change the rules of the game to make it fair for the other players. Don’t ever say to a Philadelphian that Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time. Born in Boston, he conducted life’s work in Philly.Ģ) Wilt Chamberlin. This Founding Father, inventor, publisher and legend has a parkway, a bridge, an institute and a hundred other Philadelphia namesakes. If the pride of this city is built around any one man, it is Franklin. With a nod to Philadelphia magazine, the keeper of all great Philadelphia lists, I offer my own list of just five people from the Philadelphia area we should be known for by the rest of the world.ġ) Ben Franklin. It is infuriating because it’s a perception that’s allowed to exist because no one corrects it. The whole pride of your city is built around a guy who doesn’t even exist.” Somewhere in between his hope that everyone in the crowd gets cancer and gang-raped was this observation (obscenities removed): “Rocky is your hero. In 2006 during a comedy festival at what is now Susquehanna Bank Center, comedian Bill Burr tore into an unappreciative crowd of hecklers with a (link waaaay NSFW) 12-minute, obscenity-riddled attack on the crowd and all things Philadelphia. But the fact that a fictional character is perceived as our only claim to fame is annoying, and worse, a source of ridicule. Again, it’s Rocky.ĭon’t get me wrong, Rocky and most of its sequels are great movies. It’s not the Liberty Bell - according to the poll’s result, most people in other countries think the Liberty Bell is in Boston. In 2005, when a Philadelphia group was trying to get the 2016 summer Olympics, they did a poll to find out what people around the world associate with our city. I wasn’t ranting at the producer (he and I are still friends) as much as I was ranting at Hollywood’s shallow understanding of our city and Philadelphia’s inability to tell its story for the past few decades. Remember Ben Franklin?” I was now getting a cold stare. newspaper, the first mint, the first fire department. Constitution, not to mention the first U.S. We put America on the map.” To his credit, he got it and was clearly embarrassed he didn’t get it when he first read the script - heck, he may have written it - but I was on a roll. “ Rocky didn’t put us on the map,” I said indignantly.
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