America Reimagined: COVID-19 and the Carpool Cinema

BY American Reportage

AMERICA REIMAGINED

A Collaboration Between

Boyd's Station and

American Reportage​

Photographer's Journal

COVID-19 and the
Carpool Cinema

Text and Photography by Pete Marovich

Two hundred thirty people braved a pandemic and drove into the Carrie Furnaces’ parking lot in the early evening of July 24, 2020, to watch the 1983 classic film “Flashdance,” the story of a girl who works a day job in a steel mill and dances in a bar at night. Set and filmed in Pittsburgh, the film was projected on the side of the Carrie Furnaces’ blowing engine house building in Rankin, Pa. The furnaces were shut down less than 5 years before the movie was made.
 
Rivers of Steel, a nonprofit dedicated to the industrial heritage that gave Pittsburgh its Steel City moniker, normally holds tours, workshops, exhibitions and festivals against the backdrop of the historic structures from the regional industry that helped build America.
 
With many summer commitments scheduled at Rivers of Steel being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rivers of Steel, has begun hosting drive-in movie experiences that could abide by the state’s current health guidelines. With a maximum occupancy of 250 allowed due to COVID-19 guidelines, only 230 tickets were sold so that Rivers of Steel staff could work the event.
 
Dubbed “Carrie Carpool Cinema”, the premiere event  featured a double feature with “Flashdance”, followed up with “Out of the Furnace”, which includes several scenes shot at the Carrie Blast Furnaces and nearby Braddock.
 
The Carrie Furnaces were built in 1881 as part of U.S. Steel’s Homestead Works, a sprawling 400-acre complex that spanned both sides of the Monongahela river. They produced up to 1,250 tons of steel a day until 1978 when they were closed. 
 
While the majority of the site was razed for a shopping center, the 100-foot high furnaces, an extremely rare example of pre-WWII ironmaking technology, still stand. The furnaces were designated as a national historic landmark in 2006 and preservation efforts are underway.
 
Since 2014 I have been documenting the current state of the former steel towns around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, such as Rankin and neighboring Braddock and Homestead. Braddock still has an operating mill.

Photograph by Pete Marovich/American Reportage

At one time these quintessential American towns were prospering, with neat rows of craftsmen-style homes lining their residential streets, and decorated storefronts welcoming a steady stream of shoppers along their main thoroughfares. 
 
Towns such as Aliquippa, Homestead, Braddock, Rankin, Duquesne, McKeesport, Clairton, Monessen, and Natrona were all dependent on the steel industry. The mills attracted thousands of immigrants from Croatia, Italy, Serbia, and Ukraine with good jobs and the promise of a better life.
 
Thriving commercial districts, with movie theaters, restaurants, libraries, post offices, five-and-dime stores, churches, service stations, and, of course, bars for unwinding after an arduous day in the mill, where the norm. 
But today it is difficult to imagine these towns as former exemplars of the American dream. The destitute state of these towns traces back to the 1980s steel industry collapse. That’s when companies like Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation (J&L) and United States Steel shuttered their operations, leaving the tens-of-thousands of immigrants who flocked to these communities filled with such hope unsure what to do next.
 
The region is a microcosm of the problems facing post-industrial towns across America where crime, racism, a depressed economy and now the COVID-19 pandemic, continue to make the prosperity of the 1950’s nothing more than a memory and dream.

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SPONSOR

The work done by American Reportage and Boyd’s Station would not be possible without the generous support from PhotoShelter, the official provider of both organization’s archive systems – powered PhotoShelter for Brands.

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AMERICA REIMAGINED

PROJECT CURATORS

Charlie Borst

Stephen Crowley

Cathaleen Curtiss

Nikki Kahn

Michael Keating

Molly Roberts