Becoming GEORGE
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Becoming GEORGE - Audio
A lover of movies from an early age, Geo would often go to the Loew’s American, located at 1450 East Avenue in Parkchester, but there were many other theatres to choose from in The Bronx and Manhattan. The Thing From Another World (1951) and The Man From Planet X (1951), both horror movies, impressed young Geo, but he also enjoyed blockbuster classics like The Quiet Man (1952), On the Waterfront (1954), and The Ten Commandments (1956). By far the most important movie for him was Tales of Hoffmann (1951), a British technicolor comic opera.
The cinematography of Tales of Hoffmann, especially, expanded what George thought was possible in movies. Inspired by this film, he began borrowing the movie camera of his uncle, Dr. Monroe Yudell. George spent summers at Uncle Monnie’s place in Scarsdale, making his own movies and joining a local amateur filmmaker’s group, Herald Pictures. Similar informal clubs existed around New York—even in Parkchester at one point.
Around 1954, George created a short science-fiction film, “The Man from the Meteor,” which included a scene of a flaming dummy being thrown off a Parkchester building roof. Parkchester security apprehended George for this stunt. A couple years and multiple films later, at Suffield, he created a sound film, “A Study of the Earth” (or Earthbottom, as he called it), which won a Future Scientists of America award. He started his own filmmaking club there, Ram Pictures, which had dozens of members and even filmed one movie on location in Cuba, perhaps while George was visiting family. While at Suffield, as his yearbook attests, he had started going by “George” A. Romero, and he would be a filmmaker one way or another.
Parkchester CHILDHOOD
George Andrew Romero was born on February 4, 1940 to Anne Romero (Dvorsky), a Bronx native of Lithuanian background, and George Romero, a Cuban Spaniard who came to the U.S. with his family in 1922. Young George spent his childhood years in the new Parkchester development, a project of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. The Romero family were among the first to move into the development in 1940.
The Teenage "GEO"
“Geo,” as he was known as a kid, attended K–12 at St. Helena’s, attached to the Catholic church of the same name in Parkchester. As a high school student, he participated in the art, drama, and religious clubs as well as choir. In St. Helena’s senior yearbook, Geo claimed he wanted “to be a dentist by studying at Villanova.” Later in life, he reflected that parochial school had been a stifling environment, and his yearbook statement that he was “naturally loaded with school spirit” should probably be read with sarcasm. READ MORE
Becoming GEORGE
A lover of movies from an early age, Geo would often go to the Loew’s American, located at 1450 East Avenue in Parkchester, but there were many other theatres to choose from in The Bronx and Manhattan. The Thing From Another World (1951) and The Man From Planet X (1951), both horror movies, impressed young Geo, but he also enjoyed classics like The Quiet Man (1952), On the Waterfront (1954), and The Ten Commandments (1956). By far the most important movie for him was Tales of Hoffmann (1951), a British technicolor comic opera. READ MORE
Making a MONSTER FLICK
A lover of movies from an early age, Geo would often go to the Loew’s American, located at 1450 East Avenue in Parkchester, but there were many other theatres to choose from in The Bronx and Manhattan. The Thing From Another World (1951) and The Man From Planet X (1951), both horror movies, impressed young Geo, but he also enjoyed blockbuster classics like The Quiet Man (1952), On the Waterfront (1954), and The Ten Commandments (1956). By far the most important movie for him was Tales of Hoffmann (1951), a British technicolor comic opera. READ MORE
Father of the ZOMBIES
Although Romero is known today as “father of the zombies,” he initially had no intention of making zombie movies. Neither Night of the Living Dead (NOTLD) nor any of its production materials used the word “zombie.” These slow-moving, undead ghouls, as they were called, savored the taste of human flesh and overwhelmed the living by their sheer numbers. By the release of Dawn of The Dead (1978) and Day of The Dead (1985), Romero had embraced zombie terminology, first introduced by French reviews of NOTLD, and further developed the lore. Romero’s undead began to show signs of consciousness, with further features emerging in Land of The Dead (2005), Diary of The Dead (2007), and Survival of The Dead (2009). READ MORE
Romero MEETS POE
Romero, a lifelong admirer of renown writer, poet, editor, and critic, Edgar Allan Poe, worked on multiple projects inspired by the author. READ MORE
Horror and BEYOND
Romero’s most popular films like the NOTLD franchise and Creepshow will forever remain horror classics. Deeper cuts illustrate the breadth of his artistry, beyond horror. Martin (1976), for instance, remains one of the most unconventional adaptations of the vampire myth to date, and Knightriders (1981) transposes Arthurian legend to a modern motorcycle renaissance fair troupe. Among the trove of Romero’s unproduced scripts are innovative adaptations of The War of the Worlds (1898), Native Tongue (1984), and Pet Sematary (1983); “Micky B.,” a futuristic android version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth; scripts for superhero and western movies; and much more.
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