BRONX HISTORICAL SOCIETY’S MUSEUM OF BRONX HISTORY TO HOST 'GEORGE A. ROMERO: STAY SCARED!' EXHIBIT
ONE LEGEND. THREE VENUES.
OPENING OCTOBER 31, 2025 | 6–8pm
3266 BAINBRIDGE AVE | BRONX, NY 10467
ZOMBIES—flesh-eating undead, slow-moving and lacking full consciousness but unstoppable in their apocalyptic shuffle towards human destruction—have captivated the pop culture imagination for decades. Whether with recent blockbuster films like 28 Years Later (2025), long-standing multimedia franchises like The Walking Dead, popular children’s shows like The Last Kids on Earth (2019–) and Disney’s Zombies (2018–), or annual zombie crawls, zombies are as relevant today as ever. Yet fans may not realize that the zombie in its pop-culture form—distinct from the zombie of Haitian folklore—stems from a Cuban-American from The Bronx, George A. Romero, creator of the Night of the Living Dead franchise.
Through rare personal and behind-the-scenes photographs, yearbooks, comic books, movie posters, props and other memorabilia, scripts and production materials, and interactive multimedia displays, George A. Romero: Stay Scared!™, opening at The Bronx County Historical Society’s Museum of Bronx History on Halloween night (2025), sheds light on Romero’s early life in The Bronx and pays homage to his trailblazing career with installations at the Museum of Bronx History, Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, and Bronx Music Hall.
The Museum of Bronx History installation situates Romero in Parkchester of the 1940s and 1950s while highlighting his development as a filmmaker in New York and Pittsburgh, leading to the production and release of Night of the Living Dead (1968), one of the most successful independent films of all time and the origin of the modern zombie flick.
Edgar Allan Poe Cottage features Romero’s best-known horror works, like the Night of the Living Dead franchise and Creepshow (1982), while emphasizing lesser-known aspects of his expansive artistic vision, such as innovative interpretations of pieces by Poe and other literary greats and his wide-ranging interests beyond horror.
The Bronx Music Hall (BMH) installation offers a glimpse of the creative ways in which Romero approached sound effects and scores for his films. BMH also serves at the host for the exhibit’s movie screenings and panel discussions. Public facing programming at BMH includes a special screening George A. Romero’s seminal classic film, ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ on November 1st, with musical accompaniment by Bronx musical legend Bobby Sanabria and his Project X band. Download Flier. This will be preceded by the chilling but friendly STAY SCARED!™ Halloween Costume Contest.
George A. Romero: Stay Scared!™ is curated by Dr. Steven Payne, director of The Bronx County Historical Society, and Edwin Pagán, founder-in-chief of Latin Horror, with additional support by Bronx Music Heritage Center, George A. Romero Foundation, Image Ten Inc., University of Pittsburgh Archives and Special Collections–Horror Studies Collection, Bronx Halloween Parade, M75ER Illustration, and BronxDNA. Norwood Community Library, who will also be present at the opening, distributing free books to the community.
This exhibit, its opening, and associated programs are made possible by New York City Councilmembers Eric Dinowitz and Oswald Feliz and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Throughout the course of the exhibit, which will run through June 2026, various programs, including film screenings of Romero’s pivotal work, will be offered. Check the exhibit website at stayscaredexhibit.com for the full and up-to-date listing of associated programs.
Quotes
“The story of George A. Romero is really a Bronx story. George became interested in filmmaking at an early age growing up in Parkchester, and he started pursuing that interest purely out of love for the medium. This passion took him eventually to Pittsburgh, to Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon), where he met a group of like-minded friends. Because George did not have access to the Hollywood crowd, he had to find his own way.
After a few failed starts, which are always necessary for achieving great things, Romero was able to create Night of the Living Dead with a shoestring budget and outside of the established circles of feature filmmaking, using all local talent from the Pittsburgh area. The film remains one of the most important and influential horror movies of all time, and Romero stuck by his principles with his many other projects as well, almost all of which were independently produced and financed. As a half-Lithuanian, half-Cuban kid from a working-class neighborhood in The Bronx, George was handed few favors in his early life. But he forged his own path and serves as an inspiration today for those of us, the vast majority, who burn with creativity and passion but are similarly excluded from the inner circles of wealth, power, and influence.” — Dr. Steven Payne
“To many George A. Romero is the undisputed ‘Father of the Zombies,’ but to me as a lifelong horror fan and filmmaker working in genre production, he was also a tangible inspiration with whom I could easily identify. I was too young to see his seminal and ground-breaking “Night of the Living Dead” in theaters when it originally premiered. But when I watched “Dawn of the Dead” in 1978 at a local Bronx drive-in, I could not get enough of his “walking dead” stories. His subsequent canon of work mirrored the zeitgeist of times when the films were made, also making Romero a documentarian who embedded his narrative feature work with historical context.
The George A. Romero: Stay Scared! exhibit is a fitting tribute to a son of The Bronx, who through his creation of the brain-eating Zombies, has kept the world in terror for over five decades, with no end in sight. The showcase, which runs across three grand Bronx venues, is not only an homage to a great Bronxite, but also serves to demystify Romero’s well-earned mythical status and reveal his humanity as a young man, an adult with a singular vision, and his path to becoming a film and creative auteur who created a genre love around the world. Our next goal is getting George A. Romero inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame. — Edwin Pagán
“The team at the GARF are honored that George Romero’s legacy is being honoured in this way.
Thank you Latin Horror and the Bronx County Historical Society!”
— Suz Romero
Vetted Publicity Stills
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Exhibit Branding Collateral
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EXHIBIT INFORMATION
Title: George A. Romero: Stay Scared!™
Notice: The name/phrase “STAY Scared!”—and the visual signature of the phrase in George A. Romero’s penmanship—are registered trademarks (™) of the George A. Romero Foundation, and cannot be utilized without the expressed prior consent of the caretakers of his estate.
On Display at Three Locations:
Museum of Bronx History
3266 Bainbridge Avenue, The Bronx, NY 10467
Edgar Allan Poe Cottage
2640 Grand Concourse, The Bronx, NY 10458
Bronx Music Hall
438 E 163rd St, Bronx, NY 10451
Opening:
Friday, October 31, 2025, 6–8pm. On display through June 26, 2026.
Museum of Bronx History, 3266 Bainbridge Avenue, The Bronx, NY 10467
Curators: Dr. Steven Payne, Edwin Pagán
Regular Hours:
Museum of Bronx History Saturdays, 10:00am–4:00pm Sundays, 1:00–5:00pm
And by appointment throughout the week: education@bronxhistoricalsociety.org
Edgar Allan Poe Cottage Saturdays, 10:00am–4:00pm Sundays, 1:00–5:00pm
And by appointment throughout the week: education@bronxhistoricalsociety.org
Bronx Music Hall
During events: https://bronxmusichall.org / 917-557-2354
For more information, visit our website at stayScared!exhibit.com or follow us on Instagram @bronxhistorian / @latinhorror
CONTACTS:
DR. STEVEN PAYNE, Director, Bronx County Historical Society: spayne@bronxhistoricalsociety.org
EDWIN PAGÁN, Founder-In-Chief, LATIN HORROR: pagan@latinhorror.com
— Additional Information About George A. Romero —
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.
