Why the Rocky Monument Packs a Punch in The Statue
Why do millions of people each year from around the world visit the Rocky Statue? What does a statue celebrating a fictional boxer tell us about how we memorialize some stories over others? Hosted by Monument Lab’s Paul Farber, The Statue is the story behind the statue for the greatest Phialdelphian who never lived.
Audio Storytelling / Field Recording / Sound Design & Mixing / Scoring / Script Consulting / Strategy / Documentary
Client
WHYY Studios
Distributor
NPR
Services
Overview
WHYY is the leading public media organization in the Philadelphia-region. And The Statue is the first effort from WHYY Studios, a new wing of the NPR-affiliate dedicated to high-quality longform podcast and video projects.
The newly-formed production team at WHYY Studios worked closely with Monument Lab founder and director Paul Farber on reporting and producing the story of the Rocky statue. But they needed some assistance when it came to sound designing, mixing, and generally creating the sound world of what would become The Statue. They tapped Rowhome for this role.
To make this story come to life, Rowhome’s team collected field recordings from around the city: at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on the platform of the Market Frankford Line, on 9th Street in the Italian Market, and elsewhere. And we brought on veteran producer and musician Jon Ehrens to tie together WHYY’s reporting with our recordings and musical scoring in the sound design and mix.
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The founders of Rowhome Productions, John Myers and Alex Lewis gathering field recordings. | Photo courtesy of Billy Penn
Rowhome made original field recordings at locations around Philadelphia including on the platform of the Broad Street Line, at the top of the Rocky Steps, and in the heart of the Italian Market. We incorporated original remixes of the Rocky theme song “Gonna Fly Now” by the composer JG and also music from Blue Dot Sessions into the score for the series.
The result is a gorgeous sounding six-episode series that will transport listeners to Philly, Hollywood, and beyond.
The Results
As of February 2022, the show has eclipsed 150,000 downloads.
Since 2006, the statue has been located at the bottom of the stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art | Photo by Teitur Hansen
“The Art Museum steps have been a place of vigil, uprising, labor strikes, celebrations — it's the ultimate people's pedestal. It's the place to see and be seen. Although there's meaningful art inside, it's the outside that has become really profound. The 'Rocky' statue and the 'Rocky' story are part of that, and when you look at the story, you understand what people bring there and what they take away."
— Paul Farber, Director and Co-founder, Monument Lab
