Ida Tarbell Standard Oil: The Oil Region Daughter Who Took On Rockefeller
Ida Tarbell Standard Oil began in Titusville in 1872, with a tank builder’s daughter listening to her father. Here is what is documented, what she recalled, and where Pittsburgh refiners fit.
How Pittsburgh Made Night of the Living Dead: From Chilly Billy to Evans City
A Pittsburgh commercial shop, a late-night TV host and ten investors who, by the filmmakers’ account, put up about $600 each made Night of the Living Dead in 1968. Here is the documented story, from Evans City to the missing copyright notice.
Mothman and the Silver Bridge: What Is Known, What Is Legend, and the Pittsburgh Connection
The Silver Bridge collapse killed 46 people in 1967. Mothman reports from Point Pleasant came before it, and a book later tied them together. Here is what is documented, what is legend, and how Pittsburgh’s own eyebar bridges connect.
The Wichita Letter That Turned the Pittsburgh Courier Into a National Movement
A cafeteria worker in Wichita wrote a letter to the Pittsburgh Courier in 1942. The paper turned it into the Double V campaign, with pins, songs, FBI visits and a Justice Department threat.
Little Siberia: How the Firing of Aliquippa Steelworkers Led to a Supreme Court Ruling on the Wagner Act
Jones & Laughlin owned the houses, the police and the ballot box in Aliquippa. Ten fired steelworkers’ cases led the Supreme Court to uphold the Wagner Act in 1937. Here is the story.
Bigfoot in Western Pennsylvania: What Is Documented, What Is Legend, What Is Hoax
No Bigfoot has ever been proven, but Westmoreland and Fayette counties have a long paper trail of reports. Here is what is documented, what is legend, and what was faked.