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Monroeville Mall

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Filed Under:	Conventions/Festivals/Events > Horror Conventions Conventions/Festivals/Events > Zombie Walks Literary Sites Movie Locations Movie Locations > Romero's Zombie Films Retail
Added By:	Tom G
Added On:	April 25, 2007 - 10:41 PM UTC
Last Modified:	July 27, 2009 - 02:05 AM UTC
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Address

Monroeville Mall, Municipality of Monroeville, PA 15146, USA (Monroeville, Pennsylvania)

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Dawn of the Dead [Blu-ray DVD]

Check out the classic 1978 George A. Romero film, Dawn of the Dead in all its high-definition glory with this DVD release in Blu-Ray format. This version consists of the 127-minute U.S. theatrical cut.

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Monroeville Mall
The Monroeville Mall is an indoor shopping center that operates in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania suburb of Monroeville. The mall, which has operated since the late 1960s, has been used in the production of multiple films, beginning with the 1978 horror classic Dawn of the Dead. The mall was also used as a setting in the horror novel Christine by author Stephen King.

Early History of the Mall
The Monroeville Mall opened for business on May 13, 1969. The mall, which originally contained 125 stores and an ice-skating rink, was developed and promoted by Don Mark Realty Co. (later changed to Oxford Development Company). The land upon which the mall was built had formerly been a coal mine known as Harper's Mine. The new mall drew attention with its 16,575 square foot ice rink (known as the Monroeville Ice Palace), decorative water fountains, and a musical clock. The clock, which cost $125,000, was designed with mechanical puppets designed to represent the various ethnic groups in the region. Every hour, one of the clock's compartments would open to reveal puppets in a scene based on various countries including Africa, Yugoslavia and Germany; the clock would then play a bit of music from that country. At two points during the course of the day, all twelve of the clock's compartments would open to display all of the puppets at the same time.

The mall was a great success and had a large financial impact on the surrounding area. A few years after it began operation, an employee of Don Mark Realty Co. led a director-friend on a private guided tour of the successful shopping center. This fateful event would lead to the Monroeville Mall being forever connected with the horror genre.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)
In 1974, director George A. Romero was given a guided tour of the Monroeville Mall, including the service areas that are off-limits to the general public. The personal tour was the result of Romero's friendship with Mark Mason, an employee of Don Mark Realty Co. at that time. During this visit, Romero was struck with inspiration for a sequel to his classic horror film Night of the Living Dead (1968). The 1968 film had quickly developed a cult following and started the horror sub-genre of flesh-eating zombie tales. George Romero began working on a script for the Night of the Living Dead sequel shortly after his tour of the Monroeville Mall. The sequel script, set shortly after the events of the original film, had a small group of human survivors finding a shopping mall and using it as a place of refuge and a source of supplies.

George Romero was able to cut a deal allowing his sequel, titled Dawn of the Dead, to be filmed at the mall that had originally inspired the script. On November 13, 1977, filming began at Monroeville Mall. The crew had to wait for the mall to close for business before they could start shooting. The production held a nightly graveyard shift throughout all filming at the mall. All daylight scenes featuring the mall were shot shortly after sunrise, prior to the mall opening for business. The production temporarily shut down production for the month of December due to the prominent Christmas displays that altered the appearance of the mall interior. Following the holidays, production resumed and eventually wrapped in February of 1978.

Upon release, the movie became another instant classic. The film gained Romero new fans with its gory makeup FX and satire of America's consumer culture. The movie's gory FX also helped makeup artist Tom Savini become a recognizable name among horror fans. Savini's appearance as the minor but memorable character of Blade made him a recognizable face to the fans as well. The mall itself gained a legion of fans - fans who continue to visit it decades later in order to wander and shop in the same place that characters Peter, Fran, Flyboy and Roger once fought to claim from and then protect against the fictional legions of shambling ghouls.

Dawn of the Dead made use of very recognizable features of the mall at the time, including the skating rink, fountains and the clock. Various stores were used throughout the shoot, including the J.C. Penney store, which was also used for interior shots and figures very heavily into the strategy the film's protagonists use while gathering supplies and fending off zombies. J.C. Penney's interior also is shown during the looting scenes near the end of the film. One of the mall's escalators was used for an amusing and memorable moment in the film during which confused zombies take an unintentional ride. The climatic action near the end of Dawn of the Dead also made use of Monroeville Mall's two-story layout, with characters falling and firing weapons from the second floor onto the first.

Some scenes portrayed within the mall in the movie were not actually shot there. The gun store shown in the film was actually at an entirely different location. The elevator's interior scenes and scenes inside the main characters' secret hideout above the mall were actually shot in the office building where George Romero's production company was based out of at the time (see Former Latent Image Office).

The mall has been heavily remodeled in the decades since the movie was shot there. Many stores have come and gone during that time. The ice skating rink was demolished and remade into a food court in 1984. The elaborate clock and a water fountain were removed the same year.

There are aspects of the mall that are still identifiable from the movie though. The boiler room area (off limits to the general public) still looks the same as does the parking lot. The hallway in which the hidden door to the protagonists' hideout stood is still somewhat recognizable. The J.C. Penney store remains identifiable from its use in the zombie film. The elevator (only the exterior was used), escalator and interior entrance have not been changed. There is also one original water fountain remaining. For the most up-to-date information on which stores shown in the movie still remain open visit Mall of the Dead.net (See Related Sites below).

In the early 1980s, one of George A. Romero's friends would go on to use Monroeville and the Monroeville Mall as part of the setting for a horror tale of his own.

Stephen King's Christine
Stephen King's supernatural horror novel Christine (published April 29, 1983) is set in the fictional Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania suburb of Libertyville. In the novel, the fictional suburb borders on the actual suburb of Monroeville. The Monroeville Mall is mentioned in the novel in several places. The events of the novel take place from late summer of 1978 through spring of 1979; which would mean that the characters in the novel visit the mall roughly one year after the real-life film production of Dawn of the Dead (1978). The novel is dedicated to George Romero, his wife Christine and the city of Pittsburgh itself.

King's novel tells the tale of an outcast teenager, Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham, and his eventual possession after purchasing an apparently demonic '58 Plymouth Fury from an evil old man named Roland LeBay. The car slowly takes over the boy's life and destroys his relationships with friends and family even as it takes the lives of his enemies. The book is largely related from the point of view of his childhood friend Dennis.

Early in the novel, the character of Dennis Guilder observes that there are no stars in the sky for anyone to wish upon, partly due to the parking lot lamps of the Monroeville Mall lighting up the night sky. Much later, the characters of Arnie Cunningham and Leigh Cabot have what ends up being their final date, which includes Christmas shopping at the Monroeville Mall. The ill-fated couple visit the mall the mall roughly two weeks prior to Christmas itself and observe that the shoppers are still in good spirits and haven't yet fallen to frantic last-minute shopping. Arnie shops at the B. Dalton bookstore (no longer in the actual mall) for a book on toy-making to give to Dennis Guilder's father. Arnie and Leigh stand in one of the mall's stairwell's gazing out at the snowy weather through the large windows and share a kiss. Following their shopping at the bookstore, they spend some time watching skaters in the ice skating rink that used to be in the mall at that point in time. It is the last sweet moment for the two. On the drive back home afterward, Leigh nearly dies when Christine causes her to choke on a bite of hamburger. Leigh's near death experience causes Leigh to demand that Arnie choose between her or his evil car. Arnie chooses his car and the two young lovers part ways.

At one point, Arnie wakes from a period of rage/possession to find himself sitting inside Christine on an access road in the mall's parking lot. Dennis Guilder also imagines his mother getting attacked by Christine in the parking lot of the mall closer to the end of the book. The last time the mall is mentioned in the novel is near the novel's climax, when Dennis borrows the keys to Will Darnell's garage from Jimmy Sykes. Dennis observes that there is a rubber fried egg attached to the keychain that likely was purchased at a joke shop at the Monroeville Mall. The keys allow Dennis and Leigh to access Darnell's garage for their final confrontation with Christine and the ghost of Roland LeBay. Parting with the keys is nearly a tearful experience for Sykes, who tells Dennis that the keychain is the last thing he has left to remember the late Will Darnell by.

Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead
Joe Hill, author and son of Stephen King, wrote a short story titled Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead that is set at Monroeville Mall. The story takes place during the filming of Dawn of the Dead in 1977. The protagonist is a struggling actor/comedian named Bobby Conroy who is working as a zombie extra on the set of George Romero's film. While waiting with other extras after having their makeup applied, Bobby stumbles upon his long lost high school sweetheart, Harriet, who is also playing a zombie in the film. He soon discovers that she has married someone else during his time away from Pittsburgh. Bobby also meets a six-year-old zombie extra who turns out to be Harriet's son. The boy shares Bobby's first name, and is missing a few fingers due to an unlikely accident that happened while he was being watched by his father.

The odd romantic tale about old lovers reconnecting has George Romero and Tom Savini appearing as minor characters all throughout. The descriptions of Savini and Romero feel as if they are written by an author personally familiar with the two, which is not really surprising considering that the author worked with both men as a child actor in the horror anthology film, Creepshow (1982), and that they are friends with his father. Ultimately, the short story uses Romero's filmmaking and the zombies to symbolize second chances in life. The story appears in the 2007 reprint of Hill's short story collection titled 20th Century Ghosts which was originally published in October of 2005 without that story included.

Horror Conventions and Festivals
Monroeville Mall has allowed itself to be used for guided tours during horror conventions held in Pittsburgh in the past. The Zombie Jamboree was held at the convention center attached to the mall the weekend of August 27-19, 1993. The event celebrated the 25th anniversary of Night of the Living Dead (1968). The event featured a reunion of many of the original film's cast and crew as well as some folks associated with Dawn of the Dead (1978). Tom Savini conducted the first guided guided fan tour of the mall during that convention. Parts of the 1993 convention were recorded and are available on DVD as Zombie Jamboree: 25th Anniversary Convention for "Night of the Living Dead" (see Available from Amazon.com below).

While the 2003 Pittsburgh Comicon (held April 25-27 of that year) was not held at the mall itself, the convention also staged a guided tour of the Monroeville Mall. The convention had two tour groups running simultaneously; led by actors Ken Foree and David Emge (with further assistance from other cast and crew from Dawn of the Dead and other Romero films). It was during this tour that fan Nicolas Garreau shot part of what became his documentary Fan of the Dead. The documentary takes viewers on a tour of various locations associated with Romero's zombie films, including the nearby airport also used in Dawn of the Dead (1978) (see Pittsburgh Monroeville Airport), the mine used in Day of the Dead (1985) (see Wampum Mine) and the cemetery used in Night of the Living Dead (1968) (see Evans City Cemetery, Evans City, PA).

In 2007, the Zombie Fest convention was allowed to hold a zombie walk inside the mall. Participants dressed as zombies and shambled down the hallways and rode the escalator zombie-style (backwards). After the success of that event, Zombie Fest 2008 (held the weekend of October 25-26, 2008) took place entirely within the mall itself. Due to the event being held inside the mall instead of a hotel or convention center, there was no charge to attend Zombie Fest that year. The weekend-long event featured celebrity guests, vendors, and had makeup demonstrations, film showings, Q&A sessions and panels, a Jello-Brain eating contest and "Zombieoke" as well as a zombie walk on World Zombie Day. World Zombie Day is an annual event for zombie walk enthusiasts to hold food drives to provide supplies for food banks local to their particular event; to this end, the Zombie Fest event collected 2,252 pounds of canned food for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

On June 21, 2008, the Alamo Drafthouse Traveling Roadshow held a special showing of Dawn of the Dead (1978) inside the Monroeville Mall as part of the 2008 Horrorhound Weekend convention being held nearby. The movie was projected onto a 50-foot movie screen on the spot where the mall's clock tower once stood. Cast and crew from the movie were present for the screening. The event was used as a fund-raiser for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Monroeville Mall in Other Media
Besides Dawn of the Dead (1978) and the novel Christine, Monroeville Mall has made other appearances in both film and literature.

The mall is mentioned briefly in the novel Bitter Waters by Wen Spencer. Early in the science fiction novel it is mentioned that child character once disappeared at the mall, only to be discovered later in the "mock-up of Santa's workshop."

The Monroeville Ice Palace had one last film appearance in the 1983 film Flashdance, a year prior to its demolition to make way for the current food court. The Kevin Smith comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) is set in Monroeville and was filmed on location, including scenes filmed at the Monroeville Mall. The character of Miri Linky works at the mall in the film. The movie also features a hockey team called the Monroeville Zombies and a cameo by Tom Savini. A sign for the mall can also be spotted in the background during the 2009 comedy film Adventureland.

The song Early Sunsets Over Monroeville by the band My Chemical Romance was inspired by Dawn of the Dead (1978). The following lyrics in particular evoke the image of the Monroeville Mall as it appeared in the movie.

"Up and down escalators, pennies and colder fountains
Elevators and half price sales, trapped in by all these mountains
Running away and hiding with you
I never thought they'd get me here
Not knowing you'd change from just one bite
I fought them all off just to hold you close and tight"

The mall and its appearance in the film has also inspired a long list of boardgames and computer games starting with SPI's (Simulations Publications Inc) boardgame Dawn of the Dead (released the same year as the original film) and leading to the 2006 video game Dead Rising from Capcom. None of the games appear to have used the layout of the actual mall, though the online Multi-player game Urban Dead does have a playing area called Monroeville which has a Monroeville Mall.

Monroeville Zombies
The fans' interest in the mall has finally led one of the stores to cater to their interests. On October 25, 2008 (the first day of Zombiefest 2008), the Monroeville Mall store, Toy Galaxy, opened up an on-going zombie attraction called Monroeville Zombies. Since that time, Toy Galaxy has changed its name to Time and Space Toys and has moved to a new location within the mall. As of this writing, the Monroeville Zombies attraction has yet to be reopened at the new location, although once it returns, it will reportedly offer zombie memorabilia, collectibles, museum exhibits, a zombie motion ride, and various special events. Monroeville Zombies will also offer guided tours of movie locations throughout the mall.

Visiting the Monroeville Mall
The mall is generally open seven days a week. Check their Web site for hours of operation (see Related Sites below). While the mall changed ownership in 2004, and it continues to change as all malls do in order to maintain shopping traffic, there remain a number of spots in the mall that will be recognizable to fans. Maybe events such as Zombiefest and the presence of the Monroeville Zombies venue in the mall will encourage the mall management to preserve the remaining items in the shopping center that are still recognizable from George Romero's classic zombie film. Perhaps if fans make a point of being identifiable by wearing zombie T-shirts while shopping at the mall, the management will further embrace the mall's legacy and certain aspects of the location will remain identifiable for another decade or more.

While it may be tempting to sneak into the areas used in the film that are off-limit to the general public, it is recommended that any visitors only access areas such as the boiler room in the form of the guided tours. It is also advisable that in the unlikely event of an actual assault by the living dead while you are inside the mall, that you seek safety and not take the time to check your blood pressure, especially if you are wearing a sombrero.

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O.T.I.S.(Odd Things I've Seen): Monroeville Mall - From: O.T.I.S. (03/15/09, 09:12 PM UTC)
Article excerpt from O.T.I.S. (Odd Things I've Seen): "I had three goals for this excursion to the mundanely named Monroeville. The first was just...More
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Related Sites

Mall of the Dead.net
An entire Internet site dedicated to Monroeville Mall and it's use in Dawn of the Dead (1978).

Dead Ohio: Monroeville Mall
An on-line photo tour of Monroeville Mall at DeadOhio.com

Monroeville Mall
Official Web site for the mall featured in George Romero's film Dawn of the Dead.

Wikipedia: Monroeville Mall
Wikipedia article for Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania.

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