The Rocky Statue Is Not Art, Yet It Became a Landmark Philadelphia Can't Tear Down
A bronze statue made for a movie was rejected by the art commission, moved to a sports arena, and left to sit in a warehouse — and what saved it in the end was not artistic merit but the fact that Philadelphians claimed it. A statue's status is always granted by its audience, not by the experts.
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Bronze instead of foam decided its fate
In Rocky III there's a scene: a fictional mayor stands on the museum steps and dedicates a statue to Philadelphia. The production could have had the art department make a prop out of painted plastic and foam and toss it in a dumpster after filming. Stallone didn't do that — he paid $53,000 to have the artist A. Thomas Schaumburg cast the statue in bronze. Laura Holzman says that choice was crucial: it wasn't made of a material you throw away after shooting, it was made of an art material. Stallone went to high school in Philadelphia, called Rocky a ‘euphemism’ for the city, and then offered to donate the 1,800-pound statue to Philadelphia to stand permanently at the top of the steps. Precisely because it was bronze and not foam, the fifty-year fight that followed became possible.
— Justin CramanThe root of the opposition was Philadelphia's wish to be Athens
The museum leadership opposed it most fiercely, and their reasons were far bigger than aesthetics. Philadelphia's glory days had long faded by the early 20th century, and by the 1976 Bicentennial it was the city that could never shake its bad luck: crumbling infrastructure, corrupt local politics. In the 1980s the arts world wanted to remake Philadelphia as a cultural metropolis and restore the title a famous architect had given it — ‘the Athens of the Western world.’ They had bet heavily on the city's most important museum, and they didn't think a nine-foot-tall, sharply defined six-pack of a boxer could help Philadelphia get there. Art commission chairman F. Eugene Dixon Jr. wrote to a colleague that the statue standing temporarily on the steps was fine, but putting it permanently in the courtyard — ‘I hope you're joking.’ In the winter of 1980 the commission voted 6 to 2 against permanent placement, and the remaining two votes were to ban it from the steps outright.
— Mark BowdenThousands of signatures are no match for eight people with votes
It was a grassroots campaign that brought the statue back to Philadelphia from Los Angeles. Local truck driver Art Gorman was one of its biggest champions — Mark Bowden describes him as a straight-talking Philly guy from a blue-collar neighborhood, thinking: who are these self-appointed connoisseurs to tell us what we can see on the steps of the art museum? At the end of 1980 he drafted a petition, all in capital letters, knocked on doors for thousands of signatures, and drew a pile of media coverage. The show says it plainly: the story got told as blue-collar Philadelphia versus elite high-culture Philadelphia, a ‘slobs versus snobs’ narrative. But the petition couldn't change the commission's basic position — the snobs were still the ones voting.
The prop crew bolted the statue into the ground with steel bars
Rocky III opened in May 1982, and the art commission only allowed the statue back on the steps for the premiere; once it was over, it had to go. But the production company simply left it there, the city wouldn't pay to move it, and it was up to the museum to deal with it. Months later the movers finally came and found an obstacle: the statue was bolted to the sidewalk with steel bars driven several feet into the ground — ‘as if the filmmakers intended it to stay there forever.’ In the end the statue was pried loose and hauled five miles away to the Spectrum arena in South Philadelphia, where it stood with other athletes' statues. Most people thought the fight was over, but Stallone spent the next twenty-five years repeatedly asking for it to be moved back to the museum, and every time he got the same answer: no.
One phone call did more than twenty years of aesthetic debate
In 2006 things moved: the mayor was pushing a batch of public-space renovation projects, Stallone was about to release his first Rocky film in 16 years, and the statue was sitting in a warehouse because the city was building a new sports complex. Stallone's friend Jimmy Binns — who had appeared in the sequels and had real clout in Philadelphia — called the mayor and asked if he'd help get the statue back to the museum. Binns recounted the conversation: he asked the mayor, do those museum trustees invite you over for cocktails on Sundays? The mayor laughed and said no. Binns said, then screw them. The mayor said, all right, screw them. With the mayor behind it, even the Philadelphia Museum of Art started to give ground, and the compromise they worked out was: the statue returns to the museum permanently, but not at the top of the steps — a little off to the side at the bottom. The only remaining obstacle was the art commission, which held the final vote.
— Jimmy BinnsBy 2006 the debate was no longer about art
In May 2006 the commission announced it might move the statue, setting off a new round of public discussion. City official Harris Baum argued against it on local NPR's call-in show, on the grounds that the Parkway was to be developed into a cultural district like Paris's, ‘but that's not a work of art.’ The response he got was completely different from the 1980s: listeners didn't want to talk about art. Judy said the statue was an image of the blue-collar spirit; Jack, calling from Lansdale, said ideally he'd want it at the top of the steps, but a bunch of pretentious old guys in wigs would never let that happen, and he called Baum a snob and insulting to boot. Baum was fighting the battle of twenty years earlier. On September 6, 2006, the art commission voted 6 to 2 in favor, and the minutes read: the majority believed the statue's iconic symbolic meaning had earned it a place in the city's identity. Less than a week later the statue was unveiled, fitted with nighttime lighting, and raised onto a brand-new granite pedestal.
— Paul FarberThe real champion's steps are called the Rocky steps
The 2015 Charleston church shooting (nine dead) set off a national reckoning with racist symbols, and the wind reached Philadelphia: the Columbus statue and the statue of former mayor Frank Rizzo — known for violent policing and racist demagoguery — became targets. When Monument Lab asked Philadelphians what kind of monuments they wanted to build, some began questioning whether Rocky was appropriate: Philadelphia has a real boxing history, and those boxers were mostly Black, including heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, who beat Muhammad Ali in a fight watched by more than 300 million people. The show points out that the two most famous things in the first Rocky training montage — running up the museum steps and punching raw meat — actually came from Frazier's real training routine. Frazier got a statue in 2015, but many Philadelphians feel the twelve-foot bronze is nowhere near worthy of a real champion: ‘His image isn't on the tour buses, and the steps he ran up are called the Rocky steps.’
— Paul FarberIn the reckoning over monuments, Rocky became the city's emotional container
After George Floyd was killed in 2020, Philadelphia's largest Black Lives Matter demonstrations set out from the art museum steps every day, with thousands of protesters gathering right beside the Rocky statue. By then it was already a monument, and by rights it should have faced the same scrutiny — a statue put up for a fictional white movie character, taking the place of a real Black champion; its days should have been numbered. But no one tore it down; instead they folded it in: someone hung a sign on it reading ‘no justice, no peace,’ early in the pandemic it got a face mask, later a Ukrainian flag, and when the Eagles' Brandon Graham retired, his cleats were hung on it. Paul Farber saw the most contradictory scene: a Black family posing for a photo all raising Black Power fists, and three or four people later, a group of white men in their early twenties raising white power gestures — the two things happening almost simultaneously without conflict.
— Paul FarberIn their own words · checked verbatim
If, however, this statue is to be placed somewhere in the courtyard on a permanent basis, I hope you are jesting.
Mark Bowden7:21
Yeah, okay. I will say on aesthetic terms, the Rocky statue doesn't quite do it for me. He's kind of awkward looking.
Laura Holzman9:23
It seems like the story gets told in a way that pits blue-collar Philadelphia against elitist high culture Philadelphia. This narrative of, you know, slobs versus snobs. Still, it was the snobs who got to vote on the matter, and the petition didn't change their basic stance.
do those people invite you over to their house on Sunday afternoon for cocktails? And he laughed and he said, no. And I said, well, f*** them. And he said, OK, f*** them.
Jimmy Binns15:35
I just wanted to say, ideally, I'd like to see it at the top of the steps. But a bunch of pompous powdered wigs aren't going to let that happen.
Jack18:44
Most members felt that the statue's iconic symbolism has won it a place in the city's identity.
So there's a black family. And as they're posing for a photo, everyone holds up the black power fist of solidarity. And three or four people later, there's like a group of white guys. I think they were in their early 20s. Hold up a white power sign.
Paul Farber28:21
Monuments are not conclusions. They're not periods at the end of a sentence. Nothing is forever. No monument is permanent.
Figures
| Height of the Rocky statue | 8.5 feet, with a 1.5-foot pedestal | 2:07 |
| Annual visitors to the Rocky statue | About 4 million, comparable to the Statue of Liberty | 2:07 |
| What Stallone paid sculptor A. Thomas Schaumburg | $53,000 | 4:09 |
| Weight of the Rocky statue | 1,800 pounds | 4:09 |
| 1980 art commission vote on permanent placement | 6 to 2 against | 10:25 |
| Distance the statue was moved from the museum | 5 miles, to the Spectrum arena in South Philadelphia | 13:34 |
| September 6, 2006 art commission vote | 6 to 2 in favor | 19:46 |
| Viewers of the fight where Joe Frazier beat Muhammad Ali | More than 300 million | 25:07 |
| Joe Frazier statue | Unveiled in 2015, 12 feet tall | 26:14 |
| Death toll in the 2015 Charleston church shooting | 9 | 24:03 |
Glossary
- deliberate monument
- Art historian Alois Riegl's term: a sculpture explicitly built to commemorate a specific person or event, such as an equestrian statue of a general.
- unintentional monument
- An object not made to commemorate anything but that becomes important because viewers assign meaning to it, such as an ordinary house that later becomes a landmark.
- Monument Lab
- A nonprofit that researches and evaluates monuments around the country; Paul Farber is its director.
- slobs versus snobs
- The framework the show uses to sum up the dispute: the blue-collar masses against elite taste gatekeepers.
How to listen
Listeners interested in public art, city politics and monument controversies; especially useful for people working on urban renewal, public space or cultural projects.
The roughly 1-minute credits and contact info at the end can be skipped.