The George A. Romero archival collection made its debut (or at least some of it did) at the Hillman Library last week during the “Living with the Dead” celebration.
The event on Oct. 23 attracted a large crowd of people who snacked on creepy pastries, got made up to look like zombies, heard staged readings from the director’s movies and checked out posters and memorabilia from Romero’s movies.
Scarehouse set up a fake headstone in front of a backdrop designed to look like a scene from “Night of the Living Dead” and selfies aplenty were taken.
The George Romero Foundation, headed by Romero’s widow Suzanne Desrocher-Romero, handed out its first Pioneer Award winner to “Chilly Billy” Cardille (1928-2016). His daughter Lori accepted in his honor.
Spotted at the event, along with Romero friends and people who had worked on his movies, were Greg Nicotero, who got his start as a makeup artist on “Day of the Dead” and now is an executive producer of AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” and Tom Savini, who had roles in Romero’s “Martin,” “Dawn of the Dead” and other films.
The collection was donated to the Pitt libraries in May by material donated by Desrocher-Romero, Romero’s daughter Tina Romero and business partner and friend Peter Grunwald
Ben Rubin, director of the library system’s new Horror Studies Collection, said it will probably take until next spring before the collection is available to researchers. He is working on inventorying the collection and putting it “into an intellectual arrangement that makes sense.”
— Susan Jones
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