Industry was totally dead.
Mayor Rendell was wrestling with a $250 million deficit and the lowest bond rating of any big city.
But what really symbolized the decay and decline of the city was the filming here in 1995 of the dystopian film, Twelve Monkeys.
Director Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame) said, “We went to Philadelphia looking for rotting America. It turned out to be the perfect place. I loved the feeling of sadness and melancholy.”
Did the city film office think this statement was a compliment?
However, the city was so desperate it jumped at the “honor” of a Hollywood film being shot here.
Gilliam shot at several locations in the “rotting” old city, including City Hall. Unbelievably, the city allowed City Hall and the street outside to be transformed into a nightmare landscape of decay.
Phony vines were glued to the east side of City Hall to make it look abandoned and decaying. Trash was sprinkled on the street. Rusted hulks of burned-out cars were placed on the sidewalk and street.
Of course traffic was rerouted during filming. Anything that Hollywood wants, it gets in this city.
Other locales of decay and squalor included Eastern State Penitentiary, the deserted Met at Broad and Poplar and the High School for the Performing Arts.
Incidentally, the phony vines glued to City Hall left long-lasting marks.
Again-and-again the city has rolled-over, stopped traffic, eliminated parking – anything film-makers ask, they get.