Fans, friends and former colleagues will honor George A. Romero at the Evans City Cemetery chapel Sunday morning. There will be loving stories about the late director and some, no doubt, will come cleverly dressed for the occasion.
There will be blood, fake blood.
“We are calling it a tribute, not a memorial service,” said producer Gary Streiner, who is coordinating the 10 a.m. event in this tiny Butler County borough. “It won’t be anything morose. It’s a shame George couldn’t be here because he would have loved it. I’m sure he’ll be watching from somewhere.”
“More a collection of good laughs than anything,” said his brother Russ Streiner, another longtime Romero associate. A producer, he also appeared on screen near the chapel in the film’s opening minutes to playfully announce “They’re coming to get you, Barbara…”
Mr. Romero, 77, died July 16 in Toronto. Few who attended the Steeltown Entertainment Project event to honor him last April realized he had lung cancer. Mr. Romero came to Pittsburgh to study at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1950s, and made it his home for decades.
After his death, a public viewing in Canada was accompanied by a small, private affair. The Streiner brothers — deeply involved with Mr. Romero’s Image Ten Pittsburgh-based productions of horror classics such as “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead” and “Creepshow” — attended the private viewing.
“It was one of the most uplifting services I’ve been to, so much positive energy,” said Gary Streiner, who said he hopes Sunday’s event matches the tone.
Celebrating Mr. Romero’s life during the three-day “Living Dead” weekend made sense. The annual festival begins Friday and includes zombie-themed events such as decorating “Ghouls for the Pool” scarecrows to raise money to fix the EDCO Park swimming pool, tours of sites used in Mr. Romero’s movies, visits to the Night of the Living Dead museum and, on Sunday at 1:30, a “Pet Walk of the Living Dead” afternoon of dogs and cats in costume for prizes, vendors, and food trucks. “Pet Walk” proceeds benefit the Humane Society of Butler County.
A full schedule can be found at LivingDeadWeekend.com.
Kevin Kriess is director of the museum. He said it was particularly poignant that the tribute would be held in a chapel that was originally scheduled for demolition, but saved by the love of fans. “Where else do you have a memorial, but in a chapel?”
Gary Streiner added that the cemetery board has been cooperative as well, given the possibility of hundreds of people attending this latest of public events.
[The fans] have always been so polite,” Mr. Streiner said.
Closer to Pittsburgh, the Manor Theatre in Squirrel Hill will devote two screens to the newly restored 4k digital version of “Night of the Living Dead,” the George Romero film that begat such zombie mayhem. There are showings scheduled for 10:45 and 11:45 Friday and Saturday nights, with the Streiners, John A. Russo, Richard Ricci and Mr. Romero’s wife, Suzanne Desrochers Romero on hand.
In 2014, when a crowdfunding event raised $46,000 to restore the chapel, Mr. Romero was on hand to cut the ribbon.
“That was a wonderful, wonderful morning, and George just thought it was only fitting he come down and thank the fans for that,” Gary Streiner said.
That day, he added, they planned to read aloud a list of those who had departed the “Living Dead” family in the past year. “George said ‘Let me read the list.’ He just wanted to give his thanks, not just to the people who had raised money [for the chapel], but for everyone who helped along the way.”
Maria Sciullo: msciullo@post-gazette.com or @MariaSciulloPG.
First Published: October 18, 2017, 8:29 p.m.