Rocky Stories

Pulitzer Prize-winners Michael Vitez and Tom Gralish of the Philadelphia Inquirer spent a year visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art to capture the stories of 'Rocky runners', who come from all over the world to run up America's most famous steps -- just as Sylvester Stallone did in 'Rocky'. People make the pilgrimage to mark a new beginning, to seek inspiration, to celebrate an accomplishment, to find the perfect backdrop for romance, or simply because they love the movie. As one runner says, "It gives you the feeling that anything is possible". This book includes fifty-two profiles and one hundred photographs, together with a foreword by Sylvester Stallone, and interviews with Rocky's Academy Award-winning director John G Avildsen, composer Bill Conti, and cameraman Garrett Brown. In his foreword, Sylvester Stallone sums up his thoughts on the phenomenon: "You can't borrow Superman's cape. You can't use the Jedi laser sword. But the steps are there. The steps are accessible. And standing up there, you kind of have a piece of the Rocky pie.".