Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1495092
The Gay Bar Diana Stoughton and her set decoration team were tenacious. Pittsburgh is not a city that has prop houses. For many things they were hunting for, they would say, 'Hey, I know a guy that lives in a little town that has a brother-in-law that might have that.' Diana called it following the breadcrumbs. For episode six, showrunner Will Graham wrote and directed an episode about the great dangers of being gay in America in the '40s. One of the set pieces of that episode was a secret gay bar that gets raided by police. This set was built in a sub- basement under the factory set, a dark, moody space with curved metal ceilings. The set needed a long bar for this, about twenty- four feet. Diana found some that were twelve feet, fourteen feet. They didn't work. Then she looked at a website of a dealer she knew who had old, quite gorgeous bars. Gorgeous to the tune of $50,000 and up. Clearly not happening. While she was talking to a local vendor, she mentioned this quest. He gave her the number of another dealer who said: "I know a guy who might have an old bar in his barn." Literally. The set decoration team drove out to central Ohio, and in the loft of a barn was a 24-foot art deco bar and back bar. As they moved the front bar, thousands of half-eaten nuts and acorns fell out. Generations of critters had been using this for storage. Of course, it was in need of some repair and a good polish. The back bar had glass tube light fixtures, backlit with neon. The neon had to be replaced, but the glass tubes were entirely intact. It was an amazing find. West Rockford The exteriors of West Rockford, the African American section of Rockford, were shot in Ambridge, PA, a small town outside of Pittsburgh. A lot of the work there was about erasing the present—a layer of A. ROCKFORD TOOL AND SCREW FACTORY FLOOR. RENDERING BY ALEKSANDRA LANDSBERG. B. THE SECRET GAY BAR. SET PHOTO BY ANNE MARIE FOX. C. GAY BAR. WALL MURAL AND LOBBY CARD BY ROGER JOHNSON. SET PHOTO. D. ROCKFORD TOOL AND SCREW FACTORY FLOOR. PRODUCTION STILL. E. WEST ROCKFORD STREET. PRODUCTION STILL. F. WEST ROCKFORD STREET. SET PHOTO. G. MAYBELLE BLAIR AND SHIRLEY BURKOVICH, PLAYERS IN THE ORIGNAL ALL-AMERICAN GIRLS LEAGUE, VISITING THE PEACHES' HOUSE SET. A B C