When Romero and Russo decided that they would make a horror story, they knew it needed monsters and they had to decide which monster would be the best fit. From a practical sense, zombies felt like something they could achieve with their meager budget and experience. Zombies are the monsters most like us. They used to be common, everyday people, leading normal lives before they met their untimely demise. They weren’t wealthy, ancient vampires who lived in European castles or the mummies of Egyptian royalty. They were the working class stiffs who lived in the suburbs in a small house with 2.5 kids, a dog, and a picket fence. Before they died, they had gone to work every weekday and stopped at the bar for a cold Iron City Beer afterwards.
In 1967 Romero and his Latent Image compatriots joined forces with other independent production facilities in Pittsburgh to form Image Ten, which included John Russo, Russ and Gary Streiner, Marilyn Eastman, Karl Hardman, and Richard and Rudy Ricci among others. Each member made an initial investment of $600 to get the movie started.
These fledgling production workers were all thriving on opportunities thanks to the city’s initiatives for growth and new business opportunities. Through industry targeting, the political and civic leaders of Pittsburgh were making a concerted effort to put policies and incentives in place to help the city work to survive the impact of the failing steel industry. As the city struggled to reinvent itself, entrepreneurs were building their own futures. Through their existing knowledge, equipment, and client base, this new limited partnership that would work on weekends to make their monster movie hoping Yinzers would take the film in at local theaters and drive-ins.
Between in the 1930s and the 1980s, drive-in theaters created a new marketplace for fledgling filmmakers like Romero and the Image Ten team. They were local, small businesses that always needed material to help fill their lots. Relying on the assumed clientele of teenagers, monster movies were a safe bet. With drive-ins like the Starlight Theater in Butler, PA (formerly known as the Pioneer and in operation since 1958), the nearby suburbs offered an affordable night of entertainment for anyone in the Pittsburgh area with a car. An independent film could potentially shop a movie to a drive-in on their own even if they couldn’t find wider distribution.
