Philadelphia Rocky Audio Walking Tour (Self-Guided)

In March 1975 a struggling young actor named Sylvester Stallone watched a long-shot heavyweight last into the fifteenth round against Muhammad Ali, and something lit up. Within days he had a script about a nobody who gets one shot at the title. Today you're going to follow that nobody's training runs through Philadelphia, in the order the movies tell them: the Italian Market from the 1976 original, Old City and Center City from the 1979 sequel, then the long, straight Parkway to the most famous stone steps in America. And you're going to finish the way Rocky did. You'll run up all 72 of them to meet the bronze boxer who, after decades of arguments, finally stands at the top. This is an unofficial fan walk, not made with or endorsed by the filmmakers or the studio. It's one of our self-guided walking tours, about 5.8 kilometers, or 3.6 miles, from 9th Street and Washington Avenue in South Philly to the top of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps.

Before you set off

Allow about an hour and a half, with roughly 85 minutes of walking. The route is flat all the way until the very end, when you meet the steps, so save a little energy. Wear shoes you can run in, at least for the final minute. To reach the start, take the Broad Street Line to Ellsworth-Federal station and walk about 700 meters east to 9th Street. The Italian Market is a real working market, and its stalls and shops keep their own hours, so check before you go if you want to see it in full swing. Most of the route is open city streets with little shade, so carry water on a hot day. The museum steps are busy with people sitting, posing and filming, so when you do your run, keep an eye out and give them room. When you're done, buses run along the Parkway, or you can stroll back down it to City Hall and Suburban Station.

Italian Market, 9th & Washington

You're on 9th Street at Washington Avenue, at the south end of the Italian Market. Look north up the street: awnings over the sidewalks, stalls out front, shops behind them, and a long, straight run of pavement. Now picture it in early 1976, with a boxer jogging up the middle of it.

That's the training run from the first film. It was shot right here, on 9th Street between Washington and Ellsworth, and it was shot fast and cheap, partly guerrilla style, on a real street. Many of the brick buildings you'd see in that shot are gone now, but the street itself, the stalls and the bustle are the same idea.

The run was filmed with a brand-new piece of equipment. A Philadelphian named Garrett Brown had invented a camera rig that let an operator walk or run while the picture stayed smooth and steady. He called it the Steadicam. According to the company that makes it today, Brown filmed this run through South Philadelphia, part of it from a moving van, in what they describe as the first Steadicam shot from a moving vehicle. You'll sometimes hear that Rocky was the first film ever to use a Steadicam. It wasn't quite. It was one of the very first, in the same year as a couple of others.

And then there's the orange. As Rocky jogs past, a vendor tosses him a piece of fruit. The story goes that the vendor had no idea a movie was being made and just thought he was helping out some poor guy on a run. It has only ever been told as an anecdote, so enjoy it as one.

This market shows up again in the training runs of the sequel and in the later spin-off film, Creed. Now walk north up 9th Street, through the heart of the market, to the corner of Fitzwater Street. About six minutes.

Italian Market, 9th & Fitzwater

You're at 9th and Fitzwater, in the middle of the market. Take a look around at the shopfronts and stalls, and let's step back from the run for a minute to ask how this movie got made at all.

On the 24th of March, 1975, Muhammad Ali defended his title against Chuck Wepner. Wepner lasted into the fifteenth round. Stallone, a struggling actor, watched that fight, and it was the spark. He wrote a boxing script in about three and a half days. Was Wepner the model for Rocky? Stallone has at times said no, and the character echoes several real fighters, including Rocky Marciano and Philadelphia's own champion, Joe Frazier. Hold on to that last name. He's waiting for you at the end of the walk.

People wanted to buy the script. But Stallone had one condition, and he wouldn't move on it: he had to play the lead. The money stayed small. Filming began on the 9th of January, 1976, and the whole thing was shot in 28 days on a budget of about one million dollars.

It worked. Rocky was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won three: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Not bad for a movie made in under a month, partly on streets like this one.

Three years after the first film, Rocky ran again, and this time he had company. Keep walking north on 9th Street, past South Street, then bear east across Society Hill toward 6th and Walnut Streets. Independence Square is the green behind the brick hall. About fifteen minutes.

Independence Square

You're in Independence Square, the public park behind Independence Hall. Face the hall. You're looking at its back, the rear facade, across the lawns and paths.

Now jump to 1979 and the sequel, Rocky II. Rocky is training again, and the training run comes back, bigger. As he runs through the city, kids start following him, until there's a crowd of them. In the sequel's run, he comes through Independence Hall and out into this back courtyard with children streaming behind him. It's one of the happiest images in the series: the local hero, running out of the most famous building in the city, with half the neighborhood's kids trying to keep up.

Why does that crowd matter? In the first film Rocky runs alone. By the second, the city has adopted him. The movie is telling you that he isn't a nobody anymore. He's Philadelphia's.

The trouble is the route. If you tried to follow the sequel's run for real, you'd be in for a very long day. Hold on to that thought, because the next stop is where it falls apart. Make your way to the corner of 6th and Chestnut Streets, at the west end of the hall's front, then walk west along Chestnut to 11th Street. About nine minutes.