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Fayette Chamber honors Hollywood legend Edwin S. Porter

By Zach Petroff 3 min read
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As part of the county’s Hometown Legends initiative, Fayette Chamber of Commerce recognized Connellsville native and filmmaker Ediwn. S. Porter on Friday at the theatre named for him at the Connellsville Area Community Center.
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Officials unveil the ceremonial marker for Edwin S. Porter on Friday at the Edwin S. Porter Theatre in the Connellsville Area Community Center.
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Commissioner Scott Dunn checks out posters of movies created by Connellsville native Edwin S. Porter.
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Edwin S. Porter

Innovative filmmaker and Connellsville native Edwin S. Porter was honored Friday with a ceremonial marker by the Fayette Chamber of Commerce as part of the county’s Hometown Legends initiative.

“It’s an opportunity for the county to honor those folks that were born here, lived here and went on to do some really amazing things,” said chamber Executive Director Muriel Nuttall.

Residents and elected officials gathered in the Edwin S. Porter Theatre at the Connellsville Area Community Center to pay homage to one of the most influential filmmakers of all time.

Best known for the silent film 1903 “The Great Train Robbery,” Porter is often credited for revolutionizing the film industry by incorporating techniques such as dramatic editing, crosscutting and filming on location. Academy Award winner and American filmmaker Martin Scorsese even credited Porter’s film “The Great Train Robbery” as being a major influence on his classic 1990 film “Goodfellas.”

“It’s the exact same story,” Scorsese said in a 2013 interview.

Frank Jacobyansky of Connellsville, one of the lead organizers for Porter Silent Film Festival, said Porter’s impact on film fundamentally shaped the ways movies are made.

“He was the first great filmmaker, there’s just no two ways about it,” Jacobyansky said. “Admittedly he was great because he was at the beginning of the industry, and he could do things that really haven’t been thought of before.”

Porter was born in Connersville in 1870, described by historians as a “natural tinker,” the Fayette-county native developed a keen interest in technology based around electricity, and by the age of 21 he received a U.S. patent for a lamp regulator.

After an economic depression in 1893, Porter served in the Navy as an electrician before eventually working for Thomas Edison and eventually becoming in charge of Edison’s motion picture production studio.

Courtney Francis of Connellsville, who was in attendance for the unveiling of the marker said she was impressed by the kind of life a fellow “Connellsviller” led and the effect he’s had on movies, even today.

“This is just a great opportunity for people who still live here to see that someone great, like Edwin Porter, can come from a small town,” she said. “You don’t have to be from a big fabulous city to become an important person.”

Echoing Francis’ sentiment, Nuttall said one of the main primary reasons the chamber decided to recognize “Hometown Legends” was to help inspire the next generation of Fayette County.

“Fayette County can get kind of a bad rap,” Nuttall said. “And this initiative is a way to show our young people that great people have come from Fayette County and have gone on to do some amazing things.”

Porter is the second person to be recognized through the Hometown Legends program. Ernie Davis, of Footedale, the first Black Heisman Trophy winner was honored in 2023. The Hometown Legends signage honoring Porter was placed outside of the community center.

As for whether Porter’s films stand up to today’s multi-million dollar blockbusters, Jacobyansky said there’s magic in the silent century-old films.

“It’s part of our cultural heritage,” Jacobyansky said. “It’s like listening to Beethoven’s sympathy. It’s nice knowing our culture can produce something as beautiful as (his movies.) These are really works of art.”

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