Submitted Photo WILKES-BARRE — Nationally syndicated radio host Shadoe Steele, also known locally as Rusty Fender, has worked with Professor Eric Ruggiero, Chairman of Wilkes University’s Integrative Media Department, for 15 years on a project called “On Location: Revisited.”
The project highlights interviews with those associated with production and takes a then-and-now look at the non-Hollywood studio sites where celluloid magic was “developed.”
Steele — whose real name is Dale Mikolaczyk — and Ruggiero have also done three documentary films on local iconic subjects: Rocky Glen Park, The Woodlands Inn and the Laurel Line railroad.
Steele said he and Ruggiero started making films 15 years ago, when they made one based on the 1958 movie The Blob, which was filmed in Chester County, PA.
“We created this concept — On Location Revisited — where we take famous films, and we go back to the actual filming sites to see what they look like today,” Steele said. “And we have been very successful.”
Steele said The Blob documentary was submitted last year to the Los Angeles Film Festival and won first place in the Best Historical Documentary category.
‘On Location: Revisited: The 25th Hour: Reflections From a Mirror Ball’
Steele, of Old Forge, said 1979 marked the Golden Age of going out. He said the disco craze was still going strong, and The 25th Hour seemed to be the only club in town.
Ruggiero and Steele said the Kornfeld family-run business traces its humble beginnings to a downtown Wilkes-Barre eatery founded during the Great Depression.
“My grandmother, Esther, and her sister started the S&B Restaurant on South Washington Street and Northampton Street in 1930,” said Mitch Kornfeld, who co-owned the operation with family members Gary (uncle), and brothers Rick and Ross Kornfeld.
Mitch’s late father, Mark, wanted to build a catering hall on property alongside Laurel Run Creek, but Steele and Ruggiero said lenders weren’t willing to invest in such a venture that didn’t have hotel rooms attached.
“He knew nothing about the hotel business,” Mitch said of his father. “He reached out to different franchises like Holiday Inn, Marriott, Hyatt, Radisson and Best Western, who all laughed at him.”
The film shows that Conrad Hilton himself visited a wooded area on Route 315 in Plains Township and told Mark and Gary Kornfeld everything they plan on doing is totally wrong — that they’ll never make a penny with their idea, so no Hilton franchise.
“The only organization that would work with them was the Treadway Inn based in New England,” Steele said. “And in 1969, with their cooperation, the project got off the ground.”
Steele and Ruggiero said The Woodlands featured the nightclub iterations of The Left Bank Lounge, The Penny Arcade, 25th Hour, and Club Evolution, the neon sign segued from the Treadway to The Woodlands Inn & Resort during the summer of 1975 and the discotheque soon became an entertainment icon.
The three-hour film calls The Woodlands “the Studio 54 of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Steele and Ruggiero said the Treadway Inn & Resort set the stage to phase itself into the premiere nightclub in the region with lighting designed by legend Eric Brown who designed New York City’s Palladium.
The film, which will be released in February, describes the scene at The Woodlands as “DJs mixing broadcast format videos with vinyl, major concert acts performed in its Grand Ballroom, the first LGBTQ night in Eastern Pennsylvania advertised on radio and television as ‘Anything Goes,’ and topping the most liquor sales in the state, eclipsing Philadelphia and Pittsburgh combined.”
The film features commentary from 35-plus high-profile staff members, such as DJs, lighting technicians, and mixologists, most of whom have been onboard since the beginning.
Mitch Kornfeld, Gary Kornfeld, Rick Kornfeld, Ross Kornfeld, Mark Kornfeld, Managing Partner Thom Greco and Dawn Randazzo made their stories, family photo albums, and archives and personal journals available exclusively for this feature presentation.
Rocky Glen Park: One Last Look
This film won a national Telly Award Silver, Steele said.
Steele said the film can be viewed on WNEP-TV 16, WNEP.com, WNEP+, (Roku, Fire TV) TEGNA.
Steele said the film is a nostalgic look at the iconic Northeastern Pennsylvania amusement park.
“This is an emotional journey told by those who were there,” Ruggiero said. “It was most important in the compilation of this story, to reflect the hills and valleys of the experience. I found it critically important to highlight the sights and sounds of the park — the rhythm of the audio and video captured the human element before the shocking impact of the park closing.”
Steele said, “This has been on the drawing board since October of 1987 when I tested a new RCA VHS CamCorder and shot footage of the park literally days after its closing during the last season of operation, not knowing at that time the park would never reopen. I was in the right place at the right time.”
“We’re going ‘off-road’ with this episode, taking a look at the final days of the park and the three days leading up to the Aug. 24, 1988, public auction,” Steele said. “Using historical footage, the previous documentaries climbed a chronological ladder from the park’s origin to the waning years — we wanted to showcase the final days when quite frankly, not many were fortunate enough to have Beta and VHS camcorders at their disposal during that era.”
“Laurel Line: The After Years, 1953-1976”
Release date: Memorial Day weekend 2025
“On Location: Revisited: Laurel Line: The After Years,” continues the nostalgic interest in the Wyoming Valley inter-urban passenger short-line built as the gateway to Rocky Glen Park.
“Many streetcar and railroad enthusiasts have viewed the myriad of programs about the formative decades of transportation, mainly focused on shuttling pre-World War II patrons to Rocky Glen Amusement Park, but we’re focusing on the post-passenger years as interest in the Laurel Line disappeared when the right-of-way switched to freight and growing industry along the route,” Steele said.
Most Popular
Comments / 0