Yo Philly, we did it! The Visitor Center announces the city’s first Rocky festival

Nearly 50 years after the release of Rocky, Sylvester Stallone’s iconic Rocky Balboa remains an integral part of Philly lore. And this December, tourists and longtime fans will get to celebrate the first-ever RockyFest.

Following the success of last year’s Rocky Day, which drew thousands of spectators and fans dressed as their favorite boxer, the Philadelphia Visitor Center on Tuesday announced the first RockyFest. The center made the announcement atop the very Philadelphia Museum of Art steps made famous by Stallone in the 1976 Academy Award-winning film.

Visitor Center president and CEO Kathryn Ott Lovell said the weeklong celebration, which runs Dec. 3-8, will feature a series of free and ticketed events, including a 90-minute bus tour. The Rocky Bus Tour will take fans to Mighty Mick’s Gym, the Italian Market, and Adrian Balboa’s fictional grave site at Laurel Hill Cemetery, among other filming locations.

“We’re just excited to give people the opportunity to celebrate Rocky,” Lovell said. “Visitors want to run the steps and get a picture in front of the statue, but this is giving people a much more comprehensive experience.”

The festival aims to expand the fan experience that is already served by the Rocky Shop, located at the bottom of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps, and Rocky Day, which Stallone attended along with his family and friend, actor Chevy Chase.

During his visit last year, Stallone called residents of Philly the true heroes.

“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart — and Rocky’s, too, because we’re very close — to all of you who, believe it or not, are the real-life Rockys, because you live your life on your own terms, you try to do the best you can, and you keep punching,” he said.

Through partnerships with Visit Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Film Society, Philly PHLASH, and other organizations, RockyFest will help recreate Rocky and Adrian’s date nights at the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 1923 Ice Rink and the Philadelphia Zoo. There’ll also be a Rocky marathon at the Philadelphia Film Center.

The Kennel Club of Philadelphia will host the “Southpaws at the Docks: Pugs and Mugs Yappy Hour” at the Cherry St. Pier on Dec. 5 to celebrate the bond between Rocky and his bullmastiff, Butkus. And historian Paul Farber, director of Monument Lab and host of The Statue podcast, will lead a discussion about the significance of the Rocky statue on Dec. 6.

“We’re excited about this year’s lineup of events and look forward to welcoming all who journey here to celebrate this cultural icon,” Visit Philadelphia president and CEO Angela Val said in a statement.

RockyFest guests will be offered free hotel parking and vouchers to the Rocky Shop, Val added.

Jennifer Nagle, vice president of special projects at the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, is confident the festival will draw Philly natives in addition to out-of-towners. “I’m from South Philly myself, and there’s nothing more South Philly than what we just put together with this RockyFest, Nagle said. “It’s long overdue.”

For more information and tickets to the inaugural festival, visit phlvisitorcenter.com/rockyfest.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer

A stolen musket from the Revolutionary War returns to Philly

An 18th-century musket that’s linked to the Revolutionary War was stolen in 1968 from Valley Forge Park, leading to years of investigation. When the cherry wood and brass-made firearm, once a part of the Valley Forge Historical Society Museum collection, went missing, it left many historians and investigators in limbo for decades.

But with help from Upper Merion Township detectives and the FBI’s Art Crime Team, the prized relic was returned to the Museum of the American Revolution on Monday.

The .78-caliber musket was displayed on a blue cloth-covered table, just under the dramatic painting, Siege of Yorktown in Virginia. Museum president and CEO Scott Stephenson held the antique in his hands, noting how the details etched in the gun’s 45-inch barrel and engraved butt plate noted its historic origins.

“There were no machines cranking these parts out,” Stephenson said. “This is literally hammer in hand, steel, iron, brass, and wood carefully pinning these pieces together.”

The retrieval of the 250-year-old firearm was a battle on its own. Until recent months, there was no trace of the musket for 56 years.

In 2009, Kevin Steele of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office reopened a cold case on the theft of antique firearms from the Valley Forge Historical Society Museum and several law enforcement agencies joined the effort to retrieve them. Among these firearms was the New England musket.

On the local level, Upper Merion Township Detectives Brendan Dougherty and Andrew Rathfon were tasked with retrieving the musket, as well as other Revolutionary War antiquities. Between 2016-2022, they were joined by the FBI Art Crime Team, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and others on the investigation.

The collective effort resulted in the arrest of two people and the recovery of 50-60 historic items that were returned to 25 different museums along the East Coast. But dozens of artifacts were still missing, including the treasured musket.

In March, Massachusetts-based arms appraiser Joel Bohy spotted an early 1770s firearm during an antique gun show in Baltimore, which ended up being the one stolen from Valley Forge Park.

Bohy knew it was Rhode Island-made. The engraved butt plate signals its New England origins. But he didn’t know the significance of the artifact until he saw a press release from Upper Merion Township detectives.

“When I first saw the gun at the show, I was pretty excited about it because it’s a really rare gun,” Bohy said. “It was even more exciting when three weeks later, Upper Merion Township police sent me a press release with the missing things retrieved from the cases they worked on before. As as soon as I saw [the musket], I clicked on the images and went, ‘Oh my God, I saw this gun weeks ago.’”

Bohy reached out to Dougherty and Rathfon, who he had worked with on cases before. The next day, the FBI team interviewed Bohy, and the two parties were able to track down the musket and deliver it to the insurance solutions company, Chubb.

Chubb paid the insurance claim for the missing relic back in 1969, which meant that it was now its official owner. Since the Museum of the American Revolution acquired the collection of the Valley Forge Historical Society back in 2003, the organization decided to gift the musket to the museum.

“We’ve obviously devoted many years to this investigation and we’re still going. But it’s special because it was stolen from our home,” Dougherty said. “And to know after 56 years it’s home is nice because it’s such a local historic item.”

With the firearm now in the hands of Stephenson and the museum’s curators just days before July Fourth, Chubb executive Maria Thackston said it’s a “poetic” story of repatriation.

“We’re thrilled to give it back to them, allow them to continue to study it, and make it available for the public to enjoy it,” she said. “It’s our privilege.”

While there are no current plans to exhibit the rare firearm, the museum will continue to study the artifact until plans for display unfold at a later date.

Staff writer Raymond Ragland contributed to this article.

– The Philadelphia Inquirer