‘Youngstown: Still Standing’ Shows That City Is off the Ropes
By Art Byrd
A few Saturdays ago, I attended a nightclub during the day. Club Gossip in Austintown hosted a screening of “Youngstown: Still Standing,” a documentary about the city.
Producer Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini and Austintown native John Chechitelli, the documentary’s director, were on hand to introduce the film.
I found the film to be riveting; it has a lot of honesty, showing the good, the bad and the ugly of Youngstown.
The documentary took the audience on a historical journey, beginning with how the city was founded by John Young, an early settler.
The film moves smartly into four phases that can be said to define Youngstown: the steel industry, organized crime, corruption in politics and its well-known boxers. The segment featuring former congressman Jim Traficant was brilliant as it showed the rise, stumble and fall of the man.
Well-known actor and Youngstown native Ed O’Neill offered very interesting insight about the city in the film. His stories were warm and funny.
I enjoyed the interviews with city officials and people who lived in the city all their lives.
The film was narrated by Youngstown native Jim Cummings, a voice actor who has done work in numerous animated cartoons, mostly for Disney (the current Pooh and Tigger – that’s him).
That “Youngstown: Still Standing” was well written and well researched was evident. The use of actual local news footage gave the film a very realistic feel. The film’s music soundtrack also features local musicians, such as “The Zou” and “Poobah.”
If Youngstown was a boxer in a scene from one of the Rocky films -- or even “Boom Boom’s” fights – it was on the ropes, just hanging on. Then, with a burst of sheer will and pride, it is again standing up. “Youngstown: Still Standing” helps the referee of life raise Youngstown’s glove to victory.
The film is available on DVD at http://www.mancini-smith.com.
edited by Michele Ristich Gatts
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