Monroeville Mall: Dawn of the Dead Filming Location in 2016 (A lot has changed since 1978)

[@timmccarthy4168]

I can answer your question about where the JCPenney was in 1977/78 when they filmed the movie.... It was right where the Cinemark theater is now in the center of the mall in the back.! The building was torn down at least 10 -15years ago and the movie theater built on the site. JCP moved over to the 2nd level of where Gimbels originally was , then Kaufmanns on the end of the mall how do I know this? I was a Manager at that JCP when the movie was filmed starting in Nov 1977 and finishing filming in March 1978. All the zombie interior Dept store scenes were in my store, from the motorcycles crashing through my gift dept ( I was the Dept Mgr at the time) , to the mall door scenes where the slider doors was shut to keep out the zombies. Even the scenes where they were hiding in the penthouse was on our 3rd level where our A/C equipment was located . They filmed at night after the store closed and would have it all put together and cleaned up by each morning before we opened. The little kid zombies in the filming were actually some of our salespeople's kids! It was a real thrill to be there for all the filming, seeingand meeting . George Romero and the actors in their zombie makeup and costumes

[@TheMadNomadder]

Thank you for answering. When I was a kid, it was a treat to drive here once in a while from the middle of West Virginia. This mall and Century III would be where would shop after a day at Kennywood or the Zoo. Now that I'm a tad older, I drive the wife and I here yearly for Steel City Con for the Christmas show. I'm sure everyone had a blast while this was being filmed. It's hard going by memory of my childhood and trying to remember the movie to align the scenes. I really enjoyed your story and history of the events. I wanted to record more inside the mall, but I felt uneasy doing so at the time since I was new doing videos.

[@LUCKO2022]

Dude, I hope you got to be a zombie in the movie at least.

[@AngelaMastrodonato]

I grew up in Monroeville in the ‘80s. This mall was the town’s claim to fame.

[@TheMadNomadder]

When I was a kid, Pittsburgh was a treat to go to. We would go up maybe once a year to the zoo, Kennywood, then somehow make our way to this mall and Century III. I went back to Century III a couple years ago. Wow that mall has changed from how I remembered it. We still go to Monroeville at least once a year for Christmas shopping and sometimes Steel City Con.

[@hugh2hoob668]

This town was one of 3 places that survived the 2008 recession So that's not true its the economic heart of Pittsburgh

[@hugh2hoob668]

Also there's the biggest 4 way intersection in the usa here too

[@GaryHardin]

This is one nice big mall, nice to see it surviving.

[@TheMadNomadder]

I haven't been to century 3 in probably 10 years, I know the last time we went the comic book store was about the only store we went to. I remember going there a lot in the 80's.

[@tylerskylar7166]

That mall has changed a lot

[@TheMadNomadder]

I miss Kaufmans

[@Fandango541]

Dude this was awesome!!! Loved your Close Encounter of the 10th Kind---knocking down a Zombie! LOL The 1978 version of this Day of the Dead is the BEST! Yup, I'm shouting about it. :) This movie location solidified my love of zombie flicks, especially after having seen, in New York City, the original b/w Night of the Living dead in 1968, in some seedy theatre on 42nd St. We got soooo stoned watching that movie as everyone in the theatre was smoking weed. You've no idea how impactful that movie was for it's time! Nothing like that had ever been seen before. When the mall flick showed up we were even more excited! LOL Great job, Dude

[@TheMadNomadder]

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed the video. My first time seeing this was when I was about 4 years old at a drive in. They had chiller thrillers up all night drive ins around here. This, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Night of the living Dead, and Motel Hell were playing and I have loved horror movies ever since.

[@lennydumaski5346]

I haven't seen or been to this mall in 30some years. Wow how it has changed

[@TheMadNomadder]

Its changed a good bit

[@freer04]

My brother lives 15 minutes (give or take) from the mall. Most times when we visit we make a trip to the mall to do some shopping.

[@TheMadNomadder]

Thats pretty much all we do, we go Christmas shopping here since they have different stores than what we have in WV. Usually try to plan our Christmas visit with the SteelCityCon they have. Decided since starting a youtube channel, might as well video tape this while we were in the area.

[@gypsylynn9419]

Glad you got to do the filming location instead of us shopping lol. I know you like your horror movies. It's nice when they use local buildings to film not made up sets.

[@TheMadNomadder]

One of my favorite horror movies of all time. The entire reason I love going to Pittsburgh, just to head to Monroeville

[@moviecollector4345]

I love dawn of the dead. I would love to go just to take a picture inside the mall wearing my dawn of the dead shirt.

[@TheMadNomadder]

It was a boomin mall back in its heyday. They used to have a gift shop/museum dedicated to Romero and the movies, but it was removed and I believe they moved it to Evans City where Night Of The Living Dead was filmed. Haven't made it to the new museum location yet.

[@LUCKO2022]

It's Roger who Peter buried in the middle of the mall by the fountain.

[@brianblackstone6371]

Starting in 2017, there is now a yearly Dawn of The Dead reunion held at this very mall. I went in 2017 and just got back from the one in 2019. It is so call. Check it out: www.thelivingdeadweekend.com/

[@TheMadNomadder]

I'll have to check that out sometime. Very neat.

[@RandomVideoCircus]

I'll be there this weekend!!!

[@TheMadNomadder]

RandomVideoCircus so wont i for steel city con. Have a great time

[@RandomVideoCircus]

Yep, Steel City Con, I'll be there.

[@Doobie1975]

I hear this mall has gone downhill in the past year or so which makes me wonder if this mall is as great today as it was many years ago

[@TheMadNomadder]

It definitely changed a lot since I was a kid. Then again our local malls are also fading away.

[@dermagnus8482]

The best part is the staircase and the hideout.

[@TheMadNomadder]

I'd like to go back and see if anything else has changed. Supposedly the zombie museum has returned

[@noogoodmood1257]

I know everything about that place

[@TheMadNomadder]

I'd like to go back there one day.

[@danielmclellan1299]

would love to go there but I live about 3,500 miles away lol

[@TheMadNomadder]

LOL well that seems like an issue then :) Its changed a good bit since I was a kid, Its still about 200 miles away from me. We go annually there for the comiccon (SteelCitycon is what they call it) around Christmas.

[@Fireglo]

If you do finally go there you'll probably find it's not really any different to shopping malls you have near you. The only difference is a movie was filmed there almost 40 years ago.

[@hushg2000]

What state?

[@TheMadNomadder]

about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania