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As 2024 draws to a close, Pittsburgh City Paper‘s editorial staff members select their favorite stories from the year. Relive staff writer Rachel Wilkinson’s 2024 highlights below:
Pittsburgh’s last public theater organ is backstage at a South Hills high school, and it’s so much fun // July 9, 2024
As a lover of history and anachronism, the particulars of this story were a dream: there’s one pipe organ from the silent movie era left in Pittsburgh; it’s backstage at a Mt. Lebanon high school; and it’s been maintained by a club of devotees for nearly 50 years. When I met Dale Abraham, outgoing president of the Pittsburgh Area Theatre Organ Society, who described the organ as “a contraption” and explained that it’s painted pink, I knew I was in for something special. I was lucky enough to see the theater organ in all its glory for a showing of Wings (1927), and you can too during a handful of Organ Society events that transport viewers back to Pittsburgh’s movie palaces of yesteryear.
Whatever the weather, NWS Pittsburgh is watching // July 3, 2024
The fact that I wrote a good chunk of this feature about Pittsburgh’s National Weather Service during a tornado warning and power outage only underscored the weather forecast office’s importance. This year, Pittsburgh saw the first tornado within city limits since 1998 (and I’m still not over seeing images of the last one on Mt. Washington), raising question about our future climate. So, it was a delight to talk with the meteorologists at NWS Pittsburgh, who have been on the ground in Moon Township for more than 40 years, collecting climate data, looking out for the region, and keeping us safe. They even get to launch a weather balloon every day.
Pittsburgh has a thriving barbershop chorus that’s shirking straw hat stereotypes in favor of inclusivity // June 11, 2024
You can’t really call Vocal Confluence unsung, since Pittsburgh’s only all-voice barbershop a cappella chorus keeps growing in popularity and esteem. But I was so struck by the group’s thoughtful work to bring barbershop — a music genre normally associated “singing at Grandpap’s or a joke on The Simpsons,” as one singer put it — into the 21st century, including studying the troubled parts of its history, adapting A-ha’s “Take On Me,” and even opening for Foreigner. The theme of Vocal Confluence’s programming this year was resilience — to which I say now more than ever.
Boldly going to the Duquesne Club and Rivers Club, where few but rich white men had once gone before // Sept. 4, 2024
One of the joys of reporting is getting a backstage pass to go somewhere you might not otherwise, and I may have taken it to a new level this year walking through the doors of the Duquesne Club. Visiting Pittsburgh’s oldest and most exclusive membership club was stunning to say the least, and gave me new context for understanding how the city was shaped by a small group of men. For City Paper‘s special Clubs issue, I also visited Rivers Club, a product of another era of Pittsburgh development a century later, and was impressed by the two clubs’ contrasts, except, apparently, for the primacy of the gym.
Pittsburgh loved its disco days, and Thomas Jayson packed the clubs // April 10, 2024
As the Station Square news gets grimmer, I’m re-upping this story about Pittsburgh nightclub magnate and disco king Thomas Jayson. At one time, Jayson had a financial stake in the city’s most iconic clubs, including Touch, Chauncy’s, Rock Jungle, Donzi’s, and Cruiser’s, to name a few. Talking with Jayson and his former wife Maggie let me experience a golden era that apparently resonated with CP readers of all generations. I’m staying tuned to see if we can bring it back.
This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2024.
