Local classic-movie aficionado aims to grow interest
By day, Wendy Whittick makes a living as an office manager for a design-and-build remodeling company.
In her free time, though, Whittick has established herself as one of Pittsburgh’s most prominent advocates for the old-timey joy of watching classic movies. Over the last five years, she has served as president of the Pittsburgh Classic Movie Club, led presentations on figures and films from Hollywood’s Golden Age, and introduced classic films playing at Row House Cinema Lawrenceville and Sewickley’s Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center.
Last year, Whittick expanded her own local media footprint by partnering with Pittsburgh Community Television on both a “Wendy’s Classic Corner” show and the “Silver Screen Time Machine” podcast. The former allows Whittick to highlight historically relevant Western Pennsylvania landmarks, while the podcast gives her and a rotating cast of guest hosts an opportunity to deep-dive the classic film of their choice.
“I guess what I really like to do is find unique and not-known historical things and introduce them to the general public,” Whittick, 49, told the Post-Gazette last week. “That’s what the whole thing is, to be honest. Everything I do sort of relates to that.”
The Pittsburgh Classic Movie Club has been organizing screenings throughout the region since 2019. Whittick said it currently boasts about 150 members and has been known to draw crowds of 100 or so classic film enthusiasts to its events.
On March 27, Whittick’s club is kicking off a five-film “Comedies of the 1930s” series at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie, Pa., that’s set to run through May 22. She’ll also be returning to Bridgeville later this year for another summer of free outdoor classic film screenings. The 2023 series will take place outside the Bridgeville Public Library and start June 14 with the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest.”
About a year ago, Whittick decided she wasn’t doing enough “to spread the word about classic film” among her fellow Western Pennsylvanians. That’s when she approached the nonprofit PCTV, which gave her the technical support and recording space in its North Side studio to hit the ground running on both her show and podcast.
“She’s been an exemplary community producer here,” Carl Cimini, PCTV’s director of communications and engagement, told the Post-Gazette. “Some people have dreams, come in and it’s just a dream. Wendy came raring to go and was passionate and in love with her subject matter.”
“Wendy’s Classics Corner” began as a public forum to discuss specific classic film genres and actors. Now, Whittick mostly takes the show on the road and conducts interviews at locales like the North Side’s Photo Antiquities Museum of Photographic History and the Captain Thomas Espy Post at the Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall.
“Silver Screen Time Machine” has remained consistently focused on one classic movie per episode since it first launched in August 2023. Feel free to check out this writer’s December 2023 “Silver Screen Time Machine” appearance in which Whittick and I broke down the 1963 Hitchcock horrorthriller “The Birds.”
There are other folks doing this
sort of work locally, like the Pittsburgh Silent Film Society and Pittsburgher Stewart Lee’s “The Golden Silent Films — A Silent Film Podcast.” Whittick’s PCTV show and podcast are among the station’s lineup that includes endeavors like Cimini’s “For The Good of Pittsburgh” podcast and “The Paul Spradley Show.”
“I feel very lucky to have a resource such as PCTV, where you can go in and make your own TV show ...,” Whittick said. “I don’t think people really know to look for community TV and are aware of it. It’s something that’s good for people to check out, especially if they want to produce their own show.”
PCTV just recently made its televised programming available through its website and other non-terrestrial means like Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, according to Cimini. He and PCTV are always searching for local creatives like Whittick with vision and followthrough who can help grow their audience.
“She’s a great example of what you can do as a community producer with media and Pittsburgh,” Cimini said. “Her show is actually the classic approach to solid content on community access television.” (Yes, Cimini used the word “classic” on purpose.)
All these extracurricular activities are just the beginning for Whittick. She’s currently conducting research and gathering the requisite funding for a theoretical documentary she would only reveal will be about a “specific time and place in Pittsburgh history.”
For now, Whittick just wants Pittsburghers with even a passing interest in classic film and/or local history to check out her PCTV work and attend a Classic Movie Club screening or two. She promised to welcome Steel City cinephiles “into our little classic film family” with open arms.
“I really wanted to bring attention to classic film,” Whittick said. “I didn’t want it to be forgotten or lost. I really wanted to bring it to the Pittsburgh community.”