Breaking The Curse
The alleged curse of Billy Penn was sometimes used to explain the failure of professional sports teams based in Philadelphia to win championships. In March 1987, One Liberty Place, a 945-foot (288 m) tall skyscraper, opened three blocks from the 548 ft (167 m) high statue of William Penn atop Philadelphia City Hall. For many decades, a gentlemen's agreement stated that the Philadelphia Art Commission would approve no building in the city that would rise above this statue. The supposed curse had gained such prominence in Philadelphia that a documentary film entitled The Curse of William Penn was produced about it.
The curse ended on October 29, 2008 when the Phillies won the World Series, a year and four months after a statuette of the William Penn figure atop City Hall was affixed to the final beam put in place during the June 2007 topping-off of the Comcast Center, then the tallest building in the city.
Read more about this topic: 2008 Philadelphia Phillies Season, Postseason
Famous quotes containing the words breaking the, breaking and/or curse:
“The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Freedom is poetry, taking liberties with words, breaking the rules of normal speech, violating common sense. Freedom is violence.”
—Norman O. Brown (b. 1913)
“Economic growth may one day turn out to be a curse rather than a good, and under no conditions can it either lead into freedom or constitute a proof for its existence.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)