West Philadelphia in The Media
The area gained some fame through the theme song to the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in which Wynnefield native Will Smith raps, "In West Philadelphia, born and raised . . . "
The NBC drama American Dreams is set in West Philadelphia in the mid-1960s.
West Philadelphia was also the home of American Bandstand. The popular dance show and career starter for host Dick Clark was produced at television station WFIL-TV (Channel 6, now WPVI-TV) in "Studio 'B'", which was located in their just-completed addition at 4548 Market Street. The show featured local high school students, turning some into teen idols. The former television station is now home to the West Philadelphia Enterprise Center, although the large satellite dish on the roof still remains.
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Famous quotes containing the words west, philadelphia and/or media:
“The [nineteenth-century] young men who were Puritans in politics were anti-Puritans in literature. They were willing to die for the independence of Poland or the Manchester Fenians; and they relaxed their tension by voluptuous reading in Swinburne.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“It used to be said that, socially speaking, Philadelphia asked who a person is, New York how much is he worth, and Boston what does he know. Nationally it has now become generally recognized that Boston Society has long cared even more than Philadelphia about the first point and has refined the asking of who a person is to the point of demanding to know who he was. Philadelphia asks about a man’s parents; Boston wants to know about his grandparents.”
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—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)