Rocky Steps, Philadelphia

It is due to the iconic scene from the 1976 film Rocky that the 72 stone stairs leading up to the entrance of the Museum of Art in Philadelphia have been popularly dubbed as the "Rocky Steps". Ardent fans of the movie often mimic Rocky's famous climb, a metaphor for an underdog defying all odds or an everyman rising to a challenge.

In essence, this scene is also metaphorical in illustrating the “from rags to riches” life of Sylvester Stallone himself – creator of Rocky – once a child in foster care, homeless young man, sleeping in a bus shelter, who then wrote a story of Rocky, held onto it, despite all temptation, until finally landed a lead role and eventually became the highest paid actor in Hollywood.

According to Sly, the idea of the scene emerged when the film crew, bound by a tight budget, identified the steps one night while searching for filming locations around the city. Boxer Joe Frazier, however, who made a cameo appearance in the film, claimed that the steps scene was taken from his own training regimen and felt he was never duly credited for the way he inspired this and other parts of the movie.

Initially, Stallone imagined that Rocky should carry his dog Butkus up the steps, but the big bull mastiff proved too heavy for the task. Still, the commanding view opening from the top of the stairs (of Eakins Oval, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and Philadelphia City Hall) prompted him to re-shoot the scene without the dog.

Thirty years later, though, in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa, he did lift the dog, a smaller one, named Punchy, when he reached the top of the stairs. The closing credits of Rocky Balboa show a montage of dozens of people running up the steps. That same year, at the unveiling ceremony of the Rocky Statue at the foot of the stairs, Philadelphia Mayor John Street called the Rocky Steps one of Philly's biggest tourist attractions and said that Stallone, a native New Yorker, had become "the city's favorite adopted son".