About Us

ABOUT THE FILM

Portsmouth, Ohio was once a “peerless city,” brimming with industry and built upon the banks of the Ohio River, folded within the natural beauty of the foothills of Appalachia. People came to Portsmouth for opportunity, and those who lived in the rural counties bordering Scioto County, of which Portsmouth is the county seat, put on white gloves to attend cultural events in the city. Businesses named themselves after their location, and the city counted Peerless City Motors, Peerless City Baking Powder, and even a Peerless City Skating Rink among its economic treasures. Yet, in 1937, a flood devastated the city, and in the following years, Portsmouth saw a steep decline in its industry. Sometime in the 1960s, Frank Gerlach, the mayor well-known for always wearing a sash that indicated that he was, indeed, “Mayor of Portsmouth,” proposed to city council that they adopt a new city slogan. Gerlach offered “Where Southern Hospitality Begins,” and it became official. It was painted on the floodwall, which was built in 1940, after the flood. The city continued the use of the slogan on boundary signage and city letterhead. The slogan seemed fitting enough since the city is the last stop in Ohio along US 23 as it heads into Kentucky, a most definitely southern state.

Further economic decline seized the city, though, as did the opioid epidemic in the United States. Stated as “ground zero” for the epidemic by Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, and “the pill mill capital of the world” by Chris Arnade, author of Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America, Portsmouth developed a national reputation as a hardscrabble city. The population dwindled as more industry shuttered and crime rates rose. But, the people who stayed, and the people who called the city home, knew it was much more than a drug crisis on a map. A handful of people who made the city their home gathered together to “change the narrative,” they said. As “Friends of Portsmouth,” they launched events to earn entry into the Guinness Book of World Records, produced an annual Winterfest, and started appearing in the New York Times to tell the nation that Portsmouth, Ohio was making a comeback.

Some local businesses embraced the notion that Portsmouth was “Comeback City,” and they added the slogan as a hashtag in their social media posts. Dale King, owner of PSKC Crossfit, named his gym’s blog “Comeback City Chronicles.” Momentum grew, and although the slogan hasn’t been officially adopted through city council, nor does it appear on official city letterhead, it does seem to conjure city spirit when used to promote community development and civic engagement projects.

The central question of the documentary, “Peerless City,” is: what role do these slogans serve in crafting the identity (and therefore the narrative) of the place? Each slogan is a piece of the city’s history, and each slogan contributed to the shaping of that history. Other important questions arise within that consideration. What did each slogan shape? What story does each slogan tell? What is a “peerless city?” What does it mean to be the place where “southern hospitality” begins? What is “southern hospitality?” Who does it serve? And, what does it mean for a city to identify as a comeback? What is it coming back from? What is it coming back to? Can a city get stuck in a cycle of decline and comeback? How might the next slogan emerge with the help of the current one? And, most importantly, why will it matter and to whom?

The city of Portsmouth is an important character in the documentary, and that character will be examined through the lens of each slogan. Character is built from history and history is the story of a series of choices. Portsmouth chose these slogans. This documentary aims to discover to what effect.

The Peerless City documentary is inspired by Moundsville, co-directed by John Miller and David Bernabo and available to watch on PBS. Learn more about Moundsville at moundsville.org.

 

The Directors

David Bernabo

David Bernabo is a filmmaker, musician, dancer, visual artist, and writer, performing with the bands Watererer, Host Skull, How Things Are Made, and Else Collective; devising dances with his variable dance company, MODULES; and often collaborating with Maree ReMalia | merrygogo. He curates and produces work for the Ongoing Box imprint and co-curates the Lightlab Performance Series with slowdanger. David's films have screened at the On Art Film Festival, JFilm Festival, Re:NEW Festival, Afronaut(a) Film Club, the Foodable Film Festival, and on PBS and on WQED’s Filmmakers Corner. Films have been shown in Poland, England, Spain, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, and USA. https://www.davidbernabo.info/

Amanda Page

Amanda Page is a Columbus-based writer from southern Ohio. Her work appears in Belt Magazine, The Daily Yonder, 100 Days in Appalachia, Literary Hub and Yes! Magazine. She is the editor of The Columbus Anthology from Belt Publishing and The Ohio State University Press, and creator of Packard’s Columbus, a walking tour of Frank Packard architecture in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Her essay, “The Packard Presence in Columbus, Ohio,” about developing the tour, is featured in the anthology Midwest Architecture Journeys from Belt Publishing. She is the Founding Director of Scioto Literary, a nonprofit that supports writers and storytellers in Scioto and surrounding counties in the tri-state region of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

Graphic Design

Nick Sherman

Nick Sherman is a freelance artist, designer, and writer living a creative life in Portsmouth Ohio with his artistic wife Heather. He is the author of Dead End Job and How to Start a Creative Cult. A graduate from Shawnee State in 2016 with a BFA, Nick's focus in life now is creating Good things, sharing his process, and formulating what that even means!


 

Our Research Team

 

Andrew Feight, PhD

Andrew Lee Feight, Ph.D., is a native of Sandy Springs, Georgia. He graduated from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and completed his graduate studies in history at the University of Kentucky, receiving his Ph.D. in 2001. He is a former associate editor of the Portsmouth Free Press and winner of the Kentucky Historical Society's Richard H. Collins Award for his writing on the history of the antislavery movement in the Ohio Valley. Currently, Dr. Feight serves as the developer and editor of Scioto Historical, a free smartphone app and website for touring the history of Ohio's Scioto Valley.

David Page

David Page is an independent historical consultant in Portsmouth, Ohio. As the former director of Battery L, the Civil War Reenactment Organization, Page has participated in several historical preservation trips to the Portsmouth, Ohio Union Soldier monument in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His area of expertise is in Civil War history of Portsmouth, Ohio, although his research extends into more recent military and monument history in Scioto County. He is an avid Brick Hound, and his collection of Ohio Bricks grows each week.

Maureen Cadogan

Maureen Cadogan is the Executive Director of Scioto County Homeless Shelter. She is a Volunteer Black History and Multicultural Educator in the Portsmouth City School System, and curates her Black History Mobile Museum. She has been a participant in The Ohio State University Folklore Field School, in which she participated in oral history collection. She is the Chairwoman of the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Committee. She is married to Anthony Cadogan, Deputy Warden at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. She is the mother of 3 children, Gerald Cadogan, Marlita Cadogan, and Nate Cadogan. Maureen is a Kentucky Colonel. The commission of Kentucky Colonel is the highest title of honor bestowed by the Governor of Kentucky. It is recognition of an individual’s noteworthy accomplishments and outstanding service to our community, state, and nation. Her mantra is “ If I can help somebody as I pass along this way…then my living will not be in vain.”

 

Mission & Values

  • About Peerless City Productions

    Peerless City Productions is the media production arm of Scioto Literary, a nonprofit in Portsmouth, Ohio that serves writers and storytellers in the tri-state region of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

  • About Scioto Literary

    Founded in 2020 by Amanda Page, Scioto Literary aims to serve writers and storytellers in the tri-state region of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia by providing four signature programs to fulfill its mission, and realize its vision: a literary festival, writing classes, a fellowship, and documentary media production.

  • Scioto Literary Mission

    Based in Portsmouth, Ohio, Scioto Literary supports area writers and storytellers, celebrates the distinctive cultures of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia, and shares compelling stories about Central Appalachia with the world.

  • Scioto Literary Vision

    Through the power of story, Scioto Literary invites everyone—local writers, residents, the general public—to see Central Appalachia in a new perspective.

  • Scioto Literary Values

    Scioto Literary conducts its organizational practice, its literary programming, and its partner relationships with the following values:

    Human dignity for all persons.

    Service to all tri-state communities.

    Honoring diverse Appalachian histories, experiences, and futures.

    Collaborating with shared-value partners.

    Openness to change and evolve as an organization.