ESP :: Eastern State Penitentiary Website

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That's Where the Tunnel Is — Exploring the Willie Sutton Tunnel at Eastern State Penitentiary (Extended Version)
Description: This documentary, produced to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the famous 1945 tunnel escape, follows archaeologists from John Milner Associates and ESP Staff during their yearlong archeological investigation.

Archaeologists from John Milner Associates excavated the tunnel's sealed entry (behind the sink and through the wall in cell 68) and exit (on the terrace outside Eastern State) points. Then, using ground-penetrating radar, they discovered the tunnel's exact location beneath the penitentiary's southwest courtyard. The team used an auger (a tool similar to a post hole digger) to dig down 10 feet to the cavity below. A miniature camera (which the team nicknamed "The Tunnel Cam"), lowered into the auger hole, documented the tunnel's tiny dimensions, the wiring, bulbs and sockets that once lit its interior and the wooden bracing and structural materials that have held it intact for six decades.

Zimmer Productions, 2006

Running time 9 minutes and 40 seconds; DVD color

$17.45 ($14.95 plus $2.50 S & H)

Eastern State Penitentiary
Description: This documentary, produced by Forged Images, traces the history of one of America’s first prisons. This compelling and scholarly film, illustrated with period lithographs, engravings, and photographs, gives a detailed history of the prison from its initial practices of solitary confinement, through its transformation into an overcrowded "Big House," to its replacement with a modern facility in 1970. Although distinctive in its original design, Eastern's history illuminates two centuries of debate about the purposes and practices of prisons in American society.

This video is suitable and accessible for a general audience.
Recommended for use in Criminal Justice Studies, Social Problems, or U.S. History courses. (Text from movie).

Narrated by Verna Avery-Brown
Original Music by Braydon McCormick
Written & Directed by Christine Bowditch
Edited by Paul Cady
Historical Consultant: Paul Eisenhauer

Includes text on race and ethnicity from Strangers in our Midst, an exhibition at Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, 1997/1998. Researched and Written by Paul Eisenhauer, William J. Johnston, Jr. and Jennifer Lawrence Janofsky.

Running time 53 minutes; DVD color/B&W

$22.45 ($19.95 plus $2.50 S & H)

Eastern State Penitentiary In 1929

Description: This is a digitally re-mastered excerpt of a film made by the Penitentiary's Board of Trustees celebrating Eastern State's 100-year anniversary. This silent black and white film is the only available footage for sale that shows Eastern State as an active prison. The captions and footage give viewers a glimpse into the daily operations of this fascinating institution.

A Hal Kirn & Associates Production

Running time 8:40 minutes; B&W Silent

$17.45 ($14.95 each plus $2.50 S & H)

Let The Doors Be Of Iron
Description: This film is a capsulized drama of the evolution of Eastern State Penitentiary from its conception, in the eighteenth century, to its eventual demise as a correction institution in 1970. Narrated by Ed Asner, the film takes viewers on an historical journey through time; combining live action footage of the prison today, dramatic re-enactments, still photography, and old lithographs. Winner of the CINA Golden Eagle award (1987) and the Philafilm Festival’s Leigh Whipper Award (1987).

Narrated by Ed Asner
Written & Directed by Hal Kirn
A Hal Kirn & Associates Production

Running time 23 minutes

DVD $22.45 ($19.95 plus $2.50 S & H)

Voices of Eastern State
Description: Firsthand accounts of prison life as it was in the world’s first penitentiary told by inmates, guards, wardens, prison staff, neighbors and others who lived and worked inside or outside the walls of Eastern State Penitentiary. (Text from movie)

A Hal Kirn & Associates Production
Sponsored by The Eastern State Task Force

Running time 30 minutes

DVD $22.45 ($19.95 plus $2.50 S & H)

Ghost Hunters - The Complete First Season (2004)
Description: This one-hour weekly docu-soap follows a group of real-life paranormal researchers as they investigate haunted places throughout the country, encountering every type of imaginable haunting. Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, plumbers by trade, head up TAPS -- The Atlantic Paranormal Society -- a group of ordinary, everyday people with an interest in getting to the bottom of your otherworldly disturbances.

TAP’s most controversial paranormal investigation of took place at Eastern State Penitentiary. During this episode (#105), a camera a stationery, unmanned camera positioned on the second floor of Cellblock 12 picked up an image of a small, cloaked figure that seemingly appeared out of nowhere and ran down the catwalk. This piece of footage has been one of the most hotly debated topics on the official TAPS message board.

Running time 660 minutes; DVD, color

$27.45 ($24.95 plus $2.50 S & H)

Pandemonium Audio CD: Janet Cardiff + George Bures Miller

Description: This catalog for Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller's critically acclaimed audio installation Pandemonium includes an audio CD of the piece, as well as nearly three dozen color and black and white images of the installation. Using the existing elements in the prison cells, Cardiff and Miller have produced a percussive site work that is rhythmic and musical at some points and at other times pure sound as if a multitude of people or ghosts have inhabited the hall.

ISBN: 0-9649221-2-6; Dimensions (in inches): 0.25 x 8.75 x 5.75, 48 pages, hard cover © 2005.

$12.95 ($9.95 each plus $3.00 S & H)

Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Inc.