Peerless City
Film synopsis
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. One “Friend of Portsmouth” named his Crossfit 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.