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Philadelphia has been through a lot of changes over the past half century. South Street property owner Peter DeFeo has been through his own metamorphosis.
“When I bought the building [in 1982], it was destroyed and I knew [South Street] was coming back. My grandmother also said, ‘Let’s buy everything on South Street,’” DeFeo said of the building at 525 South St. that now houses the International Artist Studio, his production company that also has an office in Chester County.
With headquarters steps from the now-bustling South, DeFeo’s own life journey has culminated in his latest project, “Saddle Up with Dick Wrangler and Injun Joe,” which debuted June 16 as part of the South Street Headhouse District Indie Film Series running Wednesday nights through Sept. 1. All screenings begin at 8 p.m. and local bands will perform before screenings every other week.
“Saddle Up,” a full-length feature about two South Philly-raised boys who had a successful television show in the ’60s, but have since been plagued by the economic stresses of today was well received by last week’s audience. The film picks up with the current relationship of the two men — one who looks like a cowboy, one who looks to be of Native American descent — who live above a South and Sixth streets Pawn Shop.
“It’s very consistent with today’s world of these guys caught up in a bad economic situation, two men, two human beings, with personal characters and morals trying to make it through bad economics times and failure,” DeFeo, who lives above his Fourth-and-South-streets studio, said. “It’s about lots of morals and values.”
With rave reviews from DeFeo’s circle and interest from Los Angeles- and New York-based producers, DeFeo is glad the film has been as celebrated as he anticipated.
“As we were developing it, we knew we had something special and as we got into it, it sort of grew into its own,” DeFeo, who was born at Pennsylvania Hospital and attended St. Thomas Aquinas, 1719 Morris St., before his family moved to Runnemede, N.J., said. “We put over 500 people to work in the Philadelphia area.
“I can’t say enough about how Mickey Rooney — and he’ll be 90 years old on September 23 of this year — I can’t say enough about what a great job he did. It was impressive to work with Mickey Rooney and how quick he picked up on his lines and got into the character,” DeFeo said. “I guess after 80, 90 years of acting something might rub off! He’s awesome!”
The cast and crew of the ultra-low budget SAG production, that shot around the Philadelphia area beginning last fall, was in it for the love of art. The film has a completely original score and is shot with digital cameras that were then altered by a novel process devised by DeFeo and his team.
“We used special experimental digital stuff we developed ourselves and standard things off the shelf — very expensive Sony HD cameras,” DeFeo said. “Last [Wednesday] these producers thought we shot on film, but its doesn’t quite seem like film.
“I’ve been an artist my entire life, every type of medium you can think of.”
DeFeo hopes the movie “Saddle Up” will be bought and have an international release. Talks have also included the initial ideas for a TV series. No matter what the film’s ultimate fate, DeFeo feels he has hit a jackpot.
“I’m having a great time meeting a lot of nice people and I feel I’m doing more now — my whole life has pushed me in this direction,” DeFeo, who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films, said.
After moving to New Jersey, DeFeo invested back in the area when he bought the now-home of International Artist Studio.
“My parents met in front of this building at Fourth and South, and my father was selling watermelons out of a cart, in 1905,” DeFeo said. “And my mom owned a deli on Passyunk Avenue, at Fitzwater, and she was buying [watermelons].
“[This building] was a furniture store, then a meat factory and it was sold five years prior, so I purchased it to convert it in 1982.”
Prior to buying up spaces throughout Philadelphia, which he knew would become valuable, the entrepreneur had done “everything from sewage treatment to art.
“I owned [a sewer company] from 1960, for 40 years, I sold that to the town in the end of the last century,” DeFeo said. “I had many thousands of apartments and I sold all the apartments and office buildings and I sold everything but this building.”
This building would turn into an arts haven, with a few notable tenants.
“So when this building came up for sale, I happened to have a few bucks sitting around and I went and bought it in ’82 and then upgraded it in ’87. Will Smith was a tenant here in ’88, ’89, ’90,” DeFeo said. “Then he said, ‘Mr. D, I gotta leave, I got to break the lease.’ He had to go to L.A. [for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air] … Mannequin Two was shot in the building and a lot of agents and theater people are in the building.
“We support the arts in Philadelphia I’ve supported the arts my entire life and I want to end my life deep in the arts.”
A performer from a young age, DeFeo tried on many hats before returning full-time to his passion.
“I was always winning contests from when I was a child. My godfather, he was Lucille Ball’s driver during the second World War. He taught me how to tap dance and sing at 3 years old,” DeFeo said.
Now, at 72, DeFeo spends his days with what he loves best, creating art with oils, watercolors, acrylic, house paint or film — whatever medium suits his mood. “Saddle Up,” with a screenplay that began in 2007, seems to be a culmination of so many projects for DeFeo.
“I was married at 17 and had three children by 22, then retired by 30” DeFeo, who directed ”Saddle Up” and played Injun Joe, said. “Then, when I was 33, I said, ‘I will never do this again.’ I’d rather go working with my boots on … This is what I’ve been aiming for my entire life, also.
“I believe it’s born in you. My little granddaughter, she has it in her, she just has that ability.”
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