Will It Play in Peoria? It Certainly Did.

The Piccirilli Factor at the Peoria Riverfront Museum — October 8, 2026

More than a century ago, American entertainers began asking a question that eventually entered the national vocabulary: “Will it play in Peoria?” The city had become a testing ground for popular entertainment, a place where the response of an audience was thought to reveal whether a production could succeed anywhere in America. From vaudeville to Broadway and Hollywood, the expression endured.

Today, I had the pleasure of discovering what it means to play in Peoria.

The auditorium at the Peoria Riverfront Museum was packed for the screening of The Piccirilli Factor, and the reception could hardly have been more gratifying. What struck me was not simply the attendance, but the character of the audience. Peoria has a substantial community of people devoted to the arts, and many are accomplished artists themselves. They came with an understanding of sculpture, craftsmanship, and the relationship between art and public life that made the occasion especially rewarding. And then there was the screen.

I have been showing films in museums, theaters, universities, and cultural institutions for many years, but I cannot recall encountering anything quite like the Giant Screen Theater at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. There is one exception: more than a decade ago, I showed my film Lisboa on a giant screen in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Measuring seventy feet across and fifty-two feet high, with state-of-the-art digital projection and sound, the Peoria screen is nevertheless an extraordinary facility. The photograph accompanying this article gives some idea of its proportions: Linda and I standing next to the screen, beneath an enormous image of one of the marble lions guarding the New York Public Library. I felt momentarily reduced to the dimensions of a miniature.

The museum itself deserves equal admiration. Its facilities, collections, and commitment to making the arts accessible speak to a community that takes its cultural institutions seriously. It is a place that Peoria has every reason to be proud of.

Dwarfed me holding a mic during the introduction to the film

The occasion was made possible by the Fine Arts Society of Peoria, founded in 1962, an organization that has spent more than six decades bringing distinguished speakers, artists, and scholars to the community. Its longevity says something important about the place. Cultural life here is not an occasional luxury but a sustained civic undertaking, maintained by generations of people who believe that art deserves a permanent place in public life.

I am particularly grateful to David Gregory, the Society’s Programs Chair, whose enthusiasm for the film began long before my arrival; to Betty Rohman, who attended so thoughtfully to the arrangements surrounding my visit; and to Linda Rowe, the Society’s president. My thanks also go to Ed Barry and the Peoria Historical Society, whose interest in the history of Italian-American sculpture provided another welcome connection to the film.

There is, in fact, a local dimension to this story. Peoria has its own history of Italian immigrant craftsmanship, represented by the sculptor Joseph Petarde. The Historical Society’s interest in his legacy offers a natural point of contact with the Piccirilli brothers, whose workshop in the Bronx contributed so much to the monumental sculpture of the United States.

In an earlier Journal article, Peoria, of All Places, I wrote about the remarkable historical coincidence that brought this film here. In October 1854, Abraham Lincoln delivered in Peoria one of the defining speeches of his political life, confronting the expansion of slavery and developing the arguments that would shape his presidency. Nearly seventy years later, the Piccirilli brothers carved the monumental seated Lincoln conceived by Daniel Chester French for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

Lincoln mural in Peoria

Today, that historical connection acquired another dimension. The story of the immigrant craftsmen who helped give physical form to America’s public memory was presented to an audience in the city where Lincoln had helped articulate the principles for which he would be remembered.

I had hoped, when I wrote that earlier article, that the auditorium would be full. It was. But what I will remember most is the generosity of the welcome and the pleasure of finding a community so deeply engaged with the arts.

As this September–October tour of The Piccirilli Factor draws to a close, Peoria has provided a particularly satisfying conclusion.

So, will it play in Peoria? It certainly did!