Monica Yant Kinney: Tempest over title shows city in split-screen mode

Sam Katz ran for mayor three times, but it took a career change to documentary filmmaking to make him philosophical about how Philadelphians see themselves and their fair city.

This month, Katz e-mailed dozens of academics helping him plan an ambitious $5 million, 25-part TV series charting the city's history. (Think of Katz as Ken Burns without the beard and, thus far, most of the funding.)

What, Katz asked them, do you think of calling the project The Remaking of America's First City - Philadelphia?

"I confess," Katz wrote, "to liking this title a lot."

His audience did not.

"I have to vote against first," said Roger Simon, a Lehigh University professor, who wrote Philadelphia: A Brief History.

"The implication is chronological, and by that measure," Simon said, Philly's firstness "is about 50 years short."

Then again . . .

"Since the Declaration of Independence was ratified in Philadelphia, where the United States was conceived and brought into being, I think that's a sufficient claim for being first," argued Michael Lewis, a Williams College expert on Philadelphia architecture.

"On this matter, we shouldn't be defensive (that chronic Philadelphia trait)."

California native Rosalind Remer offered a critique as bluntly as if she had been born here.

"It's misleading and may be very off-putting," said Remer, who ran the Ben Franklin Tercentenary.

Her fear? A braggy title might unintentionally make national viewers think less of Philadelphia.

"If we trumpet the 'first city' fact, we're wearing it on our sleeves," Remer told me. "If we really felt confident about it, we wouldn't have to say it."

Several scholars pointed out that many cities - New York, Boston, Santa Fe, St. Augustine, Salem - can lay claim to being first.

"There certainly are plenty of reasons why you might say Philadelphia is America's first city," said Villanova Law School professor Mitchell Nathanson, depending "on what your definition of first is."

Beyond first, the focus group puzzled over remaking.

"Frankly," said Simone Bloom Nathan, a consultant for PBS' Frontline, "I didn't understand it."

Nathanson knows firsthand how a bad title can sink a great idea.

He wrote a social history he wanted to call The Phils and Philadelphia. His publisher overruled him, titling the book The Fall of the 1977 Phillies: How a Baseball Team's Collapse Sank a City's Spirit.

Which do you think would sell more copies after the World Series?

Perhaps Katz's project - which he's producing with his son Phil, 25 - should take a page from Burns and be short and sweet.

"You could just call it Philadelphia," Nathanson said, like the Tom Hanks-Denzel Washington drama.

With a title like that, Remer agreed, "people would have to watch it to see what it's about."

In the end, Lewis, the architecture professor, cautioned Katz against being too open-minded.

"If everyone gets an objection, you have a phenomenon like the modern chicken-salad sandwich in a diner," Lewis said. "It used to have onions, celery, interesting ingredients. Everyone complained, and now it's a very bland thing."

And, Lord knows, the last thing TV needs is more blandness.

Given his history with Philadelphia, Katz isn't shocked by the intensity of the region's self-analysis.

"It should come as no surprise to anyone," he told me, "that we are deeply split about ourselves."

In a business career that took him to cities across the country, he came to believe "there are virtually none that can compare with ours for passionate complexity."

As for the fledgling filmmaker's debut title? Still up for debate, though Katz did rule out his son's cheeky suggestion:

Philadelphia - Fill in the Blank.

For a live chat with Monica Yant Kinney and Sam Katz at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow, go to http://go.philly.com

To learn more about the documentary project and suggest a title, go to http://go.philly.com/phillydocEndText