{"id":66,"date":"2014-11-17T11:10:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T11:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=66"},"modified":"2014-12-22T19:26:28","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T19:26:28","slug":"pie-in-the-face-and-pittsburghs-crusty-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/11\/17\/pie-in-the-face-and-pittsburghs-crusty-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh\u2019s crusty \u2018hit man\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Leukemia <\/a>
Leukemia fundraiser, 1988, State Rep. Richard Cessar gets pie in the face. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"Pie-thrower <\/a>
Pie-thrower Ross Thorn serves up his 100,000th pie to face of 6-year-old David Call (6 Oct., 1975, Ross Catanza\/Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

When was the last time you heard of a pie-throwing battle in Pittsburgh? We remember not. How about a pie in the face story? Hmmm\u2026 well, there was Russell Martin\u2019s shaving-cream pie<\/a> last year but that was expected: when you hit a 14th-inning walk-off for the team with the best MLB record, you get pied by A.J.Burnett \u2014 it only makes sense. Right?<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh is not that much into pieing. Days when pieing was big in the Steel City are gone. These days we prefer to eat pies, not throw them around.<\/p>\n

The non-traditional tradition of perusing pies, that is smashing them in someone else\u2019s face, used to be quite popular in Pittsburgh. Pieing was common at fundraisers, at corporate events, at schools, especially among fans of the Three Stooges, the true fathers of pie-throwing.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh even used to have its own professional pie-thrower. His name was Ross Thorn \u2014 the \u2018hit man,\u2019 who was never known to miss but always did a \u2018sloppy job.\u2019\u00a0 A talented musician with a degree from CMU, he took up pie-throwing for a defiant cause, as The Pittsburgh Press explained in the 1975 profile of Mr. Thorn.<\/p>\n

“Music is always a shaky business, and I started tossing pies to go along with the act,” he explained. For many years, Mr. Thorn adorned faces with pies three nights a week at Bimbo\u2019s, a family-type sing-along pace on Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon. He delivered more than 10,000 pies\u2026 in the face. He pioneered a home deliver pie-in-the-face service for special occasions.<\/p>\n

Mr. Thorn was the first person to throw a pie on a scheduled airline in November 1963.<\/p>\n

Once, he even suggested pie-throwing as a method to break up street riots, which was timely advice for the 1960s and long before pie-throwing could result in charges of assault and battery in this country.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s crusty \u2018hit man\u2019 had a lot of great stories. At a banquet one night he was \u2018contracted\u2019 to splatter the top executive of a steel firm. He did the job, not knowing what the reaction would be.<\/p>\n

According to Mr. Thorn, \u201cThe fellow just leaned back, roaring with laughter and, with pie dripping from his face, he lit up a cigar.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When was the last time you heard of a pie-throwing battle in Pittsburgh?<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesPittsburgh\u2019s crusty \u2018hit man\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1066],"tags":[1173,1025,1017,1036,1169],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/tumblr_nf5tu4o3TG1rr5swxo4_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C901&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5395,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/05\/27\/donut-man-pittsburgh\/","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":0},"title":"Pittsburgh’s Donut Man","date":"May 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Henry Meyer made his name and face known by delivering doughnuts, Danishes and pecan rolls to places around Pittsburgh. 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