Your average Rocky viewer knows all about the Art Museum steps. A slightly more astute fan might be able to trace Rocky's impossible run through the streets of Philly (watch it again; it defies space and time). But only your truly hardcore, "Eye of the Tiger"-humming Balboa-phile will know about the Holy Grail of Rocky locations: 1818 Tusculum St.

Rocky Balboa lived at this real-life Kensington address, situated at the southern end of a narrow slab of modest two-story row houses nestled by the tracks of the Reading Railroad and the Frankford El. It's a forgotten block with exactly one claim to fame, and no one here has a chance to forget it. Stop by with a camera, and children pop their heads out of windows and chant: "Rocky! Rocky!"

If you walk up to 1818 itself, you'll probably see Hank Ceterowski and his sister Catharine Wojcik, both weathered-looking and spectacularly cranky. "You want my picture?" Hank says to a photographer. "Pay me $50."

Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Catharine is camera-shy, too. Instead, she'll tell you talk to Eleanor O'Hey, down the block at 1808. Which doesn't make sense until you meet O'Hey, and realize that she's Hank and Catharine's sister, and actually owns 1818 Tusculum.

"A man came around, asked me about using my house for Rocky," says Eleanor, showing her visitors a gold-framed photo of herself posing with a tuxedoed Sylvester Stallone. "They paid me $50 for the first one. It was a low-budget movie. But boy, if I had known."

That fifty bucks bought the Rocky producers the exclusive rights to the outside of Eleanor's house, as well as her living room, which doubled as Balboa's cramped apartment. "They put up a piece of paneling to block the kitchen," she says. Eleanor is a frail-looking woman, with white hair in curls and liver spots dotting her skin, but there's an intense focus in her eyes. Even though it was almost 30 years ago, she remembers every detail of the shoot: that it took three days, and the fact that Stallone tripped while carrying Talia Shire up the street.

For Rocky II, Eleanor says, the production company paid her $500 for the exclusive use of her house, "But the lights they put up on the roof caused damage. It cost me $800 to fix."

Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Still, she seems proud that people from New York, New Jersey and even as far away as California routinely stop by to snap photos. "I heard he's supposed to be making the last movie," she says. "We're waiting to see if he comes back."

If they do film part of Rocky VI here, there won't be much work to do. "It's the same screen door, the same window, same friggin' shade," says Eleanor. Outside the house, the doorway is framed in stamped tin. The sidewalk and curb are crumbling, with grass and weeds pushing their way up. The steps to the house lead up to the front door sideways, and some need painting. The El rumbles down at the end of the block, high up above everything.

Down the street at Kensington Avenue is Richard's Bike Shop, which has been there 45 years. Inside the shop the scent of tire rubber hits you hard. The place is full of frames, tires and countless bike parts, and a certain layer of oil and grime beneath it all. "Remember that scene where they're all standing around the fire?" asks owner Richard Cannon. "My girlfriend's ex-husband is in that scene." Back in 1975, Richard received $20 for letting the film company put lights on his roof.

Up at the corner, near 1818, there's a beefy man in a red and blue sports jersey. "Rocky's a bum," he says. "All the money he made, he should have fixed the neighborhood."

Photo By: Michael T. Regan

An 8-year-old boy with missing teeth and spiky, unruly hair agreed with him. "He should have cleaned out all this grass and put in a playground." He's talking about the brick sidewalk next to 1818, overgrown with weeds. It would be the perfect spot for a small jungle gym or swing set for neighborhood kids. And there are plenty of them.

Out loud, someone wonders if Stallone will show up someday to do Rocky VI.

"If he does," says the guy in the sports jersey, "I'll have something to say to him."