On the Town: One Hundred Years of Spectacle in Times SquareRandom House, 2006 - 264 pages Described as “a continuous carnival” and “the crossroads of the world,” Times Square is a singular phenomenon: the spot where imagination and veracity intersect. To esteemed scholar and author Marshall Berman, it is also the flashing, teeming, and strangely beautiful nexus of his life. In this remarkable book, Berman takes us on a thrilling illustrated tour of Times Square, revealing a landscape both mythic and real. On the Town is a unique look through the lens of the ideas and works of art that inspired–or were inspired by–this landmark’s allure. Times Square pulses with life, drawing countless millions who long to be surrounded by too many in the midst of too much. Beyond the immense crowds, the intoxicating lights, the imposing architecture, and even the recent incursion of corporate headquarters that limn the Square’s present boundaries, there is an indefatigable humanity (and undeniable sexual tension) that, for more than a century, has nourished creative expression. Interleafing his own recollections with astute social commentary, Berman reveals how movies, graphic arts, literature, popular music, television, and, of course, the Broadway theater have reflected Times Square’s voluminous light to illuminate a vast spectrum of themes and vignettes. Berman shows us Times Square as it is seen in Alfred Eisenstadt’s iconic photography, the movies of Busby Berkeley, John Schlesinger, and Martin Scorsese, and the stage choreography of Jerome Robbins. Conversely, we see how Times Square’s distinctive aura finds its source in a stunningly diverse list of performers, writers, and impresarios, including Theodore Dreiser, Florenz Ziegfeld, Ethel Merman, Al Jolson, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. Berman also celebrates the unsung heroes of Times Square–the artists, engineers, and hucksters behind the Square’s landmark signs that, throughout the decades, re-created raging waterfalls, blew smoke rings, bathed onlookers in the Square’s eerily welcoming light, and projected the image of what Americans want to be against a surface of who we really are. Part love letter, part revelatory semiotic exposition of a place known to all, On the Town is a nonstop excursion to the heart of American civilization, written by one of our keenest, most entertaining cultural observers. |
Contents
Times Squares Signs | 3 |
Al Jolsons Jazz Singer | 21 |
Sailors in the Square | 43 |
Copyright | |
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42nd Street American American Splendor Arzner audience aura Betty Betty Boop Bildungsroman billboard blackface Broadway building burlesque called century Chapter Chorus Line classic color Comden comedy create crowd dance democracy deuce Dickson dream Dreiser Eisenstaedt Ethel Merman Fancy Free feel film fire signs Florodora girl guys Guys and Dolls Gypsy hero heroine Hollywood human imagine Jazz Singer Jerome Robbins Jewish Jews Jolson kids knew Kol Nidre light live Liz Phair look Merman modern mother moves movie Navy night numbers painting play Popular Front primal Robbins Robbins's romance sailors says scene seems sexual sings Sister Carrie song space spectacle spectacular Square Square's star story subway talk taxi theater thing thrill Tibor Kalman Town turn urban vision West 42nd Street woman women York York's young