NYC and Film Forum Past & Present

 

The Prospect Park Alligator

The Lou Reed Files

Recently in the news there's been a lot of controversy about documents, specifically presidents and vice-presidents of both parties taking home classified materials from their times in office, presumably to be kept as mementos or to be monetized somehow. Government and corporate files, and what is done with them, can be a lightening rode of controversy, whether its presidential records, the so-called Twitter files that some people think are bombshells of corporate and political malfeasance or "nothing burgers" (as most people seem to have concluded they are), and even the British royal family has issues with their files, most of which are kept secret from the public at large.

Files, documents, papers, tchotchkes, and other stuff, the kind of things that are stuffed into draws and cabinets -- they are the history of our lives and times. A lot of this stuff might be considered garbage but some of it can be quite valuable, insanely valuable. Because if journalism is the first draft of history, the files and archives of a person, company or government are the raw materials of history; in many ways, they are history, history made read, tactile and indisputable. 

They are stuff that our history is made of. 

As any devout Mr NYC ready knows I'm a lifelong fan of the great NYC singer/songwriter Lou Read. (Talking about an archive, you can read my extensive Lou Reed archive here.) But even better, until early next month, you can go to the New York Public Library Performing Arts location at Lincoln Center and see "Lou Reed: Caught Between the Twisted Stars" which is an exhibit of Lou Reed's personal archives that were donated to the library after his death in 2013.

The exhibit is an extensive display of the original cassettes and master tapes of Lou Reed's music, including from his time with the Velvet Underground. There are numerous posters from his concerts over the years, and some of his guitars and other trinkets. But my personal favorite are the letters that were sent to him over the decades, especially from such fellow legends as rock journalist Lester Bangs, Czech President Vaclav Havel (who dubbed the fall of Communism in his country as the "Velvet Revolution"), ex-Velvet Doug Yule, a fellow singer/songwriter named Paul McCartney, and even a letter from the White House. It's a reminder that Lou Reed's music meant a lot to many different kinds of people, and the huge respect he was held in by many. 

I took some pictures of the exhibit and really enjoyed it. It's a reminder that the man and his music made an deep impact on our culture and our world, and here was the proof, right before our eyes.

Here are Lou's words about how his career started:

And here are some of the posters, from the last time the Velvet Underground performed together in 1970 at Max's Kansas City:

Finally, the aforementioned letters, some of which are quite touching and funny:

A person's archives, and what they reveal about a life, will forever fascinate me.

Save Flaco!

Review: "Turn Every Page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb" (2022)

For the first time in way too long, I was able to do something I had done many times before kids and COVID took over my life -- go to a movie at Film Forum. And nothing could have been a more quintessential NYC experience that seeing a documentary there about two titanic New Yorkers, Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb, called Turn Every Page. 

For those who don't already know, Robert Caro is the author of the 1974 classic book The Power Broker about the NYC "master builder" Robert Moses who shaped this city in ways beyond comprehension. I've blogged a lot about Moses and this book over the years to the point of absurdity. 

I haven't done so about Gottlieb but he is no less a legend -- he is not only a book editor but is probably the most successful book editor of the late 20th, early 21st centuries. Since the 1950s, he's edited books by the likes of Michael Crichton and John la Carre, he edited all of Toni Morrison's novels, he not only edited but also came up with the title for Catch-22 (which has become a cultural catchphrase), he edited President Bill Clinton's autobiography in 2004 -- the legacy of the authors he's worked with and the books he's worked on is immense. And he's edited each of Robert Caro's books, starting with The Power Broker and then, for the last 40+ years, his multi-volume biography of President Lyndon Johnson, the last book of which they're still working on together.

Turn Every Page is about the working relationship of these two men over the decades, and how it's evolved but also stayed largely the same. They love each other dearly but aren't afraid to fight or disagree about their work, their passion for it being so great. Directed by Gottlieb's daughter Lizzie, it's a very affectionate portrait of these two men but also a very detailed, sober look at the extremely hard work of writing and editing -- they even spend time talking about semi-colons and stuff like that.

And that's what I loved about this documentary -- it's about the work just as much as it is about the personalities. It's about how these men actually get these books written, about how hard it is, about how exacting and time-consuming it is to create great, memorable books. It's also wonderful to see the story of two NYC boys who dreamed big and achieved greatness. But most of all, it focuses on the work, the toughness and demands of the work, and how there are no shortcuts. 

The documentary's title, Turn Every Page, is based on something that Robert Caro's boss told him when he was a young reporter at Newsday and was starting out doing investigating work: "Turn every page, turn every goddamn page!" 

Go see it!

Bobby De Niro Dancing in "Mean Streets" (1973)

Gotta Love New Yorkers

You can't love a city unless you love its people -- the people who created it, the people who maintain it, the people who give it its vitality, from the folks who pick up the city's trash, teach in its schools, drive its buses and cabs and trains, police its streets, build its economy, help it to grown, preserve and improve its architecture and greenery, to the people who give it cultural vitality -- the characters who help to define the city's character. 

To say that New York City has produced some interesting characters over the centuries would be an epic understatement. But reading about some NYC characters, a couple of whom recently passed, a couple who are still with us but in their winter years. I blogged in the past about some of the NYC greats, the characters who contributed to its cultural and intellectual life, and it's a tradition I like to uphold. So here are a few more great NYC characters, NYC greats, both past and present, that we should appreciate:

- There's the actor Charles Kimbrough who recently died at the age of 86. Most people will remember him for the decade he spent playing the pompous anchor Murphy Brown. But he was really a man of the stage and he originated roles on Broadway in two of Stephen Sondheim's best musicals -- Company in 1970 and Sunday in the Park with George in 1985. What an incredible acting legacy!

- There was the movie producer Ed Pressman who recently died at the age of 79. A native New Yorker he produced classics like Badlands, Wall Street, Bad Lieutenant, Reversal of Fortune, and American Psycho. He was one of the last big-shot, svengali producers that don't really exist anymore, and he made great movies about people instead of superheroes. A great cinematic legacy.

- Then there's Sonja Wagner. Who's she? She's a classic NYC story -- a bored housewife from Kansas who escaped to our fair city in the last 1970s and built a successful if under-the-radar career as an artist. She worked for adult mags while also creating her own art, and she found a loft that became an epicenter for struggling and successful artists to meet, party, network, and get into chicanery. Sonja is 85 now and terminally ill -- but she's kind of New Yorker who made this city her own and contributed to its culture in great ways.

- And there's always Fran Lebowitz. Look, what more can I say about this fount of NYC wisdom that hasn't already been said more often and better by others -- especially Fran herself? Fran is an NYC treasure, an institution unto herself. If I had to say what it is I love about Fran is that, even though she's a public intellectual, if that she's focuses on reality and not pretentiousness. She focuses on the real issues, not the nonsense. Perfect example, as she says in her latest interview, is that we should stop worrying or caring about the dopey-ness of people like the Kardashians and more about the threat that someone like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy poses. Smart lady, a great New Yorker. 

Classic Mr NYC

This is a record for the shortest amount of time between a blog post and then turning it into a "classic" -- about two months. Anyhoo, here's a link to my December 2022 review and examination of the classic 1980 movie Fame ... and below is an "on location" documentary that was made in 1979 at the time the movie was being shot in NYC.

The director, Alan Parker, makes a very interesting observation about Times Square and NYC at that time -- how you could pass the Broadway theaters and see the people who were at the very top rung of the showbusiness ladder ... and then, right next to them, were the adult theaters where you could see the people who were at the very bottom rung. 

Fame is about the people striving to get to the top rung -- or at least stay off the bottom one, and this documentary captures that restless spirit perfectly. 

Radio Remembrances

Over the years, I've blogged about my love for the old days of NYC radio. Heck, I realize I've blogged enough about it that I could create a whole separate blog about it all on its own! (Don't worry, I won't).

So talking about old NYC radio, I should note that this past January of 2023, one of the longest running show in NYC radio history came to an end: "Woody's Children" hosted by Bob Sherman.

Bob Sherman is an NYC radio legend, having worked at classical music station WQXR for more than 50 years. He's hosted shows like "The Listening Room" and "Young Artists Showcase" and others. At the age of 90, he's still working. His longevity is amazing.

"Woody's Children" was something different -- an American folk music show who's name was inspired by Woody Guthrie. "Woody's Children" debuted in 1969 on WQXR and ran there until 1999 when Bob Sherman moved it to WFUV. Sherman played every kind of folk music during those decades and interviewed everyone, including Pete Seeger (his first guest ever). Due to his age and other commitments, Bob has ended the show but what an incredible run!

I remember I used to listen to "Woody's Children" every so often when I was a kid. It used to be on Saturday nights at 7 PM. It was the first place where I ever heard "Alice's Restaurant". I can't say that I'm a huge folk music fan but I clearly remember this moment as being transformative for me -- where music could be funny and thoughtful, where a song could be a story unto itself. So thanks Bob Sherman, congrats on an historic achievement with "Woody's Children."

For some reason, at the same time I saw that "Woody's Children" was ending, I was remembering the weeknight radio show from my youth that used to air on Z100: "Love Phones" with Dr Judy. 

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, before the Internet and social media, call-in radio shows like this were very popular. They were, in a way, the original social media. And call-in shows about sex and relationships, airing after 10 PM in "safe harbor", where the hosts and callers would have explicit conversations, were especially popular, really being a kind of audio porn. The most popular, and longest running, was called "Lovelines" but, for whatever reason, it didn't air in NYC in the 1990s (it did, briefly, circa 2001-2003 on the ill-fated WNEW talk format).

"Love Phones" was the NYC-centric version of this show. Horny young people would call in with their weird sex experiences and questions, and Dr Judy would give wacky advice like suggesting that men write letters to their penises. They would have guests in the studio sometimes, many of whom didn't seem understand what kind of show they were on. I clearly remember one time a British guest was on and he was asked if he liked women making a lot of noise during lovemaking. His answer was rather odd: "Naw, I like 'em ratha' quiet." Eww. Anyway, this was, for that time, outrageous stuff although, by today's standards, quite tame and lame. But it was a moment in time where the exhibitionism that we see so much of in today's society was beginning to take off.

So, in remembering this show, it's easy to see today that "Love Phones" is both an artifact of its time, the kind of show that no longer exists, but also prelude of what was to ... come.