Remembering Sleazy NYC

Currently I'm really into looking at ads and newstories from 19070s NYC. I promise I won't post too many of these but I couldn't resist sharing some ads/news stories from back in the city's sleazy heyday. What a different time, what a different NYC it was! Some much more fun but also, let's face it, kinda gross. Enjoy! Or don't ...

The Band on SNL — October 30, 1976

Nearly fifty years ago -- on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976 -- the great rock band The Band gave their final performance (with the original lineup) at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, CA. 

It was a nearly six-hour long show where The Band played their greatest hits ("Up on Cripple Creek", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "It Makes No Difference") with with many guests including Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Hawkins, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Neil Young, and Mr Bob Dylan (amongst others). 

The concert was filmed by Martin Scorsese (the same year that Taxi Driver was release) and it became a landmark documentary, considered one of the greatest concert documentaries ever made, called The Last Waltz.

This one concert -“The end of an era” was how many people referred to the close of 1976. The dreams of the 60s and early 70s had faded, and we were ready for a revelation, a revolt, a changing of the guard. Punk rock—and, later, hip-hop—wanted to give music and culture a good slap in the face. It felt like everyone wanted to break something. - performed and recorded just over a month before my birth -- was a singular moment in music and cultural history. Robbie Robertson, the lead guitarist and chief lyricist for The Band wrote, in 2016:

“The end of an era” was how many people referred to the close of 1976. The dreams of the 60s and early 70s had faded, and we were ready for a revelation, a revolt, a changing of the guard. Punk rock—and, later, hip-hop—wanted to give music and culture a good slap in the face. It felt like everyone wanted to break something.

The end of that era, that faded world, was what I was born into -- and its intense to think about, how my beginning was at the end of something.

I love the music of The Band, and I went to see a re-release of The Last Waltz with my friends in 2002. As mentioned, the concert took place in San Francisco but, about a month earlier, The Band appeared on Saturday Night Live and was introduced by the writer-actor Buck Henry who mentioned that their final show was coming up. 

What an amazing moment in culture -- and in the history of SNL, NYC, and the culture at large.

Late Night in Winter

Late night television was born in NYC.

When the Tonight Show with Steve Allen premiered in 1954, it created a whole new world, not only for television, but for the entire culture. Late night TV was a America's bedtime story. During his 30-year reign as host of the Tonight Show, Johnny Carson was the nation's comforter-in-chief. In the years and decades since, so many other late night shows and hosts have come and gone that it's hard to keep track. And, of course, late night TV extended for beyond NYC, into "beautiful downtown Burbank" and the West Coast.

But late night TV has always been, at heart, a New York City thing. Like the city itself, it's always been a little edgy, a little nasty, a little smartass, a little offbeat, and yet always had a big welcoming heart.

Think Letterman. Think Jon Stewart. 

So it's a sad occasion that the Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been cancelled. In May 2026 it will end completely. Its network, CBS, is getting out of the late night business altogether. The reasons for this cancellation are, according to CBS, purely financial. But it's entirely possible that it was done to help grease the wheels of a huge merger that is taking place between CBS and Skydance. Skydance is owned by ultra-Republican billionaire Larry Ellison and Colbert used his show daily to bash Trump. Ending the show not only saves CBS money but also appeases the FTC to approve the merger, as well as Larry Ellison's ego (it's rumored that he'll turn CBS into another Fox News).

The financial and the political are, let's face it, one and the same. One hand washes the other. Power speaks to power. 

Also, the economics of late night TV awful: the Tonight Show is down to four nights a week, Late Night lost its band, other late night shows have been cancelled and not replaced, it's a shrinking, dying breed. People would rather watch streaming or YouTube or watch their phones. Who needs late night TV?

But it's a sad moment for late television, for the culture, and for NYC. Something has been lost, never to be replaced. We'll remember late night TV the same way some people remember cigarette ads on TV or other cultural ephemera. Gone, but not forgotten.

P.S. the Colbert show is the only late night show that I went to a taping of, and I wrote about it briefly in 2018. 

Review: "Julie & Julia" (2009)

Flying home from Paris one of the in-flight movie options was, naturally, Julie & Julia from 2009.

This comedy is a dual bio-pic about the famed cookbook author and OG TV cooking show host Julia Child, and a woman named Julie Powell who cooked all 524 recipes from Child's 1961 tome Mastering the Art of French. The movie flashes back and forth between the late 1940s/early 1950s (when Julia Child and her diplomat husband, Paul, were living in France and she was discovering her love of French food and the genesis of her book), and 2002 when a young, newly married woman named Julie Powell, living in NYC, decides to cook all of the book's recipes.

It's a movie about love and inspiration -- the love of food, of culture, of significant others, of the better and more refined things in life, and how these things are always challenged by the harsh realities of the world. In the Julia Child/French/mid-20th century part, Julia and her husband's life and careers are challenged by the Cold War and encroaching McCarthyism, and the Julie/NYC/early 21-st century part is challenged by the shortness of money and the dark shadow of 9/11. The movie's point is doing what you love, being with who you love, enjoying what you love is possible -- but it's a lot of hard work and sometimes we face big forces beyond our control.

Julia Child is played by Meryl Streep in one of her typical dazzling performances. Her husband is the always great, always lovable Stanley Tucci. Julie Powell is played by the perky Amy Adams and Chris Messina is her clueless but loving husband. The movie does a good job of interweaving the two stories and showing us the luscious world of post-war France and the gritty reality of early aughts NYC. And if you love food, especially French food, you'll get really hungry after watching this.

Julie & Julia was the last movie written and directed by Nora Ephron, three years before her death in 2012. She was the brilliant writer of When Harry Met Sally ..., Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, and other movies.  This movie was her swan song -- and a really good one at that -- if not necessarily up there with her classics. It's worth seeing, especially if you love Paris, NYC, food, and everything that makes life worth living.

The Lost Palaces Down by the Riverside ... Drive

If I had the cash to build a palace, I'd build it in a great city by a river.

Imagine living in a huge home, gilt and elegance everywhere, looking out the window and seeing a brilliant cityscape, and then looking out another window and seeing a big placid stream of water.

How lovely, how mesmerizing, how ... rich.

This is not, obviously, an original idea to me. There have been several historic palaces built next to rivers in great cities but today, sadly, most of them are gone.

And here in NYC, we also have phantom riverside palaces -- the lost mansions that used to exist on Riverside Drive in Manhattan.

But foist, to history!

In London, in the medieval era, there was a huge palace on the banks of the River Thames in London called the Savoy Palace. It was huge, gorgeous, and absolutely screamed of power and wealth. Unsurprisingly it was owned by the then-royal family of England, the Plantagenets. Its last resident was John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III, and an important political and military leader of his time -- a kind of guy-behind-the-guy, a Bismark or James Baker or Tywin Lannister kind of guy.

But tragedy befell the Savoy Palace in 1381 when, during the Peasants Revolt, it was burned down, totally destroyed (John of Gaunt had levied a very unpopular tax on the peasants and the peasants let him know what they thought of it). A smart politician, John didn't rebuild the palace -- instead, he made tax reforms and quelled the rebellion, restoring peace.

John of Gaunt is also the grandfather of every British monarch since Henry IV. John and his longtime-mistress/last wife, the gorgeous and amazing Kathrine Swynford, had four kids. John of Gaunt's riverside palace may not have survived but his DNA sure does!

Moving down to Paris, on the right back of the River Seine, used to stand the Tuilleries Palace. It was one of many residences of the French Kings and it was actually built by the great Queen Catherine de Medici herself. The French Kings before the 1789 didn't actually live there much (they soon headed out to Versailles) but in the 19th century it was used by the short-lived monarchs Louise-Phillipe and Louise Napoleon.

But the Tuilleries Palace became another victim of mass fervor when, during the Paris Commune of 1871, it was destroyed, never to be rebuilt. Now it's a massive public park, the Tuilleries Gardens, where families stroll and couples go to ... French.

Sidenote: a forgotten historical figure named Prince Phillipp of Saxe Coburg Gotha was born in the Tuilleries Palace in 1844. He was the brother-in-law and best friend of the Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary who, along with a couple of others, discovered Rudolf and his dead mistress at Mayerling in January, 1889. Philipp is an intriguing, pivotal character in Episode 4 of Fall of Eagles (see below, it's an amazing episode). Phillipp also put his crazy cheating wife (who was also his cousin) in an insane assylum and fought a duel with her lover that he lost, and then divorced her. During Word War 1, his son was killed when his son's mistress threw acid in his face. He had a life of both great privilege and great tragedy, an example of late 19th century/early 20th century European monarchy that vanished with the war.   

Then there's the Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. Built by the insanely wealthy and noble Yusupov family on the banks of the Moika River. It was as huge, as gorgeous, as jaw-droppingly splendid as any palace ever built anywhere. It was (literally) a shining example of Tsarist Russia -- the kind of place that represented everything that the Communists hated and wanted to destroy.

Amazingly, however, the Communists didn't destroy it after the 1917 Russian revolution. It was too big, too impressive, and too useful to destroy. Instead, the Yusopov family fled Russia and the Communists turned into a ministry. Now its a museum. But even though this riverside palace still exists, it's still a phantom -- no one lives there, its original use abandoned, a curiosity of history and not a living part of it.

But what's most interesting about this palace is that while it's huge and gorgeous and an architectural marvel, its best known for something that happened in a basement room in the palace late at night on December 30, 1916. That's the night that Prince Felix Yusupov and his friends killed the mysterious and fake holy man/Tsarist whisperer and advisor Rasputin. They fed him poisoned cakes and wine and, when those failed to kill him, shot him. Rasputin managed to flee outside of the palace where Yusupov and his friends shot him again. Then they chained him up and drove him outside St. Petersburg where they dumped his body into another river. And while Yusopov and his friends thought killing Rasputin would save the Russian monarchy, it was in fact the moment when its doom was sealed.

Okay, so we've delved into history of some of the riverside palaces in London, Paris and St. Petersburg. Let's come home to NYC.

And here you can learn all about the huge, beautiful mansions -- some of them almost as big and gorgeous as palaces -- that were built in the 19th-century on Riverside Drive in Manhattan. Obviously no nobles or royals built or lived in them, but they were examples of the Gilded Age, of New Money, of trying to show their European counterparts that they could build great homes as grand as anything in the Old World. And Riverside Drive, that great stretch of road by the watery Western frontier of NYC, seemed like the perfect place.

Sadly, most of these mansions on Riverside Drive are gone today. A couple still exist but, during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century, their wealthy residents could no longer afford their upkeep and sold them to developers. The new owners proceeded to knock them down and build apartment buildings -- some quite splendid themselves but not quite as interesting as the mansions they replaced. 

This documentary below about the lost mansions, the lost palaces, of Riverside Drive tells the story about ten of these long-gone gems.

And I have a personal interest in this -- one of the mansions mentioned in this documentary was replaced by the building that I grew up in myself and where my family still owns the apartment.

So yeah ... I kinda-sorta-but-not-really-but-want-to-believe that I grew up and lived for years in a kinda-sorta-palace on the riverside of a great city.

And that I have a some stuff in common with other previous residents of riverside palaces, like personal intelligence and elegance, except for ... 

John of Gaunt; I mean this guy had it all -- money, power, a hot woman (and women), kids, bling -- I just wouldn't want to have my home burned down. 

... or Catherine de Medici but without all the killing. 

... or Prince Phillipp of Saxe Coburg Gotha but without putting my wife in a loonie bin or discovering my brother-in-law dead. 

... or Prince Felix Yusopov without killing a gross and weird holy man and then fleeing the country.

And if you want to just enjoy the beauty and impressive current day architecture of Riverside Drive, I strongly suggest taking a walk along this most amazing and unique of NYC thoroughfares. 

Yankees Off to the World Series!

The Yankees are back in the World Series!

Now NYC and the country are on tenderhooks: will the Yankees face the erstwhile Brooklyn, now Los Angeles, Dodgers or will they face the Mets -- and will NYC have its first subway series since the year 2000?

When the Yankees were last in the World Series, in 2009, I blogged about each game. Guess I should do it again this year. 

May the games begin!

Review: "Face Value: The Marla Hanson Story" (1991)

The hottest thing in American popular culture today isn't superhero movies -- it's hours-long true crime podcasts, documentaries, and TV series.

In the last few years, tabloid scandals from the past about Jeffrey Dahmer, Andrew Cunan, Robert Chambers, OJ, and many others (more recently, the Menendez Brothers) have become massive hits in various multi-episode formats. And all of them seem to be about tabloid stories from the late 20th century.

But before the era of streaming and podcasts, where hours and hours could be devoted to telling these trashy tales, such stories would become network TV movies -- and instead of waiting years, these "ripped from the headlines" events became hastily-made, two-hour flicks. 

One such story that, as far as I know, has yet to become a 21st-century multi-hour podcast/documentary/streaming series is about the June 1986 attack of Marla Hanson.

A Missouri-transplant and aspiring model, Marla Hanson was living in a Manhattan apartment, attending glamorous parties, pursuing romance, living the NYC dream, until one day her landlord, who was obsessed with her, slashed her face, ending her modeling dreams. It was a big, scary story about obsession, beauty, and the "face value" of human worth. Her attackers were eventually sentenced to prison, but not until she was, in her words, badly treated by the criminal justice system. 

And this is why the 1991 TV-movie about the incident was called Face Value: The Marla Hanson Story.

This movie falls squarely into the now gone-and-forgotten sensationalist TV-movie with bad writing, bad acting, bad production values, and bad music. It's amazing to think anything this low-rent would get made today but, thirty-odd years ago, this was the stuff that millions of people watched when the big network TV hits went on hiatus.

There are, however, a few interesting things about this movie that make it worth watching (you can see the trailer and full movie below).

First, it's a real-NYC movie that, in its ways, captures the allure and danger of the late 20th century, pre-911 city. 

Second, the cast.

Marla Hanson is played by an actress named Cheryl Pollack, who "had a moment" in the early 1990s. She was in the 1990 movie Pump Up the Volume, a memorable episode of Quantum Leap, and later on was on another show called The Heights. She continued to pop up in TV shows throughout the 1990s until, it appears, she left acting. 

Marla's landlord/slasher was played by an odd-looking, odd-sounding actor named Kirk Baltz. And ironically, the very next year, he'd make movie history as the victim of a fictional slashing -- he's the guy who played the cop who memorably got his ear cut-off in Quentin Tarantino's directorial-debut Reservoir Dogs (while "Stuck in the Middle With You" played in the background). It must have been ironic for him to go, within a year or so, from playing a slasher in a totally forgettable TV movie to playing the most famous slashing victim in movie history -- and in a cinematic classic.

Then there's Marla's love interest. He's played by a very handsome actor named Dale Midkiff. His career caught fire in the 1980s when he played Elvis in a TV-mini-series, and then was in the 1989 hit movie Pet Semetary. But big screen stardom elluded him and it was back to TV. Not long after making this Marla Hanson TV movie, Dale starred in a very silly but massively entertaining show called Time Trax. It was about a cop from the year 2193 who is sent back in time to 1993 to find criminals who escaped from his time, hiding out the past, and sending them back to the future -- and justice. After Quantum Leap, it was my favorite time-travel show ever (although nowhere as good as QL), and he was really good in it. It only ran for two-years but it was fun to watch (interestingly, Time Trax premiered on January 20th, 1993, the same day that Bill Clinton became president).

As for Marla Hanson, after this horrible incident, she appears to have gone on and lived a nice quiet life. She married, had a child, worked briefly as a screenwirter, and seems to have had no interest in having a public profile in the almost 40-years after she was thrust into the headlines. And good for her! 

These days the network TV movie seems to be a thing of the past. But this movie capture an era of TV, and NYC, that seems both far in the past and very familiar. 

Mr NYC Ahead of His Time

Just last week I blogged about the difficulties that NYC Comptrollers face when they run for NYC mayor -- only one comptroller, Abe Beame, has gone to sleep in Gracie Mansion.

For more than half a century every subsequent comptroller has succumbed to the Curse of the Comptroller. 

Doubtless when each of these comptrollers were first elected they must have felt, elated with the flush of a great victory, that the mayoralty was their's for the taking (only to find, years later, that it was out of reach).

Well, the current comptroller Brad Lander must feel the same way because he's just announced that he's running for mayor in 2025. This is going to get nasty really quick -- and as unpopular and vulnerable as Mayor Eric Adams is, it could wind up with both guys heading to their political doom.

But remember, when pundits start talking about the difficulties comptrollers runnings for mayor have, remember Mr NYC wrote about it first!

NYC's Top Historical Sites

Politics makes history -- that is something that we are depressingly learning the hard ways these days.

But hard times make history, and people make history, and they have to make it somewhere. 

Many New Yorkers, for better and (let's face it, more recently) for worse, have made history and made it in various spots around this city. This article lists the most historically imporant places in NYC -- some that are obvious and others that aren't.

Remembering Fernando Wood, NYC's "Scoundrel" Mayor

Imagine a politician who built his wealth in real estate, was a racist demagogue who supported the Confederacy, incited a riot, married and fathered multiple children with multiple women, tried to undermine democracy and the law to make himself a dictator, and used his executive public office to enrich himself ...

Of course I'm talking about the mid-19th Century NYC Mayor Fernando Wood.

Born in Philadelphia in 1812, Wood migrated to NYC and worked as a laborer, got involved in Tammany Hall politics, and was eventually elected to Congress in 1840. After one term he left and got into real estate, accumulating a fortune but remaining involved in politics until he finally was elected mayor in 1854.

His administration was basically a giant shakedown and bribery operation but he did notch some significant achievements: rebuilding the city harbor, overseeing the approval and eventual creation of Central Park, and implementing the grid system. He also attempted to change the city charter to essentially make the city government the extension of one man – him – so he could act as a dictator. When he ran for re-election in 1856, he furloughed the police department and got a band of thugs to menace and beat up voters in order to get reelected. He was never prosecuted for this. 

Defeated for a third-term, Wood eventually got elected mayor again in 1860 – just as the Civil War was breaking out. He supported slavery and the Confederacy, and called for NYC to secede from New York State so it could keep trading with the south.

So did Fernando Wood ever face public disgrace or jail for his corruption and crimes?

Oh no. In 1862, he returned to Congress and opposed abolition. And he remained in Congress, becoming chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, until he died in 1881, a very wealthy man with a mansion on West 77th Street.

He also had three wives and fathered 16 children. The man was forever busy.

Today we live in an era of aspiring dictators and corrupt chief executives with a love of racism and violence and money. So while history has not been kind to Fernando Wood's memory, in some ways, he'd be right at home in our era.

But he's been condemned, at least, by popular culture: see the 2012 Steven Spielberg movie Lincoln and listen to the 2011 Bowery Boys episode.

In many ways, Fernando Wood makes later NYC mayors Jimmy Walker and Eric Adams look like pillars of virtue.

NYC by ChatGPT

User: tell me the history of new york city

ChatGPT: New York City has a rich and fascinating history that dates back hundreds of years. Here's a brief overview of its history:

Early History:

The area where New York City now stands was originally inhabited by various Native American tribes, including the Lenape people. In 1524, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano became the first recorded European to enter New York Harbor. In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch, explored the region and claimed it for the Dutch.

Dutch and British Colonization:

In 1624, the Dutch West India Company established a trading post called New Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The settlement grew slowly, focused primarily on fur trading. In 1664, the British, under the command of the Duke of York (later King James II), seized New Amsterdam from the Dutch without much resistance. It was renamed New York in honor of the Duke.

American Revolution:

During the American Revolution, New York City was a strategic location and a major British stronghold. In 1776, the Continental Army under General George Washington attempted to defend the city but was forced to retreat after a series of defeats. The city remained under British control until 1783 when the Treaty of Paris ended the war and the British evacuated.

19th Century Growth:

In the 19th century, New York City experienced rapid growth and transformation. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 connected the city to the Great Lakes region and boosted trade and transportation. The city became a major center for finance, trade, and immigration. Waves of immigrants, including Irish, German, Italian, Jewish, and others, arrived in New York City, contributing to its diverse cultural fabric.

Civil War and Reconstruction:

During the American Civil War (1861-1865), New York City played a crucial role as a major hub for recruiting soldiers and supplying the Union Army. The city's economy boomed during this time, benefiting from manufacturing and trade. After the war, the city experienced further growth and urban development.

20th Century and Beyond:

In the early 20th century, New York City continued to expand and solidify its status as a global metropolis. Landmark events include the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, the opening of the subway system in 1904, and the construction of iconic skyscrapers like the Empire State Building in the 1930s.

The city faced numerous challenges, including the Great Depression, social unrest, and crime waves in the mid-20th century. However, it also witnessed significant cultural and artistic movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance, which showcased African American talent and creativity.

In recent decades, New York City has remained a vibrant and influential city on the world stage. It faced a tragic moment on September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center was attacked, leading to the loss of thousands of lives. The city demonstrated resilience and unity in the face of adversity.

Today, New York City is a global center for finance, commerce, culture, and tourism. It is known for its diverse neighborhoods, iconic landmarks (such as Times Square, Central Park, and the Statue of Liberty), and as a hub for arts, entertainment, and media. It continues to evolve and shape the world around it while preserving its rich historical legacy.

Mr NYC in the Poconos

Recently the family and I took an overnight trip to a resort in the Poconos, the beautiful mountain range in Northern Pennsylvania overlooking the Delaware River.

Despite being only a two-hour drive from NYC, this was the first time yours truly ever ventured there. Like the Catskills or the Berkshires, the Poconos is a place where people like to ski in the winter and swim in the summers, getting a literal and figurative breath of fresh air from the stresses of city life.

Since we really aren't skiers, we spent almost all of our time there in a massive indoor water park with slides and running rivers and hot tubs that we really loved. Outdoors the views were beautiful (if not quite as stunning as the Sierra Nevada ranges) and the air was very frigid -- you never realize how high up you are until that cold mountain air hits you in the face. The thing about the Poconos is that its heyday is long past -- before frequent air travel and rising incomes, families from NYC and Philly would go to places like this for vacations. It was a booming time of big resorts, vaudeville shows, and whole transient communities. Nowadays, that's a thing of the past, most of the resorts are gone or abandoned -- but the skiing and rivers still attract some tourists.

We had a few interesting and weird experiences during our 36 hours in the Poconos.

In addition to the water fun, my family and I did an "escape room" where a whole family gets trapped in a series of rooms and has to do a bunch of stunts to get out. The first room was so impossible to get out of that someone had to come in and help us but then I shot a bunch of fake rats (don't ask) that got us out of the second room (this made me a hero to the wife and kids) and then in the third room we didn't have to do much to do. While I'm glad we did the escape room, I can't imagine it's an experience we'll ever repeat.

The people working at the resort were very nice if a little eccentric. One of the guys who served us at the pool was from the Bronx and, when we decided to order pizza, he told us: "Remember, it's not New York pizza, it's Poconos pizza, best for kids and drunks."

We also did something called a "silent disco" where people congregate and are given headphones with pre-programmed music and they can dance to different songs. My family danced (I didn't) and it was a weird if lighthearted thing to experience. 

Then another time I ordered a cocktail off the bar menu called "On the Slopes" -- basically a White Russian except that it substituted Grand Marnier for Vodka. When I ordered the drink, the old lady bartender said: "That's a good choice!"

Me: "Thanks."

Bartender: "It's my drink, I invented it."

Me: "Oh, I see."

Bartender: "It's actually called 'Sex on the Slopes' but they wouldn't let me put 'sex' on the menu."

Me (unsure how to reply): "Well, this is a family establishment."

Bartender: "Kids don't look at the menu!"

She had a point but I still don't understand why you'd called a drink "Sex on the Slopes" since, unlike "Sex on the Beach", sex on skiing slopes isn't something people really do. Anyhoo ...

I liked the Poconos, it was very nice, and you should check it out if you'd like a brief respite from the crazy life of NYC.

The Hispanic Society of America

In a city with some of the world's most famous museums, perhaps the least known but most impressive is the Hispanic Society of America in Washington Heights.

I went to this museum several years ago, and recently read a new article about an exhibition that it's putting on in London, the first of its kind (the museum itself is currently closed for extensive renovations).

Founded at the turn of the 20th century, the Hispanic Society is not really so much of a traditional "society" or organization but a museum and research library focusing on the arts, culture, and history of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, the Spanish East Indies, and Portuguese India. There are extensive and gorgeous historical paintings, along with books and other cultural artifacts rom these parts of the world. The building itself is a stunning, palatial, Beaux Arts stone masterpiece that is even more jaw-droppingly beautiful inside than out. 

The reason, I'm sure, that this amazing museum is not better known is because it's located so far uptown and, let's face it, concentrates on peoples and parts of the world that White America and White NYC cares little about. But going there, and reading about this museum and the history it records, is a reminder that there is a whole other continent-spanning world (worlds, really), a whole other history, a whole other culturally-rich and fascinating immersive culture that most non-Hispanic peoples know nothing but can easily learn about. 

And that's what's so great about NYC -- you can literally go somewhere and enter another world, learn another history, and get immersed in another culture that is so far from your own but that enriches your spirit and expands your world. 

George Santos & Lester Chang: Flimflammers Are Why Nepo Babies Thrive

I really need to start an "ahead of his time" label for this blog because, once again, Mr NYC is ahead of his time -- specifically, this time, about nine months. In March, 2022 I wrote a blog post about Mayor Eric Adams and how his nascent mayoralty seemed to be all about flash over substance, about how he had no clear vision or policies for the city, about his associations with questionable characters, and, most of all, just about what a weirdo he is. 

Well, now, Vanity Fair has written an article about his first year in office and concludes much of the same thing as I did. Read it, then read my blog post from nine months earlier, and see if I wasn't ahead of the curve in this assessment of Mayor Adams.

That said, I will give him this -- Mayor Eric Adams is who he says he is, and his resume prior to being mayor was impressive -- more than two decades in the NYPD followed by service as a State Senator and a Brooklyn Borough President. He is, at least in NYC political terms, the real deal, l'article genuine -- even if we don't know where he really lives. To sum up Adams, he's a political heavyweight and a policy lightweight.

Even though there's a stench of dishonesty and sleaze around Eric Adams, he is who he says he is and worked really hard to get where he is -- literally over decades. 

Which, of course, brings us to George Santos, the new Congressman-elect from Northeast Queens (and Nassau County but who cares about that?) who's entire life -- his education, his resume, his finances, his religion, maybe even his sexual orientation, is completely bogus. How a complete charlatan like this could get elected in the New York area is well, if not completely, described by Steve Isreal who used to represent this district in Congress several years ago. His conclusion is that Santos got through due to complete and utter apathy by the NY political class, the media, and voters. This is obvious, not only in the case of Santos, but in the case of a recently elected Brooklyn assemblyman named Lester Chang who, it turns out, doesn't really live in the district. If his opponents and the media had done their homework before the election, they would have exposed all this and the voters would have known that frauds were running to represent them. But they didn't know, and now New York has these twin political messes to deal with. 

And it got me thinking. 

Recently New York magazine published a bunch of articles about "nepo babies" or people who have succeeded, in this case, in showbusiness largely because they have parents who were already in the business -- and had all of the connections and power needed to launch their kids' careers. Nepotism is as old as human history, of course, parents have always wanted to give their kids and family members every advantage to succeed -- power begets power, wealth begets wealth, opportunity begets opportunity. There's a reason why so much of human history has had hereditary monarchies and titles, why the legal concepts of inheritance and primogeniture exist, and so forth -- families want to keep their wealth and power intact for generations to come; they want, in a word, legacy. 

For example, the great director John Huston has been dead for over 35 years but his son, daughter and grandson all have big acting careers. The Huston name is still important in Hollywood today, even decades after the big man's death (and John Huston's father was an actor as well so there you go). 

The triumph of nepotism in America, of course, makes a mockery of the concept of "meritocracy", a cherished American notion that everyone who achieves success did so only through their hard work, and that nothing else matters. This is and always has been BS, of course -- hard work without connections is meaningless. Family support can be vital. But nepotism is powerful not only because powerful, wealthy, and highly-connected people can create great opportunities for their kids. It's also because people who come from such families have what you might call instant credibility, you can do an instant background check on them, you know who they are because you know who their parents and families are. You know the ecosystem, the environment they came out. Nepo babies are a brand, of sorts, a known quantity, and there's an almost instant comfort level with them because you know "their people."

That's why, decade after decade, people named Kennedy and Bush kept getting elected to political office. We know them, even if we don't really like them. 

And that is the huge barrier that people without such connections, without such family power, who are starting out in their careers, face. They're outsiders, unknown, almost bewildering creatures. Such career strivers, such outsiders trying to get inside, are often derisively called "climbers" or "gatecrashers" or "wannabes." They are held suspect until they prove themselves worthy. They have to prove themselves a lot, they have to be the best of the best of the best, they have to smart and crafty as hell, they have to be able to find and exploit every opportunity, they have to work really hard and have a lot of extra special luck to "make it" -- and, as soon as they do, such "self-made" people become "nepo parents" all their own.

George Santos and Lester Chang felt that they needed to lie and cheat in order to thrive. They are blatant climbers but they obviously didn't posses the superior skills, hard work, or clear opportunities to succeed honestly, to succeed on their own -- so they lied and cheated. They're flimflam men, and they are the kinds of people that scare what you might call the Establishment, the gatekeepers, the powers-that-be. The Establishment doesn't want criminals or liars or people they deem unworthy in their midst. So this is why nepotism  and "nepo babies" thrive -- better to go with who you know, better to stay in your comfort zone, better to give opportunities to the people are already "pre-approved." The Establishment doesn't want to let in someone who hasn't, in their view, demonstrated the superior abilities to earn membership in it -- but coming from the right family means you're there already. 

The Establishment doesn't lift the gate to just anyone who doesn't already have family on the other side of it. 

In many ways, I feel sorry for Santos and Chang -- they see what others have, namely money and power, and these guys want it to -- but they have neither the connections nor the skills nor the opportunities to get it on their own, they are unable to do the very hard work to get it, to prove that they're better than the nepo babies around them -- so they lie.

And compared to these guys and any other possible "flimflammers" in our midst, going with a nepo baby is a safe choice. 

Review: "Fame" (1980) and Its Legacy

Warning: This movie review has a tiny plot twist all its own at the end. Read on!

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This summer I finally got around to seeing a movie that had been on my "When I get around to it" list for literally decades -- the original 1980 classic Fame.

The late great movie critic Robert Ebert wrote a review of Fame when it was originally released that is so good, so beautifully descriptive, that I'll quote part of it here (I certainly can't write anything better):

    "Fame" is a genuine treasure, moving and entertaining, a movie that                 understands being a teen-ager as well as Breaking Away did, but studies its      characters in a completely different milieu. It's the other side of the coin: A        big-city, aggressive, cranked-up movie to play against the quieter traditions of     Breaking Away's small Indiana college town. Fame is all New York City. It's    populated by rich kids, ghetto kids, kids with real talent, and kids with mothers     who think they have real talent. They all go into the hopper, into a high school    of kids who are worked harder because they're "special" -- even if they're secretly not so sure they're so special.

Fame centers around a bunch of kids over their four years at the High School of the Performing Arts, otherwise known as "LaGuardia." On the one hand they are regular high school kids, blossoming teenagers with all the regular wants and fears and academic pressures, but, in addition to their studies, they are also training to become actors, dancers, and musicians. Drawn to the school from all walks of life, from across all five boroughs -- rich and poor, black and white, very talented to barely talented -- they work hard, dream hard, and experience numerous joys and heartbreaks. The movie centers around Montgomery, an actor and closeted homosexual; Lisa, a dancer who becomes an actor; Coco -- a dancer and singer; LeRoy, a dancer who is as troubled as he is talented; Ralph, an actor and aspiring comedian, along with Doris, a shy fellow actor who falls in love with him; Bruno, a brilliant musician; and Hillary, a wise-cracking dancer who falls in love with LeRoy. The movie does not have a simple, straightforward plot but, instead, shows a series of interlinking stories, following the characters as their lives change and evolve over their four years together.

Released in May 1980, Fame became a sensation, a surprise box office hit considering that it had no famous stars, no simple or traditional plot, and was about, of all things, a bunch of odd-looking teenagers at a performing arts high school in NYC. It came at a pivotal moment for both New York City and America: NYC was still recovering from its mid-1970s almost-bankruptcy, and was still plagued with its "Fear City" moniker; culturally, however, it was thriving -- "Saturday Night Live" was the hottest thing on TV, Woody Allen was at the height of his career, Studio 54 was raging, and Broadway had big shows like "A Chorus Line" and "Annie" running. And then here comes along this little gem of a movie about a bunch of ragtag NYC kids trying to make it through high school while starting a career in the arts -- and audiences loved it.

America, on the other hand, was changing -- Ronald Reagan and the triumph of cultural and economic conservative was months away, and the country seemed more than ready to rid itself of the tumult of the 1960s and '70s. Fame, in some ways, was a last hurrah of that era, a paean to a time that was troubled but also creatively alive and exciting, a celebration of the arts and artists, and a love letter to NYC, a city that the rest of the country loved to hate. It was an early middle-finger to the political and cultural world to come -- but also, ironically, the unofficial beginning of the 1980s teen movie crazy.

Even though the movie is called Fame, it could also have been called "Sweaty" -- the students literally sweat for their art (especially the dancers) as much as they are sweating about their futures of making it in showbusiness. There are many uncomfortable scenes where the characters face the limitations of their talents, their relationships, their aspirations, their place in this crazy world of the arts. While this movie is a celebration of the artistic spirit, it's not sentimental in any way -- it brutally shows you the grimy, often sleazy showbiz world these kids inhabit, without sugarcoating it.

In that way, it's a real NYC movie.

As you might imagine, Fame is full of amazing acting, dancing and music. There are beautiful scenes of dancers moving gracefully, of musicians giving their all to make the best sounds they're capable of, of actors trying to nail a scene, and also wonderful show-stopping songs. These include the Oscar-winning title song "Fame (I'm Gonna Live Forever)", "Out Here on My Own", "Hot Lunch", and the amazing final number "I Sing the Body Electric" that is performed in rousing spirit at graduation. Everyone in the whole movie sings, "And in time, and in time, we will all ... be ... stars!" Most of them, of course, will never become stars -- but they can and should always dream.

And that's what this movie is all about -- always dreaming, never giving up, even when the world tells you that you should.

Fame has had a surprising after-life since it came out over 42 years ago. In 1982, it became a TV show that ran for five years, with some of the movie's actors joining the show along with a whole new cast of characters and stories. In the late 1990s there was a second, short-running series called "Fame: LA" with all new characters and stories set on the West Coast. And then, in 2009, there was a remake called, unimaginatively, Fame that the critics hated but had some box office success (Kelsey Grammer was in it if you can believe it). Fame was a forerunner to other "I wanna be in showbusiness" projects like Smash or Glee or even The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. In seems, in this era of a million TV shows, like the Fame property or IP or whatever is just ripe for a comeback -- heck, if they can bring back Full House and Quantum Leap, why not Fame?

A few ironies about this movie and my review of it:

First, the director. Even though Fame is a down-and-dirty NYC movie, it was directed by a British guy -- Alan Parker -- whose previous film had been the intense, Oscar-winning, Turkish-set triller, Midnight Express. Fame was obviously a big change of pace, and he would go on to direct other arts-centric movies like The Commitments and other intense movies like Mississippi Burning. A great talent, he died in 2020.

Second, Irene Cara. Oh, how I loved her! I was already planning to write this review before I learned, just days ago, that Irene Cara who played Coco in "Fame" had died at the age of 63. She is amazing in this movie, and performs its most brutal, emotionally intense scene. She also sings most of the songs, luminously, and, if someone became a big star out of "Fame", it was her. Three years later she would win an Oscar and a Grammy for writing and singing the song "Flashdance ... What a Feeling!", easily the best dance pop song ever. She was an amazing talent whose career and life ended far too early -- but her songs will truly "live forever."

Third, and finally, my "history" (of sorts) with Antonia Franceschi, who plays the funny, horny, and super-talented dancer Hillary in Fame. Antonia was a young aspiring dancer at the School of American Ballet when she was cast in Fame and, interestingly enough, even though the movie became a huge hit, Antonia eschewed an acting career to spend the next twelve years as a dancer at the New York City Ballet before embarking on a long career as a choreographer. Very recently, I contacted her to see if she would do an interview for this blog but it didn't quite work out, even though she was very polite and informative in her replies.

But here is the plot twist (of sorts) that was promised ... drum roll ...

I've blogged about how, back in the mid-1980s, I appeared in "The Nutcracker" at the New York City Ballet. Well, I recently went back to look at one of the old programs I saved for my run in "The Nutcracker" and guess who appeared with me (and many others) in the opening party-scene -- that's right, Antonia Franceschi! So yours truly, Mr NYC, has performed on stage with a cast member from Fame! How cool is that?

Fame is truly a classic, a movie that may be decades old but that feels so fresh, so alive, so true-to-life that it never gets old, never gets boring, never feels outdated.

It's a must-watch for anyone whoever was young, whoever loved the arts, and whoever loved NYC.

The Future Face of NYC

In the almost fifteen years of this blog's existence, I've written a lot about how the "face" of NYC keeps changing, transforming, evolving. It's inevitable that in a city of almost nine-million people that the physical, economic, political, and cultural infrustructure of it will forever alter itself.

Old buildings will be torn down, new ones raised. Some businesses will close, new ones will open. Politicians of various stripes will leave office, new ones will replace them. Shows and cultural institutions will dissapear, new ones will appear. It's a cycle, the constant churn of the city, the forever changing face of NYC.

Recently -- talking about a cultural institution that vanished and reappeared -- the sequel series to Sex and the City, And Just Like That, has inspired writers to look at how different NYC has become in 2021-2022 compared to the show's original run from 1998-2004. As this article indicates, the show feels less inspiring, less fun, in part, because the city of today feels less inspiring and fun than the one in the original show. It's vastly more gentrified, sleek, overbuilt, and boring -- plus it's been dealing with a pandemic. A young colleague of mine who recently discovered the original show has told me about her fascination of the NYC portrayed in Sex and the City -- it seems like another, wilder, funner, cheaper world. Even though the first show ended less than twenty-years ago, it feel literally like a whole different planet. It's amazing to contrast the NYC of And Just Like That to the 1950s, 1960s city of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. That city feels not only like another world, but another universe. 

But that's just the NYC of the popular imagination, popular culture, as re-interpreted by TV. The future of NYC is always, always determined by it's phyiscal shape, economy, and politics. And that's changing, big time.

Within the next fifteen years, by the time this blog celebrates its 30th (!) anniversary, the following developments will have profoundly altered the face and life of NYC:

First, there's the Interborough Express, a reconstituted freight train line that will be turned into rapid transit connecting Brooklyn and Queens. Until now, there has never been any good public transportation between the city's two biggest (by far) boroughs, and this be a big change. It will originate at Woodside, snake through Maspeth, Middle Village and Ridgewood, then curl into Bushwick, Brownsville, Flatbush, Borough Park, and terminate at Bayridge. It will connect to the 2, 3, 5, 7, B, D, F, Q, and R subway lines, plus various bus lines. It will be the most massive expansion of public transporation in this city in a century, make commuting to and from and between those neighborhoods and boroughs much easier, dramatically lower car and subway congestion, and its impact on housing values and businesses in the areas it serves will be immense. 

Second, casinos -- they're coming to NYC. There's the Racino way out in Queens but there are plans -- and new laws supporting them -- that will allow the construction of casinos all over the city. This city is, not suprisingly, the nation's biggest untapped casino market, and the city loses huge amounts of tax revenue that goes to Atlantic City and casinos out on Native American reservations. A whole new industry, a whole new tourist and cultural magnet, will have a massive impact on the cultural and economic life of NYC. No longer will people be coming here just for culture and history -- they'll be coming here to drop their kids college funds into slot machines, to "let it ride." 

Third, and final (for now), is the political map of NYC and the whole state. For decades and decades, the New York State Legislature had divided political control -- Democrats controlled the Assembly, Republicans controlled the State Senate. This wasn't an accident. When both parties got control of the respective chambers, they made a deal to gerrymander their districts, their political maps, basically guarenteeing each party control for each chamber. This lasted from the 1970s to the 2010s. It was unnatural, ridiculous, corrupt. But a few years ago the Democrats got control of the State Senate and now -- with a Democratic Assembly and Governor -- they are gerrymandering the state so that Democrats will control the New York State Legislature for the rest of the decade.

Also, and most controversially, for the first time in over a century, Democrats are able to gerrymander the state's Congressional Districts which could shrink the number of Republican representatives from 7 or 8 to 3 or 4. This means, at a national level, there could be up to four new Democrats in Congress and could, potentially (although not certainly), determine control of the US Congress. 

Needless to say, Republicans in New York and nation-wide are howling, yelling and screaming that Democrats are abusing their power in order to protect and consolidate their power. Obviously the Republicans are hypocrites and liars (what else is new?) because not only are they viciously gerrymandering the numerous states that they control but they engaged in gerrymandering for decades in New York to keep control of the State Senate -- not to mention creating a whole new State Senate district (did you know we have 63? Insane!) and engaging in outright bribery (remember the IDC?) to stay in power. The fact that this state had divided control of the State Senate for so long was because of gerrymandering, it just happened to be bipartisan gerrymandering. Now the state is being re-gerrymandered for Democrats, and there's nothing the Republicans can do about it. It's also a rare display of raw power, a power play, by Democrats and obviously Republicans don't like having to take their own medicine.

In NYC this means that the long-held Republican district in State Island will probably (although not certainly) flip to the Democrats, effectively ending any chance of a Republican representing any part of NYC in Congress. It's fun to watch the loathesome Republican representative bemoan her fate, accusing Democrats of trying to "steal" the seat. No, Democrats are simply using the power that the voters gave them and that's called democracy, something that, we know, Republicans actively want to overthrow.  

So, as you see, New York City is changing all around us and before our eyes. It's changing in our hearts and minds. It never stops and never stops evolving. The face of the city from yesterday, today, and tomorrow will always be diffferent. 

Classic Mr NYC

In late 2020 I blogged about my memories of WNYC TV, the long defunct public television station that was owned by the city and was the sister broadcaster of WNYC radio.

The programming, as I indicated, was a weird cross between PBS and public access, with lots of international programming along with local shows. In the evening they would mostly show half-hour comedy and drama shows from the UK, much of it very offbeat stuff.

One exception to the British stuff on WNYC TV (although still quite "offbeat") were repeats of a late 1980s series called Trying Times. This was, unusually, an American show and it was actually created for PBS. Today we would call it an "anthology show" -- every episode was a stand-alone story with a totally different cast and characters. It could also be described as a "dramedy" -- the stories had a comic tone but there was a serious current underneath all of them. The episodes weren't laugh-out loud funny but there certainly weren't intensely dramatic. They were, well, weird.

Each episode chronicled painfully ordinary Americans (almost all white, let's face it, it was the '80) as they dealt with the trials and tribulations of life. A young lady goes home with her boyfriend to meet his family and it ends up with the father getting his hand caught in a food disposal in the sink. A woman gets divorced and experiences a miserable moving day. A guy who's been writing his thesis for 10 years has to get a job. I remember one odd episode where woman breaks into the house of a man to sleep with him because she's setting him up for a mob hit -- only to discover later that he's the wrong target.

And on and on. In many ways it was Seinfeld right before Seinfeld -- normal people who get into odd situations that escalate beyond anyone's control. 

There were only about 12 episodes of Trying Times broadcast in 1987 and 1989. It's mostly (okay, completely) forgotten today but it was, in retrospect, way ahead of its time -- a single camera comedy/drama anthology series about wacky people. But what is memorable are the actors and talents who appeared on this show: Rosanna Arquette, Gina Davis, Candice Bergen, Carrie Fisher, Stockard Channing, Griffin Dunne, Robert Klein, Jean Stapleton, Steven Wright -- even Corey Feldman! Many were at the heights of their careers at the time these episodes were made. Some of the directors, also flying high at the time, were Buck Henry, Michael Lindsay-Hogg (currently getting some attention in the epic Beatles documentary), Christopher Guest, and even Jonathan Demme. There was a murderers row of talent in this series -- and one of the producers was, of all people, David Byrne.

You can find episodes of Trying Times on YouTube and watch the Golden Age of Television in its nascent form since you can't time-travel 30+ years and watch it on WNYC TV.

Colin Powell RIP

Sad news: the great pubilc servant, Secretary of State and four-star General Colin Powell, has died at age 84.

His life and career are the stuff of what American myth are made of: born to poor immigrants, he worked hard and proved himself and eventually reached the highest reaches of the US government, both in and out of uniform. 

And he was a New Yorker -- born in Harlem, raised in the Bronx, and a graduate of City College. 

I distinctly remember when, in the summer of 1989, he was appointed Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, my mother pointed out his humble NYC roots and was impressed that not had he become the first black man to reach such heights in the US military but that he was also the first ROTC graduate to do so. Then I remember in 1990 and 1991, Powell along with Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf became the face of American triumph in Operation Desert Storm aka the Gulf War. Sadly, a decade-plus later, he became the face of American bumbling in the second Gulf War, the misadventure in Iraq. 

Still, his life was an inspiration, not only for black Americans but for all who saw nobility and purpose in a life of service and hard work. And he never forgot where he came from.

RIP.

Unintentional NYC Icons

New York City has many icons, buildings and structures and places that define the city's image to the world. Think the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Flatiron Building, Times Square, Central Park, Radio City Music Hall -- the list is endless. Elsewhere there's the Colloseum in Rome, the Houses of Parliament in London, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, you get the idea -- iconography is just one of the things that makes great cities great.

But why? Why are they so important?

Because, in their way, they tell the story of the city, they define them -- and they link the past to the present, the present to the future. They endure -- for the most part. The destruction of the World Trade Centers and the burning down of Notre Dame in Paris were so tragic because these strong images of their respective cities were violently wiped away. It wasn't just the physical destruction and the awful deaths, it was that the sense of the cities and their identities had become unmoored, the cities' physic roots had been pulled out. 

Icons are not only part of their cities's identities but of their residents and visitors as well. 

And yet ... some icons are unintentional. Sometimes a store or something else becomes so beloved, so integral to the commmunity it exists in, that it takes on icon status. 

A few examples that have been in the news recently:

The Paris Movie theater, that elegant, wonderful little place right across from the Plaza Hotel and Central Park, recently closed -- an NYC icon that had vanished. But it's been saved -- thanks to Netflix! It's become so integral to the neighborhood, a small bastion of culture and respite in the middle of a busy commercial area, that its closure made many so sad that Netflix decided to ride to the rescue. So another NYC icon endures ... for now ...

Then there's the Astor Place K-Mart. Now Astor Place is about as funky downtown Manhattan as NYC gets and the K-Mart, which opened in 1996, was considered a square intruder into this land of the tragically hip. But overtime, as it usefulness to the neighborhood become apparent, it became a much-loved, much-frequented icon. The fact that K-Mart is so uncool is what made it cool. But sadly it's going away, soon to be replaced by a Wegmans. An icon, a very unintentional of sorts, fading away.

Fortunately there's something else nearby that's remaining -- the Ralph Lauren billboard on Houston Street. It's so huge, so in-your-face, and the designer's ads on it are so gorgeous and sexy, that it's become an icon all its own. Celebrities and models feel that they have "made it", not when their ads appear on TV or in magazines or online, but when their ads appear on this billboard. Its power is in its size and shamelessness, "the medium is the message." Its iconic status comes from its sheer boldness, about as NYC as trait as there is. 

So NYC icons aren't always pre-planned, carefully built structures -- sometimes they arise out of utility and the profit-motive, and yet, when they do, the joy they create makes them icons of the city, icons of our hearts.  

Amorous NYC

As New York City emerges from its long pandemic night of the soul, people are returning to the city streets and going to parties, congregating en masse, doing that which is usually normal but, for much of the last year, became abnormal.

And, uh, they're doing so in interesting ways.

If this story it to be believed, apparently New Yorkers are engaging in hardcore post-COVID PDA i.e. they're making out in public here, there, and everywhere, hither and thither as it 'twere. Oh yes, wherever you go, East Side, West Side, people are suckin' face on the sidewalks of New York!

But that's quaint compared to what's going on behind closed doors.

Apparently, orgies have returned -- particularly in Brooklyn and in other hip and trendy parts of NYC. The young and not-so-young are gettin' busy, reveling in each other's body parts and in a freedom that, for more than a year, was denied them. Oh yes, masks are not the only things being discarded! With presumably everyone vaccinated, people are have ditched social distancing with a vengeance.

Sounds like fun. And exhausting. 

But NYC has always been an amorous town, a place where freaks can freely get their freak-on.

This story about a woman named Eve Adams who lived more than 100 years ago and published lesbian literature and hosted a lesbian salon called Eve's Hangout was a wonderful, intriguing piece of NYC erotic history that, until now, I'd never known about. She was a real trailblazer, fully a century ahead of her time, someone who would be celebrated today. Sadly Eve Adam's life ended quite tragically in the Holocaust (long story), but she was and remains an inspiration.

This town ... we like our sexiness ... and our sexy people -- then, now, and forever.