No War NYC

Caro Papers at NYPL

The great historian and biographer Robert Caro -- he of the legendary Robert Moses and LBJ tomes -- has just donated his vast collection of papers and reporting for his books to the New York Public Library.

Some people, if they ever hit the Lottery and never had to work again, would probably spend it on a beach somewhere. I'd spend it in the NYPL reading Robert Caro's papers, devouring the back story to his great books about political power and how it changes American life.

Talking about archives, if you want to read the extensive Robert Caro/Robert Moses posts on Mr NYC, go here.

And, hey, NYPL, maybe, just maybe, one day in the far, far, future, maybe you'll want to put blogs into your archives?

I can think of a couple!

Elizabeth Wurtzel RIP

Back before social media, before the age of over sharing was in full swing, before people like Lena Dunham and the Kardashians turned their lives and bodies and vanity into TV shows and multi-million dollar enterprises, Elizabeth Wurtzel led the way with simple prose.

When she published her memoir Prozac Nation in 1994, still in her late 20s, it was controversial and shocking. She wrote in raw and unsparing detail about her depression, drug use, self-mutilation, and personal life in ways that made readers and critics uncomfortable. She made the TMI, warts-and-all, too-soon-in-life memoir a trendy before it was trendy. 

Elizabeth broke a particular mold.

She was a native of the Upper West Side, wrote more confessional books and articles in the years after Prozac Nation, and also worked as a lawyer. She has just died at the age of 52. Despite a life full of drugs and depression, she died from cancer (not an overdose or suicide) so her passing in this way is particularly poignant.  

I never read the book that made her famous but I read her later book, Bitch, about angry, unashamed, out-spoken women. It was angry, funny, brutal, and unapologetic. Published in 1998, it was, in retrospect, well ahead of its time.

Real trailblazers are rarely appreciated in their own era, and Elizabeth Wurtzel certainly was one.

RIP

Harvey Weinstein Trial Starts

Review: "Weekend at the Waldorf" (1945)

Over the holidays the wife and I caught up on a movie we'd DVR'd from TCM: the 1945 all-star ensemble comedy Weekend at the Waldorf.

Remember a few years ago there was a batch of romantic comedies with all-star ensemble casts like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, New Year's Eve, and a bunch of others? Well, those movies were clearly inspired by movies like this one. In fact, Weekend at the Waldorf was an inspired update of another all-star ensemble classic from 1932: Grand Hotel, set in Berlin, during the Weimar Republic.

The movie, obviously, takes place at the famous hotel in NYC during the last days of WW2. The war is ever present in this otherwise lighthearted movie, with people either coming back from, or headed to, the various battle fronts. This movie, like Grand Hotel, has all the elements: the crooked businessman, the dying man, the scoundrel, the ambitious and beautiful secretary, the exhausted-and-just-wants-to-get-away-from-it-all movie star, plus an array of goofy characters. Their lives and stories intersect over this one weekend at the Waldorf Astoria, and the movie is a lot of good classic movie fun with great writing and scenes.

The movie stars Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Robert Benchley, and Keenan Wynn. Most people today have probably never heard of any of them but they were big starts 75 years ago and they are all clearly having a lot of fun working together.

It's definitely worth checking out if it ever winds up on TCM again.

Queens Borough President Special Election - March 24, 2020

Mayor DeBlasio just announced that there will be a special election for Queens BP in March.

The office feel vacant when former Queens BP Melinda Katz resigned to become the new Queens DA. This special election is non-partisan, with 5 candidates running -- and whoever wins it will probably be the Queens BP for the next decade.

You heard it here first. 

Prohibition Hits A Hundred Years Old

On January 1st, 1920, the legal prohibition of alcohol went into effect. Known as Prohibition, or the 18th Amendment, or the Volstead Act, it outlawed the production and sale alcohol to all Americans.

We are still living in the wake of this misbegotten social experiment.

To say that Prohibition failed is an understatement -- along with the Vietnam War, it's one of the most disastrous events in American history. Even though it was fully repealed in 1933 (via the 21st Amendment), Prohibition turned organized crime into the big business that lasts to this day. Suddenly, thanks to bootlegging, mid-level gangsters were multi-millionaires (like Brooklyn-born Al Capone), the tentacles of organized crime invaded every neighborhood in NYC and America, it infiltrated and corrupted government at the local, state and federal level, it turned America upside-down, and Americans on themselves. 

Popular culture was also deeply impacted -- The Great Gatsby and The Godfather Saga were inspired, in part, by the culture and legacy of Prohibition. Movies like The Roaring Twenties and The Untouchables, plus TV shows like Boardwalk Empire, are all about Prohibition. More broadly, they are about how American life was corrupted, and continues to be, by this massive mistake.

Here in NYC, New Year's Eve 1919 was one a huge party as people got in their last (they thought) legal drinks. Times Square, in particular, was a hopping place. Naturally, once 1920 hit, speakeasies began popping up all over the city. People (like my own grandfather) learned how to make their own bathtub gin. 

Like Vietnam, like Trump, Prohibition wouldn't be the last time Americans got together to make a huge, decades-ruining mistake. 

Interview: Hyapatia Lee - Writer, Musician, Author, Broadcaster, Adult Star & Activist

As a young man in NYC, I would sometimes watch The Robyn Bird Show on late night cable TV. The bubbly host would introduce various adult entertainers who would dance to popular songs, and later on Robyn would interview them about their lives and careers. Twenty-odd years later, I can't remember most of the people who appeared on that show but I remember one very well -- Hyapatia Lee.

To say she was "hot" is an understatement -- her beauty, her sexiness, and her attitude were stunning. She blazed out of the screen. She was a fireball of female power. She was celestial.

And smart! She was well-spoken, funny, and confident. I also noticed that she wore a Native American necklace, and spoke proudly of her Cherokee heritage. As someone young and impressionable, still learning about women and sex, I was mesmerized by this multi-dimensional woman. 

Years later I heard a fantastic interview with Hyapatia on the Rialto Report and learned more about her amazing and often challenging life. She had long ago left the adult business and migrated to grow legal pot in Colorado. Then, much more recently, I found her on Twitter, and she became even more fascinating -- it turns out that she is a Native American activist, author, and broadcaster, as well as a mental health specialist. Hyapatia Lee has lived many lives, done many things, and overcome a lot. So it was a great honor to have Hyapatia politely respond to my request for an interview and tell us more!

You seem to have lived many eventful lives – adult star, pot grower, Native American rights activist/author, and mental health advocate. If you can, what made you want to live these different lives and are there any others that I’m missing? 

I believe we are all multi-faceted individuals. It's not uncommon for people to have multiple interests in life. I also produce, direct, and edit my NATIVE STRENGTH TV show that's seen on ROKU, Amazon, and multiple stations across the country, as well as on my YouTube channel. In addition, I write and record my own music. I started The Lee Studios three years ago. There are plans for movies as well.

I want to live life to the fullest. I want to explore all of the activities that interest me. I also want to keep the Native American culture alive. I just want to enjoy my life. 

You are a woman of proud Cherokee heritage and have incorporated your identity into every aspect of your life (even your adult work). What would you like white and all other Americans to understand about the Native American experience and identity? 

I think most people, even many Native Americans, are unaware of the rich cultural contributions of Natives of this hemisphere. Some people may be aware of the vast culinary contributions, but the majority of our common wisdom has been destroyed by the colonizers and was carefully guarded by the elders. It's time to bring this out in the open and share some of it.

What are the special challenges of being a Native American woman?

The challenge of being any Native American first and foremost is to be recognized for who we are. Most people see us as white or Hispanic. They don't even recognize us when looking right at us! My people have been told to go back to their own country. As a woman, we have the challenge of proving ourselves to be equal and worthy. This is exacerbated by the hypersexualization of Native Women. Being Native or natural doesn't mean being sexually promiscuous. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is an epidemic most often perpetuated by oil pipeline construction workers who camp near reservations. So the biggest challenge for any Native American woman is to simply stay alive.

You’ve always been known as Hyapatia Lee. How did you come up with this name, and what does it mean to you today?

I suppose today it just is "me, a name I call myself." To quote The Sound of Music. LOL. 

Do you still live and grow pot in Colorado?

Yes, I do. With my health condition, cannabis is necessary to sustain life.

I first saw you dancing and being interviewed on The Robyn Bird Show cable television in the 1990s. What are your memories of appearing on that show, of Robyn, and did anything fun happen behind the scenes?

I loved being on The Robyn Bird Show. She was very sweet and professional. When most people ask if anything fun happened behind the set, they are referring to something sexual. Nothing sexual happened on the set of the show. It was professional.

What were your memories of visiting New York City back then? Did you like the city and spend a lot of time here?

I was surprised to spend three months in New York City the first time I was booked there for the opening of my first movie. I did dance shows in between the showings. The shows were sold out. I was only supposed to be there for one week.

You are a woman of great beauty and became famous for it, but your intelligence and spirit has sustained and brought you into different paths in life. What is it like to go from being an object of desire to a person who wants to educate and heal the spirits of others?

Personally, I am a bit dumbfounded. I never considered myself to be a "great beauty." I wrote a dozen of my movies and did the music for Body Girls and wrote an advice column for Cherri for five years. So to me, I have been using my intelligence all along. I guess people are just starting to notice now. I am very grateful. I considered my work in adult entertainment to be trying to heal the spirits of others. My movie Let's Get Physical was about ED caused by a man losing his job as an esteemed dancer after a tragic accident. But no one seemed to notice that, I guess. Sometimes I think some people become blinded by sexuality and entirely lose the message. What were the best and worst parts of being an adult star back in the 1980s and 90s? The best part was being able to write my own movies and being able to spend the vast majority of my time dancing on the road. Was it fun or more work than fun? Dancing was fun. Travel was fun. Writing movies was fun. 

Do you miss it at all?

I do not miss it at all, particularly the sex part. I did not particularly enjoy that part. That was the hardest part for me. I had to emotionally work myself up for a scene. It was a difficult challenge. I much preferred to shoot dialogue, coming from a stage acting background.

Would you ever go back?

I would never go back, not for anything in the world. Never.

Tell us something about Hyapatia Lee that we don’t know, and what are your hopes for the future? 

I have hypopituitarism, end-stage. My fears for the future revolve around the world left to my grandkids.

Anything else you’d like to tell us?

Hypopituitarism is a complicated, deadly condition caused by blood loss and other conditions. It means the pituitary gland has died. That's the master gland. That means I produce no hormones. So this gives me a unique look at life. I see what emotions all the hormones cause. It's also deadly and I'm allergic to the steroid I have to take for the adrenal insufficiency hypopituitarism causes. They make my throat swell shut and I can't breathe. Steroids are needed to bind with glucocorticoid receptors in every cell of the body, particularly the brain, or we die. THC also binds with these receptors and it helps, but it's not enough to keep me alive. Here is my GoFundMe link. This was set up by a dear friend of mine. 

Thanks Hyapatia! All the best to you and your health, your work, and your future in 2020 and well beyond. Good luck! 

Imus Is Dead

Since we're coming off Christmas, I shall adapt a line from A Christmas Carol: "Imus was dead. Dead as a doornail."

Don Imus was a morning radio host in NYC, a so-called "shock jock", for almost 50 years. As I've blogged about before, he was awful on the air and apparently in life too. His ratings were bad. His health was bad. His humor was really bad -- offensive without being thought-provoking, hateful just for the sake of it, childish in its sophistication, a classic example of a privileged rich white man who punched down from a position of safety, an overgrown school-yard bully.

He was often compared to, and was a rival to, Howard Stern. But whereas Howard was and is a brilliant social satirist, a person whose words and humor always have a greater point, a man who makes fun of himself more than anyone else, Imus was empty, mean-spirited Id, attacking wildly and wantonly at anyone weaker than him. 

Just awful.

That said, in a perverse way, one has to admire his life and career, not for quality but quantity. Despite his lack of talent and ratings, despite his addiction problems and stormy personal life, despite the fact that everyone hated him, he managed -- someway, somehow -- to stay on the air in morning radio in NYC for nearly half a century.

That is incredible just unto itself.

As I age, I realize that the greatest achievement in life isn't money or fame or any of the classic monikers of success -- it's just being able to survive, holding on, going on, keeping on, living and then living some more, working and then working some more, and on and on and on. Someday, of course, careers and lives will end -- as they did for Imus -- but he managed to muddle through much longer than either his talent, ratings, or health would have otherwise predicted.

We should all be so lucky. 

Imus is, to me, a dual role model -- the kind of person I don't ever want to be (he was a bad guy and I wanna be a good guy) but also the kind of person I desperately want to be -- a survivor who keeps going until the bitter end.

Mr NYC Reviews the 20-Teens

Hard as it is to believe but, as the minutes tick down towards the end of the year, the second decade of the 21st century is ending and the third is about to begin. This very blog will also enter its third decade which, if you don't mind me saying, is something of an achievement.

So what happened in NYC during this past decade, the twenty-teens?

A bunch of stuff, some great, some awful. The New York Times has an interesting list of developments in NYC in the 20-teens that includes the following: the growth of ferry service around the city (good), the dramatic decline of retail stores and the preponderance of empty storefronts (bad), the phenomena of Hamilton that made Broadway relevant again (good), the rise of cashless businesses (neither good nor bad, just reality), the growth of massively tall, skyline-ruining "needle" buildings (bad), universal pre-K (great!), and others. 

One thing this list also includes is the sale of the Chrysler Building for $150 million after previously selling for $800 million. It's truly bizarre that a huge NYC iconic building could sell for less than the most expensive apartments in town and lots of other big name buildings. The reason? It's very old and has tons of structural problems, dramatically decreasing the value. This tracks another big-name purchase that was sold for way less money than one would expect -- the radio station WABC, which was sold for only $12.5, much much much much less than most buildings or apartments in this city. The reason? Very low ratings with an ossified, dying listenership, and practically zero growth potential in the age of podcasts and the Internet. The Chrysler Building and WABC, once mighty NYC institutions, were victims of the changes of this decade.

Another big-time radio station in NYC that wasn't just sold but vanished altogether was WPLJ, where I used to intern, another demographic/technology victim.

One thing about NYC in the 20-teens is that TV about this great city was better than ever: Mad Men, 30 Rock, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, and many others reflected the wild lifes and times, both past and present, of this town. 

New York City also lost of number of icons, some from death, some from infamy: Ed Koch, Lou Reed, Al Goldstein, and Stan Brooks all died during this decade, representatives, in their very different ways, of this city during the era I call "funky town." Of course, some other NYC icons are still alive but have fallen dramatically from grace: Harvey Weinstein, Anthony Weiner, Louis CK, and Charlie Rose all began the decade in great positions of power NYC only to end it in disgrace and irrelevance. 

The city also saw some physical transformations: Long Island City went from being a real estate desert to a real estate oasis. Hudson Yards opened, creating a brand new neighborhood in the heart of Manhattan. Pedestrian plazas and bike sharing exploded, literally changing the experience of the city streets. 

There were obviously political transformations: Occupy Wall Street (2001), a new mayor (2013), AOC and the Democratic takeover of the State Senate (largely due to elections in NYC in 2018), and naturally, a New Yorker was elected President of the United States but, instead of being a great thing, it was a national tragedy (2016). 

Sports: the Giants won the Superbowl (2012), and anyone remember "Linsanity" (also 2012)?

As always, a lot happened in NYC during the 20-teens -- some things historic, some things just moments in time. I have no doubt that NYC in the 2020s will be equally, if not more, memorable.

P.S. A couple of non end-of-the decade related stories you might find interesting: one is an obituary for an acclaimed activist-artist and another is a long story about how Robert Moses, in a rare feat of true public service, made the Met into the true "people's museum", marrying elite art with the masses, that it is today.