Recent books by Dartmouth authors

Posted 03/04/02

It Happened in Manhattan

Authors: Myrna Katz Frommer, Visiting Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies, and Harvey Frommer, Visiting Professor of Liberal Studies

The Berkeley Publishing Group, 2001

March 4, 2002. Manhattan is a narrow island, only 22 square miles, but its history is much bigger. It Happened in Manhattan is an album of vintage photos and first-person reminiscences that form mid-century Manhattan. Ranging from the early post-World War II years to the mid-1970s, the book is an oral history constructed from dozens of interviews with New York luminaries such as Jimmy Breslin, Elaine Kaufman, Alan Greenberg, and Pauline Trigère, as well as everyday people like Rabbi Dan Alder, teacher Linda Kleinschmidt, and drugstore owner Joel Eichel. With chapters like "If I Can Make It Here..." about emerging celebrities, "Sanctuaries in the City" concerning religious communities, and "Politics As Usual," It Happened in Manhattan evokes an era when Checker cabs still passed down a two-way Fifth Avenue, when 11 daily newspapers covered the city beat, and when young women attended their Katharine Gibbs continuing education classes in hats and white gloves. Their reminiscences and perceptions are woven into a narrative that describes how New York became an international center in the wake of victory in the Second World War, and how the city was affected by new immigrants from Europe fleeing fascism and immigrants from the Latin America seeking opportunity. This was an era when soaring real-estate values led to the tearing down of whole neighborhoods, and when community activists rallied to save many architectural treasures. It Happened in Manhattan illustrates with personal details and anecdotes the passing of the Manhattan of the Industrial Age, how the city government almost went bankrupt, and how New York City survived and continues as a financial, political and cultural center of the nation. Father Peter Colapietro, pastor of Holy Cross Church on 42nd Street, offers his recollections:

As a kid, I always saw Sixth Avenue as the dividing line between the East and West Side. The East Side was Rock Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral; the West Side was the stuff on 42nd Street. It was like you needed a passport to go from one to another... Even though Manhattan was only a fifteen-cent ride away from where I lived in the Bronx, it was a whole new world. I felt I had to dress up to go down there. I couldn't wear jeans and a polo shirt. I was an eleven- or twelve-year-old, I knew what Playboy magazine was, but when I went into some of these stores on 42nd Street - wow! Ten or twelve of us used to come down to Herman's Flea Circus. It had an arcade with pinball machines, magic shows, and a famous Flea Circus. We would go to Rockefeller Center and see as many television shows as we could get into, getting there early to be first on line for shows like The Price Is Right, The Match Game, and Truth or Consequence. A warm-up person like Johnny Olson would ask the audience, "Anybody out there celebrating a birthday? anniversary? parole? We got to know the routine. Once my kid brother and I got a pair of handcuffs. When Johnny Olson got to "Anybody celebrating parole?" we raised our hands handcuffed to each other.

- Asa Tapley '02