Asbury Park's Glory Days: The Story of an American Resort [Hardcover]

Helen-Chantal Pike (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 2005

Long before Bruce Springsteen picked up a guitar; before Danny DeVito drove a taxi; before Jack Nicholson flew over the cuckoo's nest, Asbury Park was a seashore Shangri-La filled with shimmering odes to civic greatness, world-renowned baby parades, temples of retail, and atmospheric movie palaces. It was a magnet for tourists, a summer vacation mecca-to some degree New Jersey's own Coney Island.

In Asbury Park's Glory Days, award-winning author Helen-Chantal Pike chronicles the city's heyday-the ninety-year period between 1890 and 1980. Pike illuminates the historical conditions contributing to the town's cycle of booms and recessions. She investigates the factors that influenced these peaks, such as location, lodging, dining, nightlife, merchandising, and immigration, and how and why millions of people spent their leisure time within this one-square-mile boundary on the northern coast of the state. Pike also includes an epilogue describing recent attempts to resurrect this once-vibrant city.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Helen-Chantal Pike is a freelance writer, photographer, and lecturer. Her works have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Christian Science Monitor, Vermont Life, and New Jersey Monthly. For three years she was a travel columnist for the Boston Herald. She is the author of Greetings from New Jersey: A Postcard Tour of the Garden State (Rutgers University Press).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Rivergate Books (April 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813535476
• ISBN-13: 978-0813535470
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,492,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in New Jersey's second oldest seashore resort, Long Branch, in the middle of the Suez Crisis. I grew up in a city suburb, attending the public school system until my father, the late author Robert E. Pike, and I were a package deal (student/language professor) at a private day school. I chose to go to college on the Piasa Bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River (thank you, Mark Twain) so I could see another part of the country: art museums in St. Louis and Chicago; the Cahokia Native American burial mounds in Illinois; the Elephant Rocks in the Ozarks; a medieval fair in Swanee, Tennessee, and Nilo Farms where I sat in a duck blind to count birds for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. My next stop was Paris to attend the Sorbonne, and backpack around Europe. My first newspaper job at the Asbury Park (NJ) Press led to my attending the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University where I wrote my master's thesis on the impact of real estate redevelopment around Tompkins Square Park in the early '80s. Six years of covering high tech and another six as a travel writer and photographer, and by the mid-'90s I was producing books. Still am! And, I use a ripped-from-the-headlines approach to lecture on media at Rutgers University. I also teach writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time Travel in Asbury Park, June 16, 2005

By 

Robert P. Mataranglo "Artist" (Lakewood, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Asbury Park's Glory Days: The Story of an American Resort (Hardcover)

Helen Chantal Pike's latest creation, "Asbury Park's Glory Days," is a "must read" for those searching for the answers to how one of the greatest resorts in the world during the 19th century could collapse into urban decay in the 20th century. This 200-page book covers the ninety years from 1890 to 1980, with a 2002 epilogue. The political, economic, social, and cultural events are included in this century timeline. The pages are richly illustrated with vintage photographs, documents, excerpts from newspapers of the time, and dozens of first hand stories from people (still alive) who resided and worked in this "city by the sea." The architectural history of the theatres, hotels, public buildings, and the unique design of the city is remarkably researched and presented.

"Asbury Park's Glory Days" is a smooth and enjoyable trip to the boardwalk, and is densely packed with facts and details for Asbury Park historians everywhere.

I highly recommend it.

Bob Mataranglo - Artist

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Psyche of a City, July 17, 2005

By 

Christina Eliopoulos "Writer/Director, Greeti... (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Asbury Park's Glory Days: The Story of an American Resort (Hardcover)

Not only is Ms. Pike an extraordinary writer and researcher, this book, filled with rich personal histories and vivid snapshots of a distinct moment in time - candy apples after a long Sunday stroll, the morning after a devastating race riot, the third hour of a guitar god's marathon four-hour late night jam session - is much like a window into the soul and psyche of this city. Here is Asbury Park's unbridled id, guilty conscience, wistful longing, crisis of confidence, repressed traumas and finally, its courageous conviction. Pick it up, and this book will become your constant companion.

--- July 2005, Christina Eliopoulos, Writer/Director, Greetings from Asbury Park, a documentary feature film

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great history - Book takes great effort to read tho....., July 28, 2005

By 

Bio-History Luvr (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Asbury Park's Glory Days: The Story of an American Resort (Hardcover)

This book has great history features and includes personalized accounts of folks alive and not living, as well as photos and artifacts. What really irked me was the book would've been alot more enjoyable had it been written in chronological order. The stories with their timelines on the various features of Asbury Park are splattered all over. Although the 7 chapters are segmented by features, i.e., 'The Avenues,' 'Dining Out, Sleeping In,' it would've been more enjoyable to take these segments in their respective timeframe, and see the growth from the 1800's thru Y2002. Alot of photos and artifacts are NOT dated, which makes it disappointing as well. I got a headache trying to match places and dates with artifacts and photos. The effort is a good book that would've been even better if there was some order to it. P.S. The book is under the auspices of Rutgers Univ. Press about a NJ town and printed in SINGAPORE.....