Customer Reviews

The Devil's Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Times Square has it all-history, entertainment, great characters, crime, sex-and so does The Devil's Playground. As a New Yorker who has always been fascinated by Times Square, I picked the book up in a book store, intending only to browse. I couldn't put it down (but did eventually to pay for it). This is a wonderful and thoroughly absorbing book that will educate you without pain, not to mention provide you with lots of amusing anecdotes to use at dinner parties.

This book really captures the characters, glamour, degradation and rebirth of Times Square since it's beginnings in a very entertaining and informative way. The story is weaved together wonderfully incorporating social, political , cultural and architectural details in a lively narrative that was a pleasure to read. From the Lobster Palaces to Flo Ziegfield to the speakeasys of the 20's to Irving Berlin to the tawdry porno theaters and massage parlors of the 70's to todays tourist mecca....it's all here. Traub has done a great job of researching and documenting the history of a place that does it's best to bury it's past. You can walk those mid-town streets after reading this and recognize historical significance that is all too easy to take for granted in a place as busy and bustling as Times Square.

Times Square has it all-history, entertainment, great characters, crime, sex-and so does The Devil's Playground. As a New Yorker who has always been fascinated by Times Square, I picked the book up in a book store, intending only to browse. I couldn't put it down (but did eventually to pay for it). This is a wonderful and thoroughly absorbing book that will educate you without pain, not to mention provide you with lots of amusing anecdotes to use at dinner parties.

James Traub has penned an energetic paean to the world's most famous (and occasionally infamous) "square."

Although some readers may be put off by a sometimes dry and overly-academic writing style, Traub more than makes up for it with a dazzling synthesis of sociological history, political intrigue, architectural evolution and brilliant sketches of the giddy early days of advertising. It may surprise some to know that the Square was awash in luminous and neon-drenched marketing mirages as early as the first decade of the 20th century.

Through it all, the pulsing adrenaline charge experienced by a walk through Times Square saturates this unique work. This reviewer was reminded of Saul Bellow's incomparable descriptive flourish from Seize the Day:

"On Broadway it was still bright afternoon and the gassy air was almost motionless under the leaden spokes of sunlight, and sawdust footprints lay about the doorways of butcher shops and fruit stores. And the great, great crowd, the inexhaustible current of millions of every race and kind pouring out, pressing round, of every age, of every genius, possessors of every human secret, antique and future, in every face the refinement of one particular motive or essence -- I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give way, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want. Faster, much faster than any man could make the tally. The sidewalks were wider than any causeway; the street itself was immense, and it quaked and gleamed and it seemed ... to throb at the last limit of endurance."

Amen.

You'll feel all of that and more in this worthy book.

This is a hugely entertaining read that I enjoyed primarily from a 'history of New York City' perspective. Others with interests in the history of culture, broadway, etc. will also find this a great book to read. It's informative, very well-written and a hell of a lot of fun. But if there was ever a book that NEEDED pictures, this is it. The fact that there aren't is immensely disappointing. So many colorful people, places and events so well described and not a single photograph of anything. Very, very puzzling. I'd give it five stars were it not for this glaring omission.

James Traub's wonderful book, "The Devil's Playground : A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square" will provide readers with a comprehensive look at what was once the crossroads of the world. Scholarly without being dull, authoritative without being smug, Traub vividly portrays the rise, fall, and ambivalent revival of the world's center of amusement and advertising. I say "ambivalent" not because I disapprove of the transition which took place in the 1990s (anyone nostalgic for the "personality" of post 1960s Times Square is oblivious to the misery of the prostitutes and addicts who were stuck there) but because it smacks too much of outsiders moving in. But, as Mr. Traub suggests, we needed people from outside New York to believe that the place could be rehabilitated--we New Yorkers had given up on it after all.

All the familiar characters are here (Hammerstein, Runyon, et al.) and some new ones that we don't always associate with the former Longacre Square. And some of the events described in this book will surprise even the most "seasoned" of New York buffs. The book is as entertaining as the place once was and now strives to be.

"The Devil's Playground" is the perfect antidote to the many flawed books about Times Square--in particular the error-riddled "Down 42nd" by Marc Eliot. It is well worth the read.

What a fantastic book. I loved reading about all the history of Times Square. I can recall how seedy it was - in stark contrast to the family and tourist neighborhood you see now. The early part of the book is strictly about theatre, as that was all there was to Times Square. There are parts of that which are a little dry - hearing about backstage antics of particular shows and such, but it shifts to mid 20th century where you can see the foundation for what Times Square became, and what it is today.

Of special interest to me were the little known facts about the Durst family and their real estate claims to Times Square, and the history in their family generations, and Giuliani's cleanup of New York City. A great read.

James Traub certainly paid tribute to one of New York's prime attractions,Times Square. If you ever wanted to read the history and get acquainted with its past then this book has it all. Fascinating read from cover to cover with vintage Times Square pictures. Good work by Mr. Traub!!

THE PROBLEM WITH THIS BOOK IS THAT I EXPECTED IT TO BE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF TIMES SQUARE BUT IT BECAME TOO MUCH A BOOK ABOUT THE HISTORY OF BROADWAY, THE SHOWS AND THE ACTORS. MAYBE TO THE WRITER THEY'RE ONE AND THE SAME. ALSO, THE WRITER IS FROM THE NY TIMES AND HE WRITES WITH THAT UPPITY ATTITUDE AND LANGUAGE THAT ONE COMES TO EXPECT FROM THAT NEWSPAPER. IT USUALLY TAKES ME DAYS TO READ A BOOK OF THIS SIZE. THIS BOOK TOOK ME WEEKS BECAUSE IT LOST MY INTEREST. THERE WERE SOME INTERESTING PARTS ABOUT THE BUILDINGS AND THE BUSINESSES THAT HAVE COME AND GONE, HOWEVER, I WOULD TRY A DIFFERENT BOOK ABOUT TIMES SQUARE.

Growing up in the early 70's in a smallish town, I was well aware of what would happen to any small town girl lured to New York City to seek her fame and fortune. If you dared climb down from that Greyhound bus you would be immediately sucked into the tawdry and dangerous underbelly of New York, never to escape.
During the early 1900's Times' Square was the center of the
city's nightlife. Vaudeville,theaters,speakeasies,nightclubs, the area was covered and celebrated in print,plays and movies. It was fun and glamorous and often where you went to been seen. As time passed, the glitter lost its shine,Times Square began to openly display the darker side that existed in the shadows. By the 1960's it was filled with cheap eateries, flophouse, porn shops and peep shows and the people that populated that world.
The 1980's and 1990's brought a rebirth and a whole new idea of what the public would tolerate and a huge infusion of money, changed the face of New York,especially Times Square. James Traub chronicles the ever changing cast of characters
passing through his familiar area, the huge personalities, political figures,celebrities, gangsters,pretenders, and the various incarnations of the "heart of New York". It does cause me to wonder.....did cleaning up the heart result is loss of soul? An interesting (but dry) read.