Lox, Stocks, and Backstage Broadway: Iconic Trades of New York City [Hardcover]

Nancy Groce (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 16, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0978846044 | ISBN-13: 978-0978846046

From Broadway and Wall Street to the farthest reaches of New York's fabled subway system, and with numerous stops in between, this publication celebrates the occupational skills, crafts, knowledge, and traditions that have made New York legendary. Based on extensive interviews undertaken by Smithsonian Institution folklorists and researchers to document urban culture in the five boroughs at the turn of the millennium, Lox, Stocks, and Backstage Broadway introduces readers to a remarkable cast of artisans, workers, laborers, and artists - talented individuals whose jobs create, maintain, and nurture the very heart of Gotham.
The book profiles workers from a wide variety of social and ethnic backgrounds, men and women who are eloquent in recounting their own stories, knowledgeable in relating the history of their beloved city, and avid about explaining the skills and challenges involved in practicing their chosen occupations. Their wisdom, humor, and humanity reflect the best of New York.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Profiling those who craft the artistry of Broadway, pilot NYC subway trains, construct the city's ubiquitous water towers, plaster Manhattan walls with graffiti, and more, this compendium of big city trade from Library of Congress "folklike specialist" Groce is packed with the fascinating testimony of cityfolk who honestly love what they do. The process of making a wig for a Broadway show, detailed by designer Linda Rice, involves thousands of individual hairs hand-tied to mesh, taking some 15 hours to complete and a minimum of $1,200. The graffiti industry is well-considered some three decades after it emerged as a cultural force, and the everyday frustrations of riding the MTA's subway system are put into startling perspective: "Approximately 70 percent of Americans who ride mass transit each day do so in New York City." Groce also demystifies Wall Street with the help of traders and others, and serves up everything there is to know about Bagels and Bialys on Coney Island: the third-generation owner of Russ and Daughters says that the present-day variety of shmears (like tofu cream cheese) and fish ("I have ten different kinds of smoked salmon") would make grandfather roll over in his grave. A grand undertaking, Groce's volume makes an absorbing document of "local culture in the global city."

From Booklist

This exploration of New York City’s “iconic trades, occupations, and industries” takes the reader behind the scenes of Broadway stages, inside the subway system, to Wall Street, and to a popular Coney Island bagel shop. The book, which grew out of the Smithsonian Institution’s New York City Project, reads like a guided tour of the city without the hassle of climbing on and off a tour bus. Even better, it’s a backstage tour, taking readers to places ordinary folk rarely visit, including a theatrical costume shop and the “homes” of people who live in subway tunnels. The author explains that the various craftspeople of Broadway, or the tens of thousands of people who work on Wall Street, are united by “occupational folklore,” a specialized body of knowledge and traditions specific to their way of life. New York City, then, is not merely a sprawling, diverse metropolis; it’s also a collection of occupational subcultures, as vibrant and storied as any remote-island society. A deeply illuminating book that will prove equally interesting to New Yorkers and visitors to the city. --David Pitt

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press (January 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978846044
• ISBN-13: 978-0978846046
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,661,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NY in Depth, April 8, 2010

By 

NY fan (san francisco ca) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lox, Stocks, and Backstage Broadway: Iconic Trades of New York City (Hardcover)

This book is an interesting collection of interviews with the mostly overlooked people who make New York New York: drivers of the subways and buses, builders of the water towers, multi-generational families in the bagel,lox and food industries, behind the scenes artisans of the theatre, floor traders on wall street. Their stories, originally recorded for the Smithsonian, are recounted by Nancy Groce in a very entertaining and delightful to read way with many illustrative photographs. It made me want to return to the city I had just visited and look at it again ...really see those water towers atop so many structures, ride the subway and buses to some of the places described, eat those bagels and lox, view not just the well known surface glamour but the real structure of the city. I recommend Iconic Trades of NY City to readers desiring a travel guide of the deepest sort and an enjoyable reading experience.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real work...important work, February 27, 2010

By 

wogan "the book reader" - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Lox, Stocks, and Backstage Broadway: Iconic Trades of New York City (Hardcover)

Nancy Groce writes of the real New York, the New York trades- as in jobs, and traditions. Yes the last 50 pages of 200 are about Wall Street, but the real treat is in reading about the backstage Broadway workers, graffiti artists, the tin workers, those that work on the subway and the cross town bus, lox sellers and bagel bakers and best of all those that build those marvelous symbols of the New York skyline. Of course- the water tower builders. I love them; and as with all of these trades, as much as I thought I knew about New York, having spent every summer of my life there until I left home, I really learned a great deal about every craft and trade and would be surprised if you didn't too.
The people of the city are its' heart, whether they love or despise it. Every city is unique but many of their stories are the same - just a different version, as are the jobs. The bagel makers say their water is different and makes New York's bagels different. The water tower builders say no one but a New Yorker really knows what those building water towers are - so the interviews here are a treasure, many were done for the Smithsonian folk life records. The explanations of work on Wall Street would be hard to equal for their completeness and ease of understanding. They could be used as an interesting school lesson.
"Traditions provide the ground rules" of life. This is the larger than life... real life...real work. Read this and come closer to understanding what those of us that have lived in New York have known all along..."it's a wonderful town".

5.0 out of 5 stars What you wanted to know but didn't know who to ask, June 14, 2010

By 

MEKB (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lox, Stocks, and Backstage Broadway: Iconic Trades of New York City (Hardcover)

Nancy Groce, a noted authority on New York City and curator of the Smithsonian's 2001 Folklife Festival section on New York City, has produced a wonderful book based on the work for that festival - it's all about those "iconic" trades of New York. Dr. Groce scours the city from top to bottom to interview everyone from theatrical-armor makers, theatrical-costume designers, bialy makers, smoked fish purveyors, and, most wonderfully, roof-top water-tank makers. The result is one of the most interesting books about NYC that you're likely to come across. For those of us who took the trip to Washington, DC, in July 2001 to see the Festival, this book is the most wonderful complement to the Festival. If you didn't make it to the Festival, then buy this book and discover the behind-the-scenes stores of things and lives that are very close to us. Highly recommended for anyone with a love of New York, for those who want to inquire into the background of so much that is familiar, and to all with an interest in the history of a great city.