Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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".

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.