Product Details

• Actors: Ted Steeg, Jack Kerouac, David Amram, Sam Astrachan, James Baldwin
• Directors: Betsy Blankenbaker
• Writers: Dan Wakefield
• Producers: Betsy Blankenbaker, Dorka Keehn
• Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: First Run Features
• DVD Release Date: November 20, 2001
• Run Time: 72 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005OSKA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #137,541 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "New York in the Fifties" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

NEW YORK IN THE FIFTIES - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars New York Mythology, March 31, 2010

By 

R. Becker "rob" (Ross, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: New York in the Fifties (DVD)

I have enjoyed some of First Run Features' other documentaries and I am really interested in this particular time period and its effect on cultural history so I was really looking forward to this one. This film was dominated by a parade of actors, writers, poets, and film makers telling the exact same story with very little elaboration. The story is one we've heard so many times that for me, it has become a little tiresome. The story always goes that somebody felt stifled in middle America and had to come to New York in order to flourish in the practice of their particular art. This particular narrative is not exactly unique to the 50's and in my opinion, without a whole lot of context, is not a very interesting or convincing story. Logically, if one is a stage actor, for example, it will be easier to flourish in New York no matter the time period. On the other hand, there are plenty of examples of writers and poets who were able to both practice their art and succeed without having to move to New York and in my opinion a reasonable argument might be made that it can actually be more revolutionary to go against the grain rather than to move to New York where one can be sure to fit in with others of a like-mind. There is also a thread of narrative that suggests heterosexual New Yorkers of the fifties were either thinking about, pursuing, or having more sex than the rest of America. If so, again, it would take a lot of context to make such a narrative interesting. What I was really curious about were the references in the promotional materials to the Beat Generation, Jazz, performance, and art. We get very brief glimpses that are no more fleshed out than what you read in the promotional materials. This would have been extremely fertile ground, but this documentary does not delve into any of these subjects in any substantial way. Also, it must be mentioned that, in reality, Lenny Bruce was arrested in New York on obscenity charges as late as 1964 and New York police were still raiding gay bars as late as the Stonewall riot of 1969, so in some ways, New York was as backward as any other burgh in the U.S. This kind of balance would not fit neatly into this particular New York mythology. Prior to the invention of the pill in 1959, I doubt 50's era heterosexual New Yorkers were having more sex per capita, but if they were, one might expect to see some evidence like higher rates of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. It seems to me that rather than hammer one particular kind of story over and over, the film makers might have taken some of that time to explore what was happening in the world of art, jazz, the Beat Generation and performance in New York. In my opinion, it would have placed the other interviews in a context that would have made them more interesting and relevant.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New York in the Fifties, July 23, 2007

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John Farr - See all my reviews
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This review is from: New York in the Fifties (DVD)

A short but sweet piece that succeeds admirably in evoking a stimulating time and place. It's reassuring (though not that surprising) to hear Manhattan was as vibrant then as now, that the city opened its arms not only to immigrants but to left-leaning artists and writers who could never have thrived in conventional middle America. Highlights include a Jack Kerouac TV appearance, a brief James Baldwin interview, and current commentaries from Norman Mailer, John Gregory Dunne, Joan Didion, Gay Talese, and Robert Redford. A must-see for Big Apple loyalists.

4.0 out of 5 stars Dan Wakefield's Story, January 15, 2012

By 

Rich Solomon (St. Paul, Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: New York in the Fifties (DVD)

This film covers the time and place in a straight-ahead journalistic documentary style that, though slow paced at times, I thought appropriate to the material. New York in the '50's was no doubt an exciting, vigorous place to be, and some of the reasons for that are touched on well, if not always very deeply. Much of the story is Dan Wakefield's personal account. Wakefield, a journalist and writer who like so many others migrated to New York to start his professional career, has a great deal to tell from his recollections of the literary, journalistic, social, and -- somewhat less -- the artistic and musical revolutions taking place around him at the time. He's a good source of historic information. Having been the reporter of so much in his younger days, it's an act of gratitude on the part of the filmmaker to have invited him to be the source for today's reporting.

Additional detail is provided by interviews with writers such as Joan Didion, Calvin Trillin, Gay Talese, Nat Hentoff, composer David Amram, filmmaker Ted Steeg and others. Their stories add a great deal of interest and some depth. In general the combination of the relaxed conversational style of the film and the quick brush-strokes highlighting the many historic events, influences, personages, stories and places work well together if one is in the mood for that style of film. An unfortunate side to this however is that the excitement of the time and place -- the subject of the film -- can feel diluted by the nostalgic remembrances of its surviving participants. Still, it is surprising to be reminded of how powerfully the influences of that period's strong sense of human community, its racial awareness, the strangeness of gender segregation, and the reliance on booze and sex catalyzed the social changes about to take place over the next two decades.

The film is perhaps best approached as a personal memoir, and may be more enjoyed by aficionados of New York culture than those with only an idle curiosity. In balance though it offers an all-star lineup sharing a real wealth of first-person knowledge, and tackles a formidable subject with a warmth and generosity that one senses must have been as present and important in that period as its more sensational elements.