The Times Square Story [Paperback]

Geoffrey O'Brien (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 1998

A delirious, brilliantly written fictional aria on the sleazy glory that was once Times Square — illustrated with dozens of vintage photographs and B-movie stills.

" . . . so this picture we're talking about is The Times Square Story this is New York, show biz, crossroads of the world, entertainment capital, international center for scope and variety and pacing, everything open after midnight, not just a bunch of dumb gangsters pushing people around, this one has jazz, exotic nightlife, hipster talk, blacks tights, psychoanalysis . . . "  Imagine Damon Runyon on speed, with a graduate degree in cultural studies and access to the world's most extensive video archive of low-budget exploitation films, and you'll get some idea of the ultra-hip mind-movie that is Geoffrey O'Brien's The Times Square Story. It evokes the one-time glitter, the glamour, and the grunge of this fabled piece of real estate before it became Disneyfied — its grind houses and strip joints and freak shows and novelty stores and night clubs and peep shows and fleabag hotels. The Times Square Story also celebrates the world of below-the-line filmmaking as the kid, the producer, the broken-down actor, and Miss Columbus 1952 struggle to bring Fury of Macumba to the big screen-their artistic impulses crippled by financial reality and human frailty. With more than fifty evocative photographs from the golden era of this mythic patch of asphalt, The Times Square Story is a roller-coaster ride through gaudy, seedy, glorious cultural territory. More than fifty evocative photographs

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Black-and-white photographs of billboards, seductively worded marquees and steamy film stills illustrate O'Brien's (Hard-boiled America) graphic scenario for an imaginary movie about life in Times Square in the early 1950s. A young hayseed freshly discharged from the Army arrives at the exploding "crossroads of the world" and is swiftly swallowed up by the promise of "jazz, exotic nightlife, hipster talk, black tights, psychoanalysis." O'Brien attempts to capture the feel of the era with raw, bare-knuckled prose; his director aims to assault the viewer relentlessly with "every kind of noise and spectacle, neon, high heels, lipstick, taxicabs, quick stabs." However, it becomes clear, long before the story degenerates into a sleazy tale of suburban whoring, accompanied by B-movie clips of drunken strip-poker parties, that his Times Square story represents the cinematographic middle-class fantasies familiar from the (admittedly, unillustrated) montages of, for instance, Robert Coover. Still, O'Brien's staccato narrative is an energetic and most entertaining glimpse of a legendary area in New York that?for better or worse?exists no more.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Geoffrey O'Brien is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and the author of Hard-Boiled America and Dream-Time: Chapters from the Sixties. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (October 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039331846X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393318463
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,542,183 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

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly engaging. An rich, exciting, funny journey., January 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Times Square Story (Paperback)

The Amazon.com description is accurate. The writing is on the mark and reads like every detective novel you ever read combined with a be-bop rythym of New York as it really was. Beautifully designed and thoughtfully paced, this is a perfect marriage of word, image and design. The most original book I've seen in years. You simply can't put it down.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Potential destroyed by brevity, October 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Times Square Story (Paperback)

Unique concept, but is that all there is? I read it in Borders bookstore in 20 minutes!!! Additionally, the book is supposed to be celebrating the sleeze era of Times Square, yet it seems to be more interested in generating a noir movie myth than looking at the reality.