Product Description
This is an audio portrait of one of the final vestiges of the Bowery, New York's notorious skid row. In the first half of the century, the mile-long Bowery's bars, missions and cheap hotels (or flophouses) were home to an estimated 35,000 down-and-out men each night. Today, only a handful of flophouses, virtually unchanged for half a century, are all that remain of this once teeming world. For several months in 1998, David Isay and Stacy Abramson had unprecedented 24-hour access to the Sunshine Hotel, one of the last of the no-frills establishments.
About the Author
Dave Isay is the founder of Sound Portraits Productions. Over the past twelve years his radio documentary and feature work has won almost every award in broadcasting including two Peabody Awards, two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, and two Livingston Awards for young journalists. David has also received the Prix Italia (Europe's oldest and most distinguished broadcasting honor), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1994) and most recently a MacArthur Fellowship (2000). He is the author (or co-author) of three books based on Sound Portraits radio stories: Holding On (W.W. Norton & Co., 1995); Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago (Scribner, 1997); and Flophouse (Random House, 2000). He is also an occasional contributor to the New York Times Magazine and a contributing editor to Contentville.com.
Radio producer Stacy Abramson has worked at Sound Portraits Productions since 1996. Her early production credits include the radio documentaries The Sunshine Hotel, A Letter to Butchie, and Charlie's Story. She has also produced The Jewish Giant, an audio portrait of Eddie Carmel, and Witness to an Execution, based on interviews with men and women who have witnessed or participated in numerous executions in Huntsville, Texas She recently co-authored Flophouse (Random House, 2000) with Dave Isay.