Inventing Times Square : Commerce and Culture at the Crossroads of the World

Times Square, in its heyday, expressed American culture in the moment of vivid change. A stellar group of critics and scholars examines this transitional moment in Inventing Times Square, a study of the development of New York's central entertainment district. A fascinating visit to Times Square, from its christening in 1905 to its eventual decline after the Depression, the book explores the colorful configuration of institutions and cultural practices that propelled Times Square from a local and regional entertainment center to a national cultural marketplace. Changes in the economy, in religion, in leisure culture, and in aesthetics gave birth to a geographical space that fostered Vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley, Flo Ziegfeld and Billy Rose, the spectacle of the Hippodrome and the bright lights of the Great White Way. Out of this same place eventually came national network radio and many Hollywood films. Though conceived as a public space, Times Square was quickly transformed into a commercial center. Power brokers wielded their influence on a public ready to succumb to consumerism. Theatrical entertainment became a large-scale national business based in, and operated out of, Times Square. A new commercial aesthetic travelled with Joseph Urban from Vienna to Times Square to Palm Beach, bringing to society a sophisticated style that will forever say "Broadway." Times Square as the "center of the universe" had its darker sides as well, for it was the testing ground for a new morality. The packaging of sexuality on the stage gave it legitimacy on the streets, as hotels and sidewalks became the province of female prostitution, male hustling, and pornography. At the center of New York City, Times Square's commercial activities gave full rein to urban appetites and fantasies, and challenged and defied the norms of behavior that prevailed elsewhere in the city. Cultural history at its finest, Inventing Times Square portrays the vibrant convergence of social and economic forces on Forty-second Street. Cover Title page, Copyright, Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Prologue. Times Square: Secularization and Sacralization Introductory Essay Chapter 1. Developing for Commercial Culture Chapter 2. Uptown Real Estate and the Creation of Times Square Chapter 3. Urban Tourism and the Commercial City Chapter 4. The Discipline of Amusement Chapter 5. Brokers and the New Corporate, Industrial Order Introductory Essay Chapter 6. Vaudeville and the Transformation of Popular Culture Chapter 7. The Syndicate/Schubert War Chapter 8. Impresarios of Broadway Nightlife Chapter 9. The Entertainment District at the End of the 1930s Chapter 10. Irving Berlin: Troubadour of Tin Pan Alley Chapter 11. Broadwar: The Place that Words Built Introductory Essay Chapter 12. New York's Gigantic Toy Chapter 13. Joseph Urban Introductory Essay Chapter 14. Policing of Sexuality Chapter 15. The Policed: Gay Men's Strategies of Everyday Resistance Chapter 16. Private Parts in Public Places / Laurence Senelick Re-Inventing Times Square: 1990 / Ada Louise Huxtable Notes Contributors Index Photographs Developing for commercial culture / David C. Hammack -- Uptown real estate and the creation of Times Square / Betsy Blackmar -- Urban tourism and the commercial city / Neil Harris -- The discipline of amusement / Richard Wightman Fox -- Brokers and the new corporate, industrial order / William Leach -- Vaudeville and the transformation of popular culture / Robert W. Snyder -- The Syndicate/Shubert war / Peter A. Davis -- Impresarios of Broadway nightlife / Lewis Erenberg -- The entertainment district at the end of the 1930s / Brooks McNamara -- Irving Berlin : troubadour of Tin Pan Alley / Philip Furia -- Broadway : the place that words built / William R. Taylor -- New York's gigantic toy / William Wood Register, Jr. -- Joseph Urban / Gregory F. Gilmartin -- Policing of sexuality / Timothy J. Gilfoyle -- The policed : gay men's strategies of everyday resistance / George Chauncey, Jr. -- Private parts in public plaes / Laurence Senelick CONTRIBUTORS to this section-Structural Changes-have shown that, in one way or another, the inherited regional varieties of American life and livelihood were being changed in the direction of a so-called consumer culture well before the end of the nineteenth century. Edited By William R. Taylor. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.