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Summary: Ah! The Good Old Days!!
Review: "Stork Club" is a pleasant surprise. It is the remarkably well- researched story of a one-time bootlegger from Oklahoma, by way of Washington and Detroit, named Sherman Billingsley. The author had the obvious cooperation of Billingley's daughter. Mr. B ran Manhattan's Stork Club from the mid- 30s to the mid -60s. Located on East 53rd Street, it was arguably the world's most famous nightclub, when there were such things. "SC" deals relatively briefly with the glamorous café society clientele such as Ethel Merman, Humphrey Bogart or the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. It concentrates on the harder edges of Mr. Bs life; the bootlegging days in the Midwest, his (successful?) fight to free himself from the mobsters like Dutch Schultz and Owney Madden, needless run ins with Civil Rights activists and the ultimately ruinous struggles with local unions. Mr. B was always fighting something including internal theft, a fickle public and disloyal employees who left him to start their own nightclubs. He appears to have been his own worst enemy. "SC" ends on an unsurprisingly depressive note. This reviewer would definitely recommend "SC" to any native New Yorker of a "certain age" or those curious about an earlier, VASTLY more gracious, more livable and more desirable New York than the current yuppie playground it has become. ...Mr. B had the well-deserved reputation of being kind to young people and servicemen. My two visits to the Stork, just prior to its demise bore this out. They were nice to my date and me. ... This must have been a high-class place in its day, a "day" that is gone for good. "SC" is your chance to at least read about it and imagine.
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Summary: a lost world --
Review: A good mixologist should be able to so skillfully blend together a bunch of seemingly disparate items into one smooth whole that identification of those individual items becomes nearly impossible. This book is the result of one such very skillful blending process. Once upon a time, there was an 'alternate world' known as 'cafe society'. It was very glamorous--on the outside. The major habitat of the folks who comprised this society was nightclubs; the majority of the world's accumulation of these places were in New York City, between approximately 1920 and 1970. Reasons for this phenomenon were many, although they primarily grew from the Prohibition era, which seemed to have prohibited almost nothing, especially the sale of alcohol and the possibly resultant rise of gangsterism. New York City with its many glittering facets--theatre, dining, drinking, and gambling among them--drew not only the many immigrants, adding their national cultures to the above mix, but also the 'beautiful people' who enjoyed the seemingly unlimited benefits of such a cosmopolitan setting. Thus, at the beginning of the mass-media explosion, radio and movies, plus more and more magazines and newspapers, the art of 'celebrity' was born into this new world. The Stork Club was but one of many of its kind, and this fascinating book touches on all these elements. One entire section details the genealogy of Sherman Billingsley, the larger-than-life owner of the Club, and whose name was synonymous with the era he embraced so whole-heartedly. Anyone who was anyone (and most of them were) was to be found in the lush atmosphere of the Stork Club, where a variety of tastes could easily be accomodated. If you can remember this time at all--a really truly, kinder and gentler one--at least on the surface, you'll enjoy this trip backward in time. If you're too young to remember when celebrities were fêted and treated with respect for who they were, rather than hounded and heckled and attacked for what they are in today's world, you'll appreciate the diligence of the author in unveiling yesterday. On the other hand, if you want to read about the under-belly of society at that time--the Mob 'stars'--Dutch Schultz, Frank Costello and others, you'll find them all here. In many ways, it brings back memories of the Untouchables in Chicago, only in this case, many of New York's untouchables were the elected politicians, law enforcement officials and judges. Granted, it wasn't always nice, but if we're to learn from our mistakes, then this lavishly-illustrated and well-researched book also provides an assortment of lessons. It must have been one of those fortuitous coincidences that brought Sherman Billingsley to New York at just the right time to take advantage of the birth of cafe society and the onset of prohibition. He became one of those 'bigger-than-life' personalities whose outer shell seemed to be made of teflon, even before that substance was invented. There is also a comprehensive bibliography and extensive index. I enjoyed every page.
Rating:
Summary: A Great "You Are There" Account
Review: An engrossing account of the golden age of "Cafe Society" and the New York City nightclub scene in the 1930's-1950's focused on the most notable of it's legends, Sherman Billingsley.
Rating:
Summary: Bring the past into the present!
Review: I have always been a big fan of history, historical events, places, etc. but I never really thought about the age of the nightclub. This book brings the past to life. Telling the story of poor Sherman Billingsly who brings to life a dream, to own his own nightclub. Seeing him rise to almost superstar status and to see the dream slip away with the changing of the times. When I bought this book I figured it would be a read it on and off type book....I read it cover to cover in one sitting. I lost almost an entire day, but it was well worth it. Hearing the stories about the stork and it patrons....Ethel Merman, Walter Winchell, John F Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe. Picturing the gangster behind the scenes waiting for a cut of the auction. The people who ran the club and just learning about the legendary club. This one is well worth it! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Bring the past into the present!
Review: I have always been a big fan of history, historical events, places, etc. but I never really thought about the age of the nightclub. This book brings the past to life. Telling the story of poor Sherman Billingsly who brings to life a dream, to own his own nightclub. Seeing him rise to almost superstar status and to see the dream slip away with the changing of the times. When I bought this book I figured it would be a read it on and off type book....I read it cover to cover in one sitting. I lost almost an entire day, but it was well worth it. Hearing the stories about the stork and it patrons....Ethel Merman, Walter Winchell, John F Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe. Picturing the gangster behind the scenes waiting for a cut of the auction. The people who ran the club and just learning about the legendary club. This one is well worth it! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!
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Summary: A GOLDEN AGE RECAPTURED
Review: This book brings to life the glorious decades of the 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's, when night life in New York meant more than yuppie scum club hopping and dancing to grunge music in lofts. The wonderful Stork Club, and its colorful owner Sherman Billingsley, were an integral part of those decades. The book abounds in great anecdotes and captures what it must have been like to be admitted past the gold chain at the front entrance to the elegant interior of the Stork Club, where the likes of Walter Winchell, Jackie Gleason, Errol Flynn and Ethel Merman, to name a very few, held sway. How I wish I could go back to that era for just one night and spend it at the Stork Club! The book is much more than the story of the Stork Club. It covers in considerable detail the remarkable life of Sherman Billingsley, who grew up on the frontier of Oklahoma and came to New York in the 1920's as a bootlegger, founding the Stork Club as a speakeasy in 1929. Billingsley was a real character that the reader cannot help liking and the chapters dealing with the demise of the Stork Club in 1965 and Billingsley's death a year later had an emotional impact on me; it was like losing old friends. The book abounds in wonderful photos of the Stork Club and the people who worked there and partied there. An added bonus is a special section at the end of the book written bu Billingsley's daughter, Shermane, on how to throw your own "Stork Club party"! In addition to recipes for food and drink and other advice, she provides additional colorful anecdotes on her memories of the Stork Club. Sherman Billingsley, where are you now that we really need you?
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Summary: Family lore...
Review: This book is filled with wonderful stories about my father and grandfather, Albino Jr. and Sr., and the shady side of New York City long before I was born. It was wonderful to immerse myself in family lore and relive the stories my father has told me about the past. On the whole the book is a nice read of a bygone era when the people were as slick as the liquor they drank.
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