42nd Street

Imagine shuffling down Broadway through the hustle and bustle right into the nonstop, neon heart of New York City: 42nd Street. Once a quiet neighborhood of brownstones and churches, the area wastransformed in the early 1900s into an entertainment hub unlike any in theworld. No place has ever evoked the glamour and romantic possibility of bigcity nightlife as vividly as did 42nd Street. It was the dazzle of "naughty, bawdy, gaudy" 42nd Street that put Times Square on the map and turned the Broadway theater district into the Great White Way. Ghosts of 42nd Street stirs your imagination as it takes you on a historical journey of this glamorized strip still known today as the Crossroads of the World. From the bold innovations of Oscar Hammerstein and Florenz Ziegfeld through the porn-laden 1960s and 1970s to the present-day "Disneyfication" of New York's bright lights district, Ghosts of 42nd Street is as fascinating as a tabloid frozen in time.

This first book in an irresistible new series introduces librarian and reluctant sleuth Raymond Ambler, a doggedly curious fellow who uncovers murderous secrets hidden behind the majestic marble façade of New York City’s landmark 42nd Street Library. Murder at the 42nd Street Library follows Ambler and his partners in crime-solving as they track down a killer, shining a light on the dark deeds and secret relationships that are hidden deep inside the famous flagship building at the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. In their search for the reasons behind the murder, Ambler and his crew uncover sinister, and profoundly disturbing, relationships among the scholars studying in the iconic library. Included among the players are a celebrated mystery writer who has donated his papers to the library’s crime fiction collection; that writer’s long-missing daughter, a prominent New York society woman with a hidden past, and more than one of Ambler’s colleagues at the library. Shocking revelations lead inexorably to the traumatic events that follow—the reading room will never be the same.

Times Square, celebrated as the crossroads of the world, begins at 42nd Street, America 's main stem. Times Square has a rich history as the center of American popular culture, embracing music, theater, and hospitality. Forty-second Street, once the northern boundary of commercial New York, was transformed into a legendary focal point of the publishing, entertainment, and transportation industries following the expansion of Grand Central Terminal.

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The eldest daughter of the Times Square “King of Porn,” Romola Hodas recounts her chaotic childhood amid the turmoil of publically growing up as the daughter of the man who almost single-handedly built New York City’s pornography and adult entertainment empire from the 1960s to the 1980s before his spectacular and public fall from grace. Behind the salacious headlines, Marty’s family paid a terrible price. In her shockingly honest, no-holds-barred memoir, Romola describes hanging out as a child in her father’s porn shops on 42nd Street and meeting the eclectic clientele who frequented the stores, making friends with the girls who performed live sex acts on stage, and spying on her parents’ sex orgies and crazy all-night swinger parties. Romola relates, in moving detail, how she cared for her three younger siblings when her brilliant, bipolar mother broke with reality, and how she survived verbal, physical, and emotional abuse; a year in reform school; her father’s three stints in prison; two kidnapping attempts by the mob (one while at summer fat camp); and how her baby brother, Jarrett, actually was briefly kidnapped by mobsters wanting to send Marty Hodas a clear, unambiguous message. For all its darkness, The Princess of 42nd Street is, at its heart, an uplifting and inspirational story of how one young woman overcame incredible odds to become a successful businesswoman who now devotes her life to helping others. Raw, unflinching, and devoid of self-pity, The Princess of 42nd Street is a one-of-a-kind story.

Bradford Ropes' scandalous original novel is back after decades out of print! Here's the original adult potboiler about the needy, seedy, slangy side of that grimy gulch called Broadway, once upon a time, a twisted comic valentine to musical comedy and to every one of the human vices. It's Valley of Dolls decades before Valley of the Dolls. If you only know the film or stage musical versions, you know only the last part of this wild, outrageous novel. Now you can get the rest of the story... In Ropes' original novel, Billy Lawlor is the half-closeted boy toy of British director Julian Marsh. Leading lady Dorothy Brock is still sneaking around behind her millionaire boyfriend's back with Pat Denning, but this time, Pat is also romancing Peggy Sawyer, while also having an affair with the wife of Marsh's dance director Andy Lee, who has a succession of chorine mistresses of his own. Everybody's drinking, drugging, and screwing so much it's amazing they can get Pretty Lady ready for opening night! You won't be able to put it down. Especially if you've ever done a musical. Also included in this volume is an essay by musical theatre historian Scott Miller exploring the novel, the film, and the stage musical.

Essay by Tibor & Maira Kalman and Art Direction by Yolanda Cuomo In order to capture the profound structural and cultural changes taking place in Times Square, Selkirk shot head-one, full-frame, 1000 people of all shapes, colours and origins - some famous, some four-legged - passing through the Crossroads of the World, asking of each only name, hometown and reason for being in Times Square. The results are lively, engaging and surprising, a millennial look at the life of the world's most famous city. Illustrated with 1000 full-colour photos.