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DAVID FREELAND: AUTOMATS, TAXI DANCES, AND VAUDEVILLE: Excavating Manhattan's Lost Places of Leisure

June 22,2010

(NYU Press 2009)

New Yorkers who incessantly gripe about gentrification have become as grating as the near-constant noise of luxury condo construction—yes, even in this economy. But David Freeland’s affectionate, detail-packed tome about Manhattan’s forgotten pleasure centers—from dance halls to gambling dens—adds a lyrical song to the cacophony. Organized geographically and for the most part chronologically, the book explores eight neighborhoods—Chinatown, Chatham Square, the Bowery, the East Village, Union Square, the Tenderloin, Harlem and Times Square—via their entertainment centers, with the added hook that physical remnants of these historical hot spots still exist. - Time Out NY

David Freeland is the author of the books Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudville: Excavating Manhattan's Lost Places of Leisure (2009), and Ladies of Soul (2001). His work has appeared in New York Press, No Depression, American Songwriter, Relix, Living Blues, South Dakota Review, Blues Revue, Goldmine, and Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians. He lives in New York.

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The exhibitions and programs of The Skyscraper Museum are supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.