“The interviews for this book were conducted from May 1977 to December 1979. They appeared as cover stories for the TV Shopper, a free weekly paper that was distributed to homes and businesses in New York City. Founded by Bruce Logan in the mid-1970s as the West Side TV Shopper, it consisted of TV listings, advertisements, and two full-page stories per issue. One was a “friendly” restaurant review of an advertiser; the other was a profile of a prominent resident of the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The honoree’s face appeared on the cover, framed by a TV screen.”
…
“One aspect of the New York personality, I soon observed, was that the great often mingled freely with the ordinary. At the Alpen Pantry Cafe in Lincoln Center, where I worked briefly, David Hartman, host of Good Morning America, came in for his coffee every morning and waited in line like everyone else. John Lennon was said to walk his Westside neighborhood alone, and largely undisturbed.
The other side of the New York mentality was shown by nightclubs surrounded by velvet ropes, where uniformed doormen stood guard like army sentries. Disdaining the riffraff, they picked out certain attractive individuals milling outside and beckoned them to cut through the crowd, pay their admission and enter. The appearance of status counted for much, and many people who lived on 58th Street, one block from Central Park, got their mail through the back entrance so they could claim the higher class address of Central Park West.”
Read the whole thing, free:
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17385/pg17385-images.html
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WESTSIDER CLEVELAND AMORY
Author, radio humorist, and president of the Fund for Animals
EASTSIDER MAXENE ANDREWS
An Andrews Sister finds stardom as a solo
WESTSIDER LUCIE ARNAZ
To star in Neil Simon’s new musical
EASTSIDER ADRIEN ARPEL
America’s best-selling beauty author
WESTSIDER ISAAC ASIMOV
Author of 188 books
WESTSIDER GEORGE BALANCHINE
Artistic director of the New York City Ballet
WESTSIDER CLIVE BARNES
Drama and dance critic
WESTSIDER FRANZ BECKENBAUER
North America’s most valuable soccer player
WESTSIDER HIMAN BROWN
Creator of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater
FERRIS BUTLER
Creator, writer and producer of Waste Meat News
EASTSIDER SAMMY CAHN
Oscar-winning lyricist
WESTSIDER HUGH CAREY
Governor of New York state
WESTSIDER CRAIG CLAIBORNE
Food editor of the New York Times
WESTSIDER MARC CONNELLY
Actor, director, producer, novelist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist
EASTSIDER TONY CRAIG
Star of The Edge of Night
EASTSIDER RODNEY DANGERFIELD
The comedian and the man
WESTSIDER JAN DE RUTH
Partner of nudes and Time covers
WESTSIDER MIGNON DUNN
The Met’s super mezzo
EASTSIDER DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR.
A man for all seasons
WESTSIDER LEE FALK
Creator of The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician
WESTSIDER BARRY FARBER
Radio talkmaster and linguist
WESTSIDER SUZANNE FARRELL
Star of the New York City Ballet
WESTSIDER JULES FEIFFER
Screenwriter for Popeye the Sailor
EASTSIDER GERALDINE FITZGERALD
Actress, director and singer
EASTSIDER JOAN FONTAINE
Actress turns author with No Bed of Roses
WESTSIDER BETTY FRIEDAN
Founder of the women’s liberation movement
WESTSIDER ARTHUR FROMMER
Author of Europe on $10 a Day
EASTSIDER WILLIAM GAINES
Publisher and founder of Mad magazine
WESTSIDER RALPH GINZBURG
Publisher of Moneysworth
EASTSIDER LILLIAN GISH
78 years in show business
WESTSIDER MILTON GLASER
Design director of the new Esquire
WESTSIDER PAUL GOLDBERGER
Architecture critic for the New York Times
EASTSIDER MILTON GOLDMAN
Broadway’s super agent
EASTSIDER TAMMY GRIMES
Star of Father’s Day at the American Place Theatre
WESTSIDER DELORES HALL
Star of Your Arms Too Short to Box with God
WESTSIDER LIONEL HAMPTON
King of the Newport Jazz Festival
WESTSIDER DAVID HAWK
Executive director of Amnesty International U.S.A.
EASTSIDER WALTER HOVING
Chairman of Tiffany & Company
EASTSIDER JAY JACOBS
Restaurant critic for Gourmet magazine
WESTSIDER RAUL JULIA
Star of Dracula on Broadway
EASTSIDER BOB KANE
Creator of Batman and Robin
WESTSIDER LENORE KASDORF
Star of The Guiding Light
EASTSIDER BRIAN KEITH
Back on Broadway after 27 years
WESTSIDER HAROLD KENNEDY
Author of No Pickle, No Performance
WESTSIDER ANNA KISSELGOFF
Dance critic for the New York Times
WESTSIDER GEORGE LANG
Owner of the Cafe des Artistes
WESTSIDER RUTH LAREDO
Leading American pianist
EASTSIDER STAN LEE
Creator of Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk
EASTSIDER JOHN LEONARD
Book critic for the New York Times
WESTSIDER JOHN LINDSAY
International lawyer
WESTSIDER ALAN LOMAX
Sending songs into outer space
EASTSIDER PETER MAAS
Author of Serpico and Made in America
WESTSIDER LEONARD MALTIN
Film historian and critic
EASTSIDER JEAN MARSH
Creator and star of Upstairs, Downstairs
EASTSIDER JACKIE MASON
Co-starring with Steve Martin in The Jerk
WESTSIDER MALACHY McCOURT
Actor and social critic
WESTSIDER MEAT LOAF
Hottest rock act in town
WESTSIDER ANN MILLER
Co-star of Sugar Babies
WESTSIDER SHERRILL MILNES
Opera superstar
WESTSIDER CARLOS MONTOYA
Master of the flamenco guitar
WESTSIDER MELBA MOORE
Broadway star releases ninth album
WESTSIDER MICHAEL MORIARTY
Star of Holocaust returns to Broadway in G.R. Point
WESTSIDER LeROY NEIMAN
America’s greatest popular artist
WESTSIDER ARNOLD NEWMAN
Great portrait photographer
EASTSIDER EDWIN NEWMAN
Journalist and first-time novelist
EASTSIDER LARRY O’BRIEN
Commissioner of the National Basketball Association
WESTSIDER MAUREEN O’SULLIVAN
Great lady of the movie screen
WESTSIDER BETSY PALMER
Star of Same Time, Next Year
WESTSIDER JAN PEERCE
The man with the golden voice
EASTSIDER GEORGE PLIMPTON
Author, editor and adventurer
EASTSIDER OTTO PREMINGER
Rebel filmmaker returns with The Human Factor
WESTSIDER CHARLES RANGEL
Congressman of the 19th District
WESTSIDER JOE RAPOSO
Golden boy of American composers
WESTSIDER MASON REESE
Not just another kid
WESTSIDER MARTY REISMAN
America’s best-loved ping-pong player
WESTSIDER RUGGIERO RICCI
World’s most-recorded violinist
WESTSIDER BUDDY RICH
Monarch of the drums
WESTSIDER GERALDO RIVERA
Broadcaster, author and humanitarian
WESTSIDER NED ROREM
Author and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer
WESTSIDER JULIUS RUDEL
Director of the New York City Opera
EASTSIDER DR. LEE SALK
America’s foremost child psychologist
EASTSIDER FRANCESCO SCAVULLO
Photographer of the world’s most beautiful women
WESTSIDER ROGER SESSIONS
Composer of the future
EASTSIDER DICK SHAWN
Veteran comic talks about Love at First Bite
EASTSIDER GEORGE SHEARING
Famed jazz pianist returns to New York
WESTSIDER REID SHELTON
The big-hearted billionaire of Annie
WESTSIDER BOBBY SHORT
Mr. New York to perform in Newport Jazz Festival
WESTSIDER BEVERLY SILLS
Opera superstar
GEORGE SINGER
46 years a doorman on the West Side
WESTSIDER GREGG SMITH
Founder and conductor of the Gregg Smith Singers
EASTSIDER LIZ SMITH
Queen of gossip
EASTSIDERS TOM & DICK SMOTHERS
Stars of I Love My Wife on Broadway
WESTSIDER VICTOR TEMKIN
Publisher of Berkley and Jove Books
WESTSIDER JOHN TESH
Anchorman for WCBS Channel 2 News
WESTSIDER RICHARD THOMAS
John-Boy teams up with Henry Fonda in Roots II
EASTSIDER ANDY WARHOL
Pop artist and publisher of Interview magazine
EASTSIDER ARNOLD WEISSBERGER
Theatrical attorney for superstars
EASTSIDER TOM WICKER
Author and columnist for the New York Times
EASTSIDER TOM WOLFE
Avant-garde author talks about The Right Stuff
WESTSIDER PINCHAS ZUKERMAN
Violinist and conductor