Research Catalog

Title

Celluloid skyline : New York and the movies / James Sanders.

Author

Sanders, James, 1955-

Publication

New York : Alfred A. Knopf : Distributed by Random House, ©2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 496 p. : ill. (some col.); 26 cm

Summary

• "A tale of two cities, both called "New York."".
• "The first is a real city, an urban agglomeration of millions. The second is a mythic city, so rich in memory and association and sense of place that to people everywhere it has come to seem real: the New York of films such as 42nd Street, Rear Window, King Kong, Dead End, The Naked City, Ghostbusters, Annie Hall, Taxi Driver, and Do the Right Thing - a magical city of the imagination that is as complex, dynamic, and familiar as its namesake of stone and steel.".
• "As James Sanders shows in this work, the dream city of the movies - created by more than a century of films, since the very dawn of the medium itself - may hold the secret to the glamour of its real counterpart. Here are the cocktail parties and power lunches, the subway chases and opening nights, the playground rumbles and observation-deck romances.
• Here is an invented Gotham, a place designed specifically for action, drama, and adventure, a city of bright avenues and mysterious sidestreets, of soaring towers and intimate corners, where remarkable people do exciting, amusing, romantic, scary things. Sanders takes us from the tenement to the penthouse, from New York to Hollywood and back again, from 1896 to the present, all the while showing how the real and mythic cities reflected, changed, and taught each other.".
• "Illustrated with scores of rare and unusual production images culled from Sander's decade-long research in studio archives and private collections around the country, Celluloid Skyline offers a new way to see not only America's greatest metropolis, but also cities the world over."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• New York (N.Y.) > In motion pictures
• Motion picture locations > New York (State) > New York
• Manhattan (New York, N.Y.) > In motion pictures

Note

• "A Borzoi book"--T.p. verso.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 460-464) and index.
• Filmography: p. 466-478.

Contents

Pt. 1. Mythic Cities. 1. Sidewalk Moments: Filming the City: 1896-1928. 2. Dreaming the City: New Yorkers in Hollywood. 3. Building the Dream: The Studio Production System -- Pt. 2. On the Town. 4. Emerald Cities: Skylines of Fantasy. 5. Something Big: Skyscraper and Office Building. 6. Street Scene: Row House, Tenement, and Housing Project. 7. Domestic Elaborations: Mansion, Apartment, and Loft. 8. Worlds of Difference: Dead End and Rear Window. 9. Lofty Perches: Penthouse, Terrace, Rooftop, and Nightclub. 10. Edge of the City: Waterfront, Train Station, and Grand Hotel. 11. Dancing Lights: Broadway and Times Square -- Pt. 3. Eight Million Stories. 12. On Location: Filming the City After 1945. 13. Nighttown: The Dark Side of the City. 14. Changing City: Renewal and Preservation. 15. A Heightened Reality: Street Meets Stage.

ISBN

• 0394570626 :
• 0375710272 (pbk.)

LCCN

2001091010

OCLC

• ocm48470557
• SCSB-4217998

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries