|
 |
Harvey Frommer
|
|
Harvey Frommer is the celebrated author of more than 30 sports books, including the classics Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball, New York City Baseball, and The New York Yankee Encyclopedia. He wrote for Yankees magazine for 16 years. Together with his wife, Myrna Katz Frommer, he authored the critically acclaimed oral histories It Happened in Manhattan, It Happened in Brooklyn, It Happened in the Catskills, It Happened on Broadway, and Growing Up Jewish in America. Frommer is a professor in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Dartmouth College, and a longtime Yankee fan. |
|
Here is a book filled with the light and magic of Broadway theater, told from the living memories of the people who created it. What made Carol Channing decide to go into the theater? What great musical did Moss Hart first hear in kindergarten? What positions did Neil Simon, Robert Redford, and Manny Azenberg play on Barefoot in the Park's softball team? These and hundreds more stories make It Happened on Broadway a fascinating, informative, and very intimate picture of the life of the theater.
To Read a Bit About the Book
|
|
|
It Happened in Brooklyn tells the story of mid-century Brooklyn where the authors were born and raised, home of the famed Brooklyn Dodgers, Nathan's franks, stopp-ball, stick-ball, and the best high schools in America.
|
|
 |
| New York City Baseball : The Last Golden Age, 1947-1957 |
| Paperback |
Harvey Frommer
|
|
When the lights came on again after World War II, they illuminated a nation ready for heroes and a city --New York--eager for entertainment. Baseball provided the heroes, and the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers--with their rivalries, their successes, their stars--provided the show.
Oisk and Newk, Pee Wee and Skoonj, Ski, Campy, Preacher, Westy, Blacky, Whitey, Yogi, the Yankee Clipper, the Peepul's Cherce, the Old Reliable--New York City Baseball recaptures the golden decade of 1947-1957, when the three New York teams were the uncrowned kings of the city and the very embodiment of the national pastime for much of the U.S. In those ten years, Casey Stengel and his Bronx Bombers went to the World Series seven times; Joltin' Joe DiMaggio stepped gracefully aside to make room for a young slugger named Mickey Mantle; one Bobby Thomson hit "the shot heard 'round the world'" and the Brooklyn (but not for much longer) Dodgers achieved the impossible by beating the Yankees in the 1955 World Series.
|
|
|
It's just a narrow island, only twenty-two square miles. But it's so much bigger than that. Now, in this album of period photos and first-person reminiscences, you can experience the mosaic of midcentury Manhattan from Altman's to Zabar's--East Side, West Side, and all around the town.
Ranging from the early post-World War II years when the city came into its own to the mid-1970s when the city nearly went bust--and featuring interviews with such New York luminaries as Jimmy Breslin, Bill Gallo, Monte Irvin, Robert Merrill, Herman Badillo, Elaine Kaufman, Jerry Della Femina, and Pauline Trigere, plus the everyday people who form the hustle and bustle of the city's daily life--this book will bring you back to a glorious era when the great ocean liners still docked in the Hudson River ports; when Checker cabs hurtled across a two-way Fifth Avenue; when eleven daily newspapers covered the city beat; when young women hurried to their Katharine Gibbs classes in hats and white gloves; when the Third Avenue el cast long shadows on the street. It will take you to SoHo before it had a name, and the Brill Building when it was home to Tin Pan Alley songwriters. It will re-create the experience of childhood in Harlem and the Lower East Side, visit the Garden, the Garment District, and Greenwich Village, and bring to mind the throbbing music of 52nd Street jazz joints and the Fillmore East, the taste of a Ratner's onion roll and a chocolate egg cream, the aroma wafting from Little Italy's trattorias, and the rumble of the subway from beneath the sidewalk grates. For anyone who grew up in or near "The City"--or fell in love with New York as an adult--this unique history, filled with vintage photos, is a compelling read...and a powerful testament to the indescribable mystique of magical, memorable Manhattan.
|
|
|
Nothing defines America like baseball. And nothing defines baseball like the Yankees. From their historic beginnings as the New York Highlanders playing in Manhattan’s Hilltop Park in 1903, to their reign as the modern-day dynasty that brought Major League Baseball into a new millennium with World Series championships in ’96, ’98, ’99, and 2000, this team has given us a century of triumphs and heartbreaks, legends and lore.
Now, this definitive album captures that century in words, stats, and pictures. Included are exclusive interviews with luminaries such as Mel Allen, Yogi Berra, Scott Brosius, Andy Carey, Chris Chambliss, Jerry Coleman, Bob Feller, Monte Irvin, Ralph Kiner, Don Larsen, Bob Sheppard, Duke Snider, and Don Zimmer, as well as portraits of the greats from Mickey Mantle to Don Mattingly, from Vic Raschi to Allie Reynolds, from Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio to Derek Jeter.
There are picks and profiles of the greatest (and worst) Yankee teams—sure to get a few arguments going. There are quotes, a quiz, lists, trivia, and tributes—as well as tales of fierce rivalries and unforgettable moments. You’ll experience the sweeps and stumbles, the hallowed history of the House that Ruth Built, and the wackiness of the infamous Pine Tar Incident. You’ll endure the suspense of Larsen’s perfect game during the ’56 Series; watch Mr. October hit one (and two and three) out of the park in ‘77; listen to Lou Gehrig’s stirring 1939 speech; and experience the rollercoaster ride of the 2001 series, with two impossible come-from-behind victories followed by the Diamondbacks’ snatching of the crown from the Yankees’ grasp.
For Yankee fans, or anyone who loves baseball, owning A Yankee Century is like having a clubhouse pass to the most fabled franchise in all of sports.
REVIEWS
"Frommer slices and dices information about the team in thousands of ways. If there is a statistic about the team a reader wants to know, more than likely it can be found in the pages of this compilation of facts and figures. Trivia buffs could spend months digesting all the information that Frommer has collected in this easily accessible work... Yankee fans who can't learn enough about their favorite team will think they died and went to heaven with all that Frommer offers on each page." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“If you love baseball, if you love the New York Yankees, you will love this book.” -- Paul O’Neill
|
|
|
From the authors of It Happened in Brookly...A loving tribute to the Manhattan mystique-filled with vintage photos.
A mosaic of mid-century Manhattan and an exuberant oral history that begins in the post-World War II years when the city came into its own, and ends in the mid-1970s when it nearly went bust. For anyone who grew up in or near "the city"-or fell in love with New York as an adult-this unique history is filled with vintage photos and personal interviews with such New York luminaries as Jimmy Breslin, Bill Gallo, Monte Irvin, Robert Merrill, Elaine Kaufman, Jerry Della Femmina, and Saul Zabar. It Happened in Manhattan is an often humorous, sometimes poignant, occasionally bitter-but always loving-testament to the magic of Manhattan.
|
|
|
Growing Up Baseball is the first oral history that reveals the dreams of a select few who actually made it to the major leagues. In their own words, players like Nolan Ryan, Bob Feller, "Sparky" Anderson, Jim Palmer, and Bob Tewksbury share their early memories of playing catch with their dads or baseball with their brothers in the neighborhood or on the farm. These experiences ignited the dream and indelibly shaped the futures of the sixty-nine players highlighted in this book authored by father and son, Harvey and Frederic Frommer. During their first-hand interviews, the authors discovered such interesting facts as:
- Dom DiMaggio polished his fielding skills playing catch with brother Joe on the steep hills of San Francisco
- Bob Feller was lucky to have a father who built him a complete baseball field in a pasture on their Des Moines, Iowa far m in 1930-the first "Field of Dreams."
- Keith Hernandez started at age five to catch and hit tennis balls thrown to him by his minor league infielder father.
- Monte Irvin played many years in the Negro Leagues until his dream of making it to the majors came true at age 31.
- Bob Tewksbury still has memories of wet baseballs from playing in the early spring snows of New Hampshire.
From baseball's greatest players to those less frequently remembered, the heart-warming stories in Growing Up Baseball are a reminder that there is a time in a player's career when everything seems possible.
|
|
|
