Yiddish melodramas about the tribulations of immigration. German plays about alpine tourism. Italian vaudeville performances. Rubbernecking tours of Chinatown. In the New York City of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; these seemingly disparate leisure activities played similar roles: mediating the vast cultural; demographic; and social changes that were sweeping the nations largest city. In The Immigrant Scene; Sabine Haenni reveals how theaters in New York created ethnic entertainment that shaped the culture of the United States in the early twentieth century. Considering the relationship between leisure and mass culture; The Immigrant Scene develops a new picture of the metropolis in which the movement of people; objects; and images on-screen and in the street helped residents negotiate the complexities of modern times. In analyzing how communities engaged with immigrant theaters and the nascent film culture in New York City; Haenni traces the ways in which performance and cinema provided virtual mobility--ways of navigating the socially complex metropolis--and influenced national ideas of immigration; culture; and diversity in surprising and lasting ways.
#890076 in eBooks 2010-01-19 2010-02-04File Name: B00352B45K
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. entertaining but repetitiveBy TomF15you can read only so much of the same things again and again. no matter how spicy. i found myself skipping pages. which i have never done.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. liked it in spite of myself!By CustomerIll be honest: part of me wanted to NOT like this book. The snarky. almost tabloid-style of the writing was off-putting at first. However. the fascinating lives of the subjects. combined with the authors obvious fandom (snark aside). made this a really enjoyable read. It was just plain fun. especially for a cinephile like me. Ill be holding on to this one. and Im sure Ill read it again!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Three StarsBy FloyInteresting read about these four.