Smart fast story. Funny chatter. Fine actors. Joan Blondell. And NYC. What's not to like?!
When I was transferred to NYC several decades ago I thought: a year or two should do it here, and then I'm gone. But it grows and grows on one, the crowds and Broadway and museums and on and on, and it's hard to be away for long. Over 1m visitors a week - and most want exactly a taste of this. I actually liked the lead guy here. To the non-New-Yorker he may seem over the top, but everybody gravitates toward that manner a bit, and he was a familiar type.
Pretty funny and relevant here is the whole movie-making-business arc. Begun in Brooklyn by Jews largely excluded from main business and clubs, and next to some huge studios across the Hudson from 175th Street at Fort Lee. (A large funfare, Palisades, was also there and ferries did a roaring trade.) Then the migration to Hollywood, 7-8 days away by train - and what do the producers do? Make movies on the backlots by the ton - taking place in New York! Where most of the producers were from - and Joan Blondell too.
The monopoly phone company was Bell Labs. The operator jobs there look like fun. The Bell Labs building still stand, in a straight line several blocks south of the High Line Park. The elevated tracks and trains continued south of where the High Line ends now (by the Whitney Museum) and the trains ran right through the building's edge. Many shots of this on the web.
When I was transferred to NYC several decades ago I thought: a year or two should do it here, and then I'm gone. But it grows and grows on one, the crowds and Broadway and museums and on and on, and it's hard to be away for long. Over 1m visitors a week - and most want exactly a taste of this. I actually liked the lead guy here. To the non-New-Yorker he may seem over the top, but everybody gravitates toward that manner a bit, and he was a familiar type.
Pretty funny and relevant here is the whole movie-making-business arc. Begun in Brooklyn by Jews largely excluded from main business and clubs, and next to some huge studios across the Hudson from 175th Street at Fort Lee. (A large funfare, Palisades, was also there and ferries did a roaring trade.) Then the migration to Hollywood, 7-8 days away by train - and what do the producers do? Make movies on the backlots by the ton - taking place in New York! Where most of the producers were from - and Joan Blondell too.
The monopoly phone company was Bell Labs. The operator jobs there look like fun. The Bell Labs building still stand, in a straight line several blocks south of the High Line Park. The elevated tracks and trains continued south of where the High Line ends now (by the Whitney Museum) and the trains ran right through the building's edge. Many shots of this on the web.
