The Barbizon

The Barbizon by Paulina Bren Teh history of the Barbizon Hotel For Women in New York City. Opened in 1928, this was just one of the hotels for women in New York. These hotels filled a need as women were entering the workforce and needed/wanted a safe place to live. The Barbizon became well known for the fashion models that lived there, along with people who would late become famous: Grace Kelly, Joan Didion, Sylvia Plath and Ali Mcgraw to name a few. The hotel went through many iterations, reflecting the social changes happening the country from the 1930s through the 70s. The hotel closed in 1979, and several developers tried to revise the property in some form, which was finally accomplished in the 2000s when the property was developed as multi-million dollar residences. But interestingly enough, there are a small group of women, now in their 80s and 90s, who still live there under the rent control laws.

The Book of Eels

The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson. The ecology and hidden life of eels, which were once a popular food product, now fallen out of favor. The eels all breed, north American and European eels, in teh Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic ocean. This long journey that they take to spawn was only confirmed in the 1930s, and the process by which this happens is still being discovered. A really good history of a unique ecology, and also another bell weather of climate change.

An Empire of Their Own

An Empire of Their Own by Neal Gabler. Published in 1989, this is the interesting story of how the Hollywood movie industry was created. The author illustrates how all the early film pioneers, who became movie moguls, Louis B. Mayor, Zukor, the Warner Brothers etc were all immigrants or first generation of immigrants from eastern Europe and were Jewish. A major part of these movie people and their move from the east coast to California was to downplay their Jewish heritage and to become as American as they could. Another interesting aspect of this, according to the author, is that in the early 1900 the first iteration of the movie houses were the nickolodians, which in a lot of cases were nothing more than peep shows. So this was an industry that 'respectable' people wanted nothing to do with, allowing poor immigrants to get in on the ground floor of what would become a multi-million dollar industry and make many of the moguls some of the richest men in America.