From swamp to society destination to urban blight, Miami Beach has held a singular fascination for Americans for nearly 100 years. Here Armbruster examines the allure, liberally quoting from eyewitnesses through the decades and capturing much of the spirit of the beach in numerous photographs. These depict, for example, a pristine Miami Beach, before it became a holiday mecca; renowned gangsters Al Capone, with his fitness trainer, and Meyer Lansky, whose neighbors, Armbruster reports, never needed homeowner's insurance; antipreservation movement protestors, holding signs with slogans like ``Deco Shmeco''; and a mid-century poster for the Churchill Apartment Hotel advertising its ``Gentile Clientele.'' From the 1920s through the 1960s, despite brief setbacks due to hurricanes and national economic depressions, Miami Beach was a social watering hole, a glitzy place full of nightclubs and casinos (Lenny Bruce said it was ``where neon went to die''). But in the '70s it went into steep decline, due in large part to its image as a rest stop for the elderly en route to their final destination. Recently, however, Miami Beach has been rejuvenated, so to speak, and Armbruster predicts a continuation of the resurrection, if not a return to the beach's former glory.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-394-57052-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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