Speakeasies .... Tea for Two .... New York 1929

We all have a vision of the Roaring Twenties.  

It's a decade popularly regrded as hedonist, where "anything goes", sandwiched between the Great War and the Great Depression.

The Chrysler Building, 2008 begun in 1929

And New York seems to be one of those places that is the personification of flappers, speakeasies and gangsters.

All of which means I tuned into BBC Radio 4's Artworks New York 1925 Episode 1 Winter.  And I was not disappointed.

It is one of four episodes, and I do hope we see a little of that other New York, because for every flapper, speakeasy and flashy celebrity there was a poor tenement, a dark workshop and a family on the borderline of poverty.

We shall see

"In 1925 New York became the biggest, most populous city in the world, overtaking London, and was the launchpad for an extraordinary range of writing, music, culture and politics which still resonate 100 years later - from the publication of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and the launch of The New Yorker, to the rise of the Harlem Renaissance and the first success for the composer Richard Rodgers.

This is the story of that momentous year, season by season, told over four episodes, with contributors including novelist Jay McInerney, the academic Margo Jefferson and the editor of the New Yorker David Remnick. The series is presented by the saxophonist and broadcaster Soweto Kinch, with an original sound track played by the composer and clarinettist Giacomo Smith and his band.

Episode 1: Winter

At the start of the year a new kind of celebrity politician, Senator Jimmy Walker, had set his sights on becoming mayor of New York. He was a fast-drinking, fast-talking dandy. We follow his fortunes throughout the series, culminating in the election in November.

In February 1925 the New Yorker magazine was launched, and in March a special edition of the sociological magazine, Survey Graphic, was devoted entirely to Harlem. Whilst the New Yorker flopped, the special Survey Graphic was a runaway success.

In the winter months we also find out how F Scott Fitzgerald was preparing for the publication of The Great Gatsby in April, and how aspiring composer Richard Rodgers was struggling to create a hit song.

Presenter Soweto Kinch

Producer Katy Hickman

Band: Giacomo Smith - clarinet; Laura Jurd - trumpet; Daniel Higham - trombone; Alexander Boulton - banjo; Joe Webb - piano; Corrie Dick - drums; Soweto Kinch - saxophone"

*Artworks New York 1925, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002flhl

Location; BBC Radio 4

Picture;The Chrysler Building in New York City illuminated at night, August 2008, David Shankbone Licensing I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses:, w:en:Creative Commons, attribution share alike. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.