Times Square Spectacular: Lighting Up Broadway

by Darcy Tell

A visual history of Times Square from the late 19th century to today, rich with rarely seen photographs of the neighborhood's shimmering, pre-World War II electric advertising signs. In Times Square Spectacular , Darcy Tell traces the 100-year story of Times Square using rare photographs and hand-colored lantern slides, maps, restaurant menus, theater programs, magazine covers, postcards, sheet music, and archival documents. Presenting even the most familiar elements of Times Square lore with fresh, eye-catching detail, she pays special tribute to ad man extraordinaire Douglas Leigh's arrival in the early 1930s, which brought a stunning new era of electric brightness and innovation. Leigh dominated the Broadway streetscape for nearly 50 years, stopping traffic with special-effects billboards such as the legendary Camel cigarettes "smoke rings" sign. Covering both Times Square's infamous decline as well as its hard-wrought, present-day revival, Times Square Spectacular is the first pictorial history of the legendary American landmark.

194 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2007

Reviews

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Times Square Spectacular, Darcy Tell traces a 100 years of Times Square using a plethora of documents including rare photographs, hand-colored lantern slides, handbills, book covers, posters, maps, menus from restaurants, theater programs, magazines, postcards, sheet music, and other archival documents. Ms. Tell "tells" the story of Times Square with fresh, eye-catching details via the electric brightness radiating out from this iconic American location. She Covers the early gliz and radiance along with the decline and present day resurrection of Times Square in it's first pictorial history, doing so with obvious love and devotion. A well researched book that will become a staple for anyway interested in this truly American landmark.