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Hidden History
The Hidden History of the Main Line: From Philadelphia to Malvern
Beyond the grand facades and trappings of the Main Line cream-and-crystal crowd are hidden tales and scintillating stories.
Author Mark Dixon's collection of articles from Main Line Today explores the region's offbeat and oft-forgotten history. With a keen eye and a touch of humor, Dixon delves into the Welsh origins of nearly unpronounceable towns and the journey of the Sound of Music's Trapp family to Merion. From anecdotes of the socialite who divorced her husband when he had the gall to survive the sinking of the Titanic to the Wayne native who turned from the convent to a career as an internationally renowned opera star, Dixon brings to light the lost pages of Main Line history.
Author Mark Dixon's collection of articles from Main Line Today explores the region's offbeat and oft-forgotten history. With a keen eye and a touch of humor, Dixon delves into the Welsh origins of nearly unpronounceable towns and the journey of the Sound of Music's Trapp family to Merion. From anecdotes of the socialite who divorced her husband when he had the gall to survive the sinking of the Titanic to the Wayne native who turned from the convent to a career as an internationally renowned opera star, Dixon brings to light the lost pages of Main Line history.
- GenresHistory
144 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 23, 2019
There were some fun moments, but it's only worth reading if you live on the Main Line and are interested in your local history. It's not really even a book so much as a collection of short articles originally written for Main Line Today.
There were some interesting anecdotes (the Von Trapp family lived in the Main Line before making it big!), and the stories themselves were well-written (for magazine articles), but my main issue is that these disparate stories didn't add up to anything greater. There wasn't any narrative or thematic thread to tie everything together.
Further, half the time the history wasn't even about the Main Line but rather something tangential. For example, there's a chapter on Lenny Dykstra of all people! The connection to the Main Line? Well, he used to live here and once drunkenly crashed his car into a tree. So the Dykstra chapter is about the '86 Mets and the debaucherous, hardheaded ways of early 90s baseball players. And in my humble opinion, that's not really Main Line history.
There were some interesting anecdotes (the Von Trapp family lived in the Main Line before making it big!), and the stories themselves were well-written (for magazine articles), but my main issue is that these disparate stories didn't add up to anything greater. There wasn't any narrative or thematic thread to tie everything together.
Further, half the time the history wasn't even about the Main Line but rather something tangential. For example, there's a chapter on Lenny Dykstra of all people! The connection to the Main Line? Well, he used to live here and once drunkenly crashed his car into a tree. So the Dykstra chapter is about the '86 Mets and the debaucherous, hardheaded ways of early 90s baseball players. And in my humble opinion, that's not really Main Line history.
January 2, 2021
I enjoyed this book. Some chapters were a bit of a stretch (7 Main Liners died in Korea, okay?), but others were fun (local politics and the naming of Belmont Hills, for example).
I do think it would have benefited from some unhidden history. Just some background on how it started, some of the early figures who lived here, and the snobbish culture, which is frequently hinted at but not much detailed. Instead, it's a dozen or so stories or biographies from history that are tangentially related to the area.
I do think it would have benefited from some unhidden history. Just some background on how it started, some of the early figures who lived here, and the snobbish culture, which is frequently hinted at but not much detailed. Instead, it's a dozen or so stories or biographies from history that are tangentially related to the area.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews