Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning
Encyclopedia
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning is a book by Jonathan Mahler that focuses on the year 1977 in New York City
. It is 'a layered account', 'kaleidoscopic', 'a braided narrative', that weaves political, cultural, and sporting threads into one narrative. It was first published in 2005, and was the basis for the television drama The Bronx is Burning
.
, about an hour before the first pitch, a fire had started in Public School 3, an abandoned elementary school a few blocks west of Yankee Stadium. By the time ABC began its broadcast at 8 in the evening, flames were licking toward the sky. The network cut to its camera in a helicopter hovering above for an aerial view. "There it is, ladies and gentlemen," announced Howard Cosell
, "the Bronx is burning." The main political thread of the book is provided by the 1977 Mayoral election; the main cultural thread is that of the effect of the arrival of Rupert Murdoch
on the scene; the main sporting thread is provided by following the fortunes of the New York Yankees
.
The book begins by telling of the fiscal and spiritual crisis, as Jonathan Mahler calls it, of the city in the mid 1970s. In political cartoons New York had become a sinking ship, a zoo where the apes were employed as zookeepers, a naughty puppy swatted by a rolled-up newspaper. New York's finances were in need of attention. Less than halfway through Abraham Beame
's term as mayor the city was "careering toward bankruptcy." And perhaps there were signs that the 'cultural axis' had tilted. In 1972, the Tonight Show
had moved from Midtown Manhattan
to Burbank, California
—the cultural equivalent of the Brooklyn Dodgers
move to Los Angeles—and Johnny Carson
would stick the boot in by sprinkling his monologues with reminders of the city's decline. "Some Martians landed in Central Park
today ... and were mugged."
, the Yankees
had been beaten by the Cincinnati Reds
, but had won their first pennant since 1964
, and the fans were cheering Billy Martin
—back in New York after 18 years. At 47, "he had the look of a rather shopworn Mississippi riverboat gambler." Martin's cockiness, scrappiness, and hunger to win met with a positive response in the South Bronx
. On November 29, 1976, Reggie Jackson
joined the Yankees. Mahler compares Jackson not to Joe DiMaggio
but to another Joe—Joe Namath
: "Both were mini-skirt chasing bachelors, and had confidence to bring the city victory." All winter the papers filled with speculation about how Jackson and Thurman Munson
, the Yankees catcher and captain, were going to get along. Those who knew him described Munson as moody; his friend Sparky Lyle
didn't agree: "When you're moody, you're nice sometimes." Mahler looks at the new Yankee dynasty that was forming in '77: Mickey Rivers
, Willie Randolph
, Reggie ... and those close to Martin—Catfish Hunter
, Lou Piniella
, Graig Nettles
. Fran Healy
, the backup catcher, was Jackson's only friend on the team. Mahler looks at certain key games:
. News of Murdoch's purchase of the New York Post
broke on 20 November 1976. In 1973, he'd gathered up the San Antonio News and launched the National Star
as a "supermarket tabloid"; now the ailing Post was in his grip, and his eyes also turned to Clay Felker
's New York
. Murdoch was an active presence in the newsroom according to Mahler's account, peering over reporters' shoulders and punching up the paper's headlines and copy. In March 1977 alone, The Post ran 21 items on Farrah Fawcett-Majors
, a star of Charlie's Angels
; stories became shorter, pictures bigger, headlines louder.
Within the cultural thread, Mahler writes of the music of the time. "Now is the summer of our discothèques" the journalist Anthony Haden-Guest
had written in New York magazine. Studio 54
the discothèque that defined an era of nightlife had opened in April 1977. Paramount Pictures
had just begun shooting Saturday Night Fever
; by the end of the summer, disco would be America's second largest grossing entertainment business after professional sports. If discos like Studio 54 provided an escape from the ugliness, its punk analog, a dive on The Bowery
called CBGB
, embraced it, featuring acts such as Television
, Blondie
, Patti Smith
, and the Ramones
. "Broken youth stumbling into the home of broken age," wrote Frank Rose in the Village Voice.
In the midst of the various threads, Mahler writes of the Son of Sam murders and of Wednesday, July 13, 1977. As a serial killer preyed on an alarmingly increasing number of victims while eluding a visibly shaken and financially strapped police force, a blanket of hot muggy weather descended on the city. Demand for electricity peaked in the middle of the afternoon when air conditioners were rumbling all over the city. That night, a major blackout
— "a total urban eclipse"—struck, and all five boroughs of New York City and most of Westchester County were suddenly without power for several hours
. The mass looting that ensued remains the only civil disturbance in the history of NYC to encompass all five boroughs simultaneously, and the 3776 arrests were the largest mass arrest
in the city's history.
Included is an account of Cuomo "cold-cocking" Conservative Party of New York State chairman Michael R. Long
; Long stated that the statement was inaccurate and asked to have it corrected, which it was in later editions.http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/mike-long-makes-nice-andrew-cuomo
Koch took office on the first day of 1978.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It is 'a layered account', 'kaleidoscopic', 'a braided narrative', that weaves political, cultural, and sporting threads into one narrative. It was first published in 2005, and was the basis for the television drama The Bronx is Burning
The Bronx Is Burning
The Bronx Is Burning is a television drama that debuted on ESPN on July 9, 2007, after the 2007 MLB Home Run Derby. It is an eight-episode mini-series adapted from Jonathan Mahler's best-selling book, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning...
.
Origins of the phrase
The title borrows from a fragment of television commentary. Game 2 of the 1977 World Series1977 World Series
-Game 1:Tuesday, October 11, 1977 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkThe Dodgers drew first blood off Don Gullett in the first when Davey Lopes walked and scored on a Bill Russell triple. Ron Cey made it 2–0 on a sacrifice fly...
, about an hour before the first pitch, a fire had started in Public School 3, an abandoned elementary school a few blocks west of Yankee Stadium. By the time ABC began its broadcast at 8 in the evening, flames were licking toward the sky. The network cut to its camera in a helicopter hovering above for an aerial view. "There it is, ladies and gentlemen," announced Howard Cosell
Howard Cosell
Howard William Cosell was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these...
, "the Bronx is burning." The main political thread of the book is provided by the 1977 Mayoral election; the main cultural thread is that of the effect of the arrival of Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
on the scene; the main sporting thread is provided by following the fortunes of the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
.
The book begins by telling of the fiscal and spiritual crisis, as Jonathan Mahler calls it, of the city in the mid 1970s. In political cartoons New York had become a sinking ship, a zoo where the apes were employed as zookeepers, a naughty puppy swatted by a rolled-up newspaper. New York's finances were in need of attention. Less than halfway through Abraham Beame
Abraham Beame
Abraham David "Abe" Beame was mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977. As such, he presided over the city during the fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, during which the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy....
's term as mayor the city was "careering toward bankruptcy." And perhaps there were signs that the 'cultural axis' had tilted. In 1972, the Tonight Show
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
had moved from Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
to Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
—the cultural equivalent of the Brooklyn Dodgers
History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
-Early Brooklyn baseball:Brooklyn was home to numerous baseball clubs in the mid-1850s. Eight of 16 participants in the first convention were from Brooklyn, including the Atlantic, Eckford, and Excelsior clubs that combined to dominate play for most of the 1860s...
move to Los Angeles—and Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
would stick the boot in by sprinkling his monologues with reminders of the city's decline. "Some Martians landed in Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
today ... and were mugged."
Baseball thread
The baseball thread of Mahler's book focuses on the New York Yankees. In the 1976 World Series1976 World Series
The 1976 World Series matched the defending champion Cincinnati Reds of the National League against the New York Yankees of the American League, with the Reds sweeping the Series to repeat. The Reds became the only team to sweep an entire multi-tier postseason. The Reds are also the last National...
, the Yankees
1976 New York Yankees season
The 1976 New York Yankees season was the 74th season for the Yankees in New York, and the 76th season overall for the franchise. The team finished with a record of 97-62, finishing 10½ games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles to win their first American League East title.In the ALCS, the Yankees...
had been beaten by the Cincinnati Reds
1976 Cincinnati Reds season
The Cincinnati Reds season was a season in American baseball. The Reds won their second consecutive National League West title with a record of 102-60, 10 games ahead of the runner-up Los Angeles Dodgers...
, but had won their first pennant since 1964
1964 New York Yankees season
The New York Yankees season was the 62nd season for the Yankees. The team finished with a record of 99-63, winning their 29th pennant, finishing 1 game ahead of the Chicago White Sox. New York was managed by Yogi Berra. The Yankees played at Yankee Stadium. In the World Series, they were defeated...
, and the fans were cheering Billy Martin
Billy Martin
Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin, Jr. was an American Major League Baseball second baseman and manager. He is best known as the manager of the New York Yankees, a position he held five different times...
—back in New York after 18 years. At 47, "he had the look of a rather shopworn Mississippi riverboat gambler." Martin's cockiness, scrappiness, and hunger to win met with a positive response in the South Bronx
South Bronx
The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. The neighborhoods of Tremont, University Heights, Highbridge, Morrisania, Soundview, Hunts Point, and Castle Hill are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx....
. On November 29, 1976, Reggie Jackson
Reggie Jackson
Reginald Martinez "Reggie" Jackson , nicknamed "Mr. October" for his clutch hitting in the postseason with the New York Yankees, is a former American Major League Baseball right fielder. During a 21-year baseball career, he played from 1967-1987 for four different teams. Jackson currently serves as...
joined the Yankees. Mahler compares Jackson not to Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
but to another Joe—Joe Namath
Joe Namath
Joseph William "Joe" Namath , nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie", is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the...
: "Both were mini-skirt chasing bachelors, and had confidence to bring the city victory." All winter the papers filled with speculation about how Jackson and Thurman Munson
Thurman Munson
Thurman Lee Munson was an American Major League Baseball catcher. He played his entire 11-year career for the New York Yankees...
, the Yankees catcher and captain, were going to get along. Those who knew him described Munson as moody; his friend Sparky Lyle
Sparky Lyle
Albert Walter "Sparky" Lyle is an American former left-handed relief pitcher who spent sixteen seasons in Major League Baseball . He was a closer from 1969 to 1977, first for the Boston Red Sox and then the New York Yankees. A three-time All-Star, he won the American League Cy Young Award in 1977...
didn't agree: "When you're moody, you're nice sometimes." Mahler looks at the new Yankee dynasty that was forming in '77: Mickey Rivers
Mickey Rivers
John Milton "Mickey" Rivers is a former Major League Baseball player from 1970-1984 for the California Angels, New York Yankees, and Texas Rangers...
, Willie Randolph
Willie Randolph
Willie Larry Randolph is a former Major League Baseball second baseman and manager, most recently the third base coach for the Baltimore Orioles...
, Reggie ... and those close to Martin—Catfish Hunter
Catfish Hunter
James Augustus "Catfish" Hunter , was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. During a 15-year baseball career, he pitched from 1965-1979 for both the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees...
, Lou Piniella
Lou Piniella
Louis Victor Piniella is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. He has been nicknamed "Sweet Lou," both for his swing as a major league hitter and, facetiously, to describe his demeanor as a player and manager...
, Graig Nettles
Graig Nettles
Graig Nettles , nicknamed "Puff", is a former Major League Baseball third baseman. During a 22-year baseball career, he played for the Minnesota Twins , Cleveland Indians , New York Yankees , San Diego Padres , Atlanta Braves and Montreal Expos .Nettles was one of the best...
. Fran Healy
Fran Healy (baseball)
Francis Xavier Healy , is a former Major League Baseball catcher best known for his long tenure calling television broadcasts for the New York Mets on the MSG Network and Fox Sports Net New York....
, the backup catcher, was Jackson's only friend on the team. Mahler looks at certain key games:
- May 23, Boston Red Sox1977 Boston Red Sox seasonThe Boston Red Sox season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Red Sox finishing second in the American League East with a record of 97 wins and 64 losses.- Regular season :...
vs Yankees: Jackson, after hitting a homer, ignored his teammates and manager, who had gathered at the dugout entrance for the requisite posthomer handshakes. "I had a bad hand," Jackson explained; "He's a fucking liar," responded Munson.
- June 18, 1977: Yankees vs Red Sox: Martin replaced Jackson in right field in the middle of the inning after he perceives Jackson "dogging it" chasing down a base hit, resulting in a double. Once in the dugout, Jackson confronted Martin, escalating in an ugly altercation clearly visible to everyone in the ballpark as well as a national audience viewing a nationally televised game.
- August 21, 1977: Ron GuidryRon GuidryRonald Ames Guidry , nicknamed "Louisiana Lightning" and "Gator", is a former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. He played his entire 14-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
helped push the Yankees past the Baltimore Orioles1977 Baltimore Orioles seasonThe Baltimore Orioles season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Orioles finishing second in the American League East with a record of 97 wins and 64 losses.- Offseason :* November 1, 1976: Darryl Cias was released by the Orioles....
and within half a game of the Red Sox.
- Game 6 of the 1977 World Series1977 World Series-Game 1:Tuesday, October 11, 1977 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkThe Dodgers drew first blood off Don Gullett in the first when Davey Lopes walked and scored on a Bill Russell triple. Ron Cey made it 2–0 on a sacrifice fly...
: The Yankees had achieved a 3–2 games advantage against the Los Angeles Dodgers1977 Los Angeles Dodgers seasonThe Los Angeles Dodgers season saw Tommy Lasorda take over the reins as Manager from longtime skipper Walter Alston. The Dodgers coasted to a 10-game victory in the National League West and beat the Philadelphia Phillies in four games in the NLCS, only to lose to the New York Yankees in the World...
in the best-of-seven championship series, "and the teams had become emblematic of the cities for the time being—the friendly easy-going Dodgers, the tired neurotic Yankees. [Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's film] Annie HallAnnie HallAnnie Hall is a 1977 American romantic comedy directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay co-written with Marshall Brickman and co-starring Diane Keaton. One of Allen's most popular and most honored films, it won four Academy Awards including Best Picture...
made the same point." In Game 6, Jackson hit three home runs, in consecutive at bats, on just three pitches.
Cultural thread
The cultural thread of Mahler's book focuses particularly on the impact of Rupert MurdochRupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
. News of Murdoch's purchase of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
broke on 20 November 1976. In 1973, he'd gathered up the San Antonio News and launched the National Star
Star (magazine)
Star is an American celebrity tabloid magazine.-History:Star was founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1974 as competition to the tabloid National Enquirer with its headquarters in New York City. In the late 1980s it moved its offices to Tarrytown, NY and in 1990 Murdoch sold the magazine to The Enquirers...
as a "supermarket tabloid"; now the ailing Post was in his grip, and his eyes also turned to Clay Felker
Clay Felker
Clay Schuette Felker was an American magazine editor and journalist who founded New York Magazine in 1968. He was known for bringing large numbers of journalists into the profession...
's New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
. Murdoch was an active presence in the newsroom according to Mahler's account, peering over reporters' shoulders and punching up the paper's headlines and copy. In March 1977 alone, The Post ran 21 items on Farrah Fawcett-Majors
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...
, a star of Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...
; stories became shorter, pictures bigger, headlines louder.
Within the cultural thread, Mahler writes of the music of the time. "Now is the summer of our discothèques" the journalist Anthony Haden-Guest
Anthony Haden-Guest
Anthony Haden-Guest is a British-American writer, reporter, cartoonist, art critic, poet, and socialite who lives in New York and London. He is a frequent contributor to major magazines and has had several books published.-Family:...
had written in New York magazine. Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
the discothèque that defined an era of nightlife had opened in April 1977. Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
had just begun shooting Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 drama film directed by John Badham and starring: John Travolta as Tony Manero, an immature young man whose weekends are spent visiting a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as his dance partner and eventual friend; and Donna Pescow as Tony's former dance...
; by the end of the summer, disco would be America's second largest grossing entertainment business after professional sports. If discos like Studio 54 provided an escape from the ugliness, its punk analog, a dive on The Bowery
Bowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
called CBGB
CBGB
CBGB was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the...
, embraced it, featuring acts such as Television
Television (band)
Television was an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1973. They are best known for the album Marquee Moon and widely regarded as one of the founders of "punk" and New Wave music. Television was part of the early 1970s New York underground rock scene, along with bands like the Patti...
, Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
, Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
, and the Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
. "Broken youth stumbling into the home of broken age," wrote Frank Rose in the Village Voice.
In the midst of the various threads, Mahler writes of the Son of Sam murders and of Wednesday, July 13, 1977. As a serial killer preyed on an alarmingly increasing number of victims while eluding a visibly shaken and financially strapped police force, a blanket of hot muggy weather descended on the city. Demand for electricity peaked in the middle of the afternoon when air conditioners were rumbling all over the city. That night, a major blackout
Power outage
A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...
— "a total urban eclipse"—struck, and all five boroughs of New York City and most of Westchester County were suddenly without power for several hours
New York City blackout of 1977
The New York City blackout of 1977 was an electricity blackout affected most of New York City from July 13, 1977 to July 14, 1977. The only neighborhoods in New York City that were not affected were in southern Queens, and neighborhoods of the Rockaways, which are part of the Long Island Lighting...
. The mass looting that ensued remains the only civil disturbance in the history of NYC to encompass all five boroughs simultaneously, and the 3776 arrests were the largest mass arrest
Mass arrest
A mass arrest occurs when the police apprehend large numbers of suspects at once. This sometimes occurs at illegal protests. Some mass arrests are also used in an effort combat gang activity. This is sometimes controversial, and lawsuits sometimes result...
in the city's history.
Political thread
Mahler recounts the 1977 mayoral race, and the battle between three diverse candidates:- Liberal Bella AbzugBella AbzugBella Savitsky Abzug was an American lawyer, Congresswoman, social activist and a leader of the Women's Movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan to found the National Women's Political Caucus...
, born Bella Savitzky in 1920. She grew up in a South BronxSouth BronxThe South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. The neighborhoods of Tremont, University Heights, Highbridge, Morrisania, Soundview, Hunts Point, and Castle Hill are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx....
railroad flat.
- Ambitious Ed KochEd KochEdward Irving "Ed" Koch is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989...
, a Bronx native and the middle child of Jewish immigrants from Poland. He was "marked down as a Greenwich VillageGreenwich VillageGreenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
liberal when in fact he was more conservative than that"; he was endorsed by the Post.
- The handsome Mario CuomoMario CuomoMario Matthew Cuomo served as the 52nd Governor of New York from 1983 to 1994, and is the father of Andrew Cuomo, the current governor of New York.-Early life:...
, "the candidate of the outer boroughs," known for his involvement in a 1972 public housing dispute in Forest HillsForest Hills, QueensForest Hills is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, United States.-Neighborhood:The neighborhood is home to upper-middle class residents, of whom the wealthier residents often live in the neighborhood's Forest Hills Gardens area...
, and before that the CoronaCorona, QueensCorona is a densely-populated neighborhood in the former Township of Newtown in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, United States...
Fighting 69. An Italian kid from working-class Queens, "he aspired to liberal ideals, but by instinct and impulse he was not a liberal"; he was pushed into running by Governor Hugh CareyHugh CareyHugh Leo Carey was an American attorney, the 51st Governor of New York from 1975 to 1982, and a seven-term United States Representative .- Early life :...
and championed by Jimmy BreslinJimmy BreslinJimmy Breslin is an American journalist and author. He currently writes a column for the New York Daily News' Sunday edition. He has written numerous novels, and columns of his have appeared regularly in various newspapers in his hometown of New York City...
.
Included is an account of Cuomo "cold-cocking" Conservative Party of New York State chairman Michael R. Long
Michael R. Long
Michael R. Long is the chairman of the Conservative Party of New York State. Mr. Long, a former New York City councilman, began working in politics as a volunteer for the 1964 Goldwater presidential campaign. He has been the party’s chairman and primary spokesman since the 1980s, advocating for...
; Long stated that the statement was inaccurate and asked to have it corrected, which it was in later editions.http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/mike-long-makes-nice-andrew-cuomo
Koch took office on the first day of 1978.