Every December 31st, a million people -- and millions more on television -- gather to watch a giant "crystal" ball drop on New York's most famous Iocation -- Times Square. The tradition is as old as Times Square itself, so named when the New York Times moved to the then "Longacre Square" in 1904, insisting on the name change in a bold act of self-promotion, and dropping the crystal ball in celebration from their building at One Times Square for the first time in 1907.Today, visitors walking along Broadway and 42nd Street are overwhelmed by the flashing lights of advertisements that flood the square. Since the early 1990s, huge media companies such as Disney, Reuters, AOL/Time Warner, Conde Nast, Bertelsmann, and Viacom have joined the New York Times, now busily building its new headquarters, to make Times Square the media crossroads of the world. This circular homecoming risks glossing over Times Square's history as theater capital (both legitimate and "illegitimate") of the world, and as New York's center of sex and sleaze for the last quarter-century.In this fascinating and entertaining book, journalist Eva Schweitzer tells the gripping story about the entrepreneurs who founded the square and the moguls who call the shots today.
- ISBN10 1568983689
- ISBN13 9781568983684
- Publish Date 1 February 2003
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 13 July 2009
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Princeton Architectural Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 224
- Language English