Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning_1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City

by Jonathan Mahler

  Reggie was late getting to McMullen’s. The game ended at 10:43 p.m. and he and Destino usually met an hour after the last out. But at 12:30 a.m. Destino, who had brought along two dates for them, was still waiting.

  Reggie eventually showed, pulling his blue Volkswagen up onto the sidewalk on Third Avenue. At around 2 a.m., Governor Carey arrived with a small entourage. The two parties merged and proceeded to drink champagne and eat cheeseburgers into the morning. Sometime after 3 a.m. Carey summoned two state troopers to guard Reggie’s car and assured Jim McMullen that the rules that govern after-hours drinking had been suspended for the night.

  At a little before dawn, Reggie dashed home for a quick shower and change of clothes and headed down to Rockefeller Center for an interview with the Today show. It was cool and drizzly in New York, the start of the Son of Sam’s competency hearings and the day the first Concorde was scheduled to touch down at Kennedy Airport.

  After the ticker tape parade for the World Champion New York Yankees had made its way down Broadway to City Hall, Reggie went back uptown to Cartier. Soon he would start trying to persuade Destino to drive with him to spring training in his new Rolls-Royce, which was outfitted with a CB radio. (Destino’s handle was the King of Diamonds; Reggie’s, in honor of the forthcoming REGGIE! candy bar, was the Candyman.) For now, though, Reggie just wanted to stretch out on the couch in Destino’s office and close his eyes.

  Praise for Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning

  “A wonderfully detailed, gritty story.”

  —The Hartford Courant

  “[A] terrifically entertaining book.”

  —New York Post

  “A rich canvas … an excellent new book … The result is a book that is roughly half-baseball and half-civic history, both elements treated with nuance and depth … . Mahler makes his two-pronged approach pay off, linking Koch, Jackson, Steinbrenner, and Murdoch together as the type of men who would lead New York to a new day.”

  —Sports Illustrated

  “One of the pleasures of the book [is] to see such figures as they were becoming icons. But for Mahler, the real issue is what it all would mean … . A stirring portrait.”

  —Newsday

  “Riveting.”

  —Entertainment Weekly

  “Damon Runyon, where are you now? Mahler’s rollicking evocation of New York in 1977—the year of Son of Sam, the year of the blackout, the year it refuses to Drop Dead, the year, dammit, the Yankees take the World Series—is full of Runyonesque characterizations, energy, and biting wit … . The bases are loaded and Mahler smokes it.”

  —Harold Evans, author of The American Century

  “A love letter to a year … [Mahler] is at his best when he’s unearthing the details that explain and complicate the era.”

  —The New York Observer

  “Kaleidoscopic … a fast-moving, multilayered narrative that puts the city itself in the starring role … . In many ways, this book is a fascinating prelude to Tom Wolfe’s novel The Bonfire of the Vanities.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Recounts the turbulent year in gripping, storylike detail.”

  —Time Out New York

  “What a book! … A mesmerizing trip down into the dark recesses of racist politics and up into the bright lights of Yankee Stadium.”

  —Robert Sullivan, author of Rats

  “Splendid … fresh and lively.”

  —Daily News (New York)

  “Terrific … Mahler has done a wonderful job … . A compelling read … He shifts easily from baseball to history to political battles, never letting the narrative stall or drag.”

  —Forward

  “You begin this book thinking, reasonably, that Bella Abzug, Billy Martin, Son of Sam, and Studio 54 can’t possibly occupy the same narrative space, but as Jonathan Mahler’s story of New York circa 1977 unfolds, the disparate, gritty elements start to resonate off one another. The result isn’t harmony—the city has never known such a thing—but rather what a great book about New York should be: a story that’s oversized, blaring, impossible, and true.”

  —Russell Shorto, author of The Island at the Center of the World

  “A gold mine of great settings … delightful in its evident craft.”

  —The Boston Globe

  “Mahler captures the zeitgeist with near perfection.”

  —Library Journal

  “A terrifically entertaining, knowledgeable book about one of the most tumultuous years in the history of New York … . Read it and weep, read it and laugh.”

  —Kevin Baker, author of Paradise Alley

  “Despite the odds against such a combination being successful, [Mahler] pulls off an expert historical double play by blending front-page political news and sports-page action. The result recalls the ambient atmosphere of the ethnic neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens, the natural argot of the precinct houses and of the locker rooms … . And it’s all done with the knowing acumen and street smarts of an old-fashioned beat reporter.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “An energetic synthesis of a year in the life of a great city in manic conflict with itself.”

  —Nicholas Dawidoff, author of The Catcher Was a Spy

  “Jonathan Mahler takes us back to one tumultuous year in New York, and through masterful storytelling and rich portraits of the leading characters of the day reminds us that what defines and ultimately saves a city, in any era, are its outsized citizens. In Mahler’s expert hands, they are flawed, fierce, brilliant, bickersome, and as indomitable as the metropolis itself.”

  —Michael Sokolove, author of The Ticket Out

  “A fascinating city, a fascinating team, a fascinating time. This book took me back. Where were you in 1977?”

  —Tim McCarver

  Jonathan Mahler is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and son.

  NOTES ON SOURCES

  PART ONE

  1.

  My portrait of New York’s bicentennial celebrations is drawn primarily from reports in the dailies—New York Times, Daily News, and New York Post—as well as a July 8, 1976, SoHo Weekly News story on Operation Sail (“Op Sail as a Performance Piece”).

  For my portrait of the 1976 Democratic National Convention, I relied on coverage in the New York dailies, in addition to a July 19, 1976, Village Voice piece (“City Welcomes Delegates to Potemkin Village”) detailing New York’s massive cleanup effort in advance of the convention.

  Historian Douglas Brinkley, who worked with Hunter S. Thompson in compiling his letters for publication, characterized Thompson’s view of Jimmy Carter for me.

  Rolling Stone’s editor Jann Wenner and former publisher Joe Armstrong recalled for me the details of the magazine’s 1976 Democratic National Convention party. Other useful sources on this subject include Rolling Stone Magazine: The Uncensored History (Robert Draper, Doubleday, 1990), and “Rolling Stone’s Bash” (Sally Quinn, Washington Post, July 14, 1976).

  2.

  In addition to New York’s three dailies and several boxes of relevant papers that the Museum of New York History compiled for a 2000 exhibit, I relied on a number of books that deal with the 1975 fiscal crisis, including Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II (Joshua B. Freeman, New Press, 2000); The Streets Were Paved with Gold: The Decline of New York, an American Tragedy (Ken Auletta, Random House, 1975); Political Crisis/Fiscal Crisis: The Collapse and Revival of New York City (Martin Shefter, Basic Books, 1985); Secrets of the Tax Revolt (James Ring Adams, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984); and The Abuse of Power: The Permanent Government and the Fall of New York (Jack Newfield and Paul Du Brul, Viking Press, 1977). In July 1985, The New York Times ran a five-part series on the fiscal crisis, “Back from the Brink: The Enduring Legacy of New York’s Fiscal Crisis,” which is indispensable to anyone who wants to understand the lasting effects of New York’s financial meltdown.

 
; My portrait of Abe Beame was informed by a 1979 interview on file at Columbia University’s Oral History Archive, as well as dozens of newspaper stories written over the course of his life. Two lengthy profiles in particular stand out: “The Realism of Abe Beame” (Robert Daley, New York Times Magazine, November 18, 1973) and “Beame’s Scenario: How to Beat Bella” (Maurice Carroll, New York Times Magazine, June 26, 1977). Beame also appears in several aforementioned books, most notably The Abuse of Power and The Streets Were Paved with Gold.

  John Lindsay died shortly after I embarked on the research for this book, and I had the opportunity to attend his memorial service at St. John the Divine in late January 2001. Having read so many indictments of Lindsay’s mayoralty, it was refreshing to hear the various eulogies—from Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s to Representative Charles Rangel’s—all of which evoked a man who, for all his failings, had clung nobly to a hopeful, if increasingly outdated, vision of the city. Another valuable source on Lindsay is Vincent Cannato’s The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and the Struggle to Save New York (Basic Books, 2002).

  3.

  Warner LeRoy was the subject of a number of obituaries upon his death in 2001, the most memorable of which was Frank DiGiacomo’s—“Good Night, Sweet Restaurateur”—in the March 5, 2001, issue of the New York Observer.

  My portrait of One Fifth Avenue is drawn primarily from my interview with its proprietor, George Schwartz.

  4.

  There have been two full-length biographies of Martin since his death. Peter Golenbock’s Wild, High, and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin (St. Martin’s Press, 1994) is the more exhaustive; David Falkner’s The Last Yankee: The Turbulent Life of Billy Martin (Simon & Schuster, 1992) offers a more sophisticated analysis of Martin’s character. When Martin was still managing, Maury Allen published Damn Yankee: The Billy Martin Story (Times Books, 1980), which is less comprehensive than the two posthumous biographies but has the benefit of having been written by a reporter who covered Martin day in and day out. Martin’s own autobiography (Number One, Delacorte Press, 1980) provides a useful window into his frame of mind but should be read with a skeptical eye, given his tendency to distort. There are a number of noteworthy profiles of Martin from his playing days, including “The Damnedest Yankee of Them All” (Paul O’Neil, Sports Illustrated, April 23, 1956); “He’s Never Out of Trouble” (A1 Stump, Saturday Evening Post, August 18, 1956); “Billy the Tiger” (Les Woodcock, Sports Illustrated, March 31, 1958); “You Think You Know Billy Martin?” (Irv Goodman, Sport, August 1958); and “Have They Overrated Billy Martin?” (Dick Schaap, Sport, June 1959). My account of Martin’s trade after the Copa incident is drawn largely from the New York papers. In the aftermath of the trade, on June 30, 1957, the Times’ Arthur Daley published an especially memorable column on Martin entitled “Still a Yankee at Heart.”

  My account of Martin’s firing by the Minnesota Twins, and the public outcry that followed, is drawn primarily from coverage in the Minneapolis Star and The Sporting News.

  There are a few particularly good profiles of Martin as a manager prior to his return to New York: “A Little Love, and a Few Punches Make a Team” (Myron Cope, Life, September 19, 1969); “Billy Martin Will Never Finish Last” (James S. Kunen, Sport, August 1975); and “Billy the Kid as Peacemaker” (Ron Fimrite, Sports Illustrated , June 1971).

  My account of Martin’s hiring by the Yankees in 1975 is drawn largely from the New York papers. Especially useful was Dave Anderson’s August 3, 1975, column in The New York Times, “The Prodigal Son.”

  The story of Martin’s rise to popularity in New York over the course of the ’76 season was told best by the tabloids, as well as in an approving July 12, 1976, profile by The Village Voice’s Joe Flaherty, “We’ve Got a Contender.”

  In addition to the daily papers, the best source on Martin’s meltdown during game four of the 1976 World Series is Norman Lewis Smith’s “The Cincinnati Reds Didn’t Scare Billy Martin: They Just Made Him Cry” (Sport, February 1977).

  In terms of understanding Martin’s psychology, I received valuable insight from all the Yankee beat reporters (mentioned by name in the acknowledgments), whose recollections of him ranged from affection to pity to disgust.

  Neil J. Sullivan’s The Diamond in the Bronx: Yankee Stadium and the Politics of New York (Oxford University Press, 2001) is a valuable source on the history of the renovation of Yankee Stadium. New York’s papers and magazines from 1976 to 1977 are filled with stories questioning the city’s decision to underwrite the renovation. Among the more memorable are: “Was the Stadium Worth It?” (Nicholas Pileggi, New York, April 19, 1976); “The Stadium the Swag Built” (Dan Diamond, SoHo Weekly News, June 2, 1977); “Yankees, $100 Million; Bronx Zip” (Rinker Buck, New York, October 24, 1977); and “Did New York City Really Need the Yankees?” (David Norflus, New York Affairs, Spring 1978) .

  5.

  There are numerous biographies of Rupert Murdoch. I consulted four in assembling my portrait of him: Murdoch (William Shawcross, Simon & Schuster, 1992); Arrogant Aussie: The Rupert Murdoch Story (Michael Leapman, L. Stuart, 1985); Citizen Murdoch: The Unexpurgated Story of Rupert Murdoch—The World’s Most Controversial and Powerful Media Lord (Thomas Kiernan, Dodd, Mead, 1986); and Rupert Murdoch: A Paper Prince (George Munster, Penguin, 1985). Several articles also proved particularly useful. On November 29, 1976, The Village Voice published a rare interview with Murdoch conducted by Alexander Cockburn (“Who Is Rupert Murdoch, Anyway?”). More, the now-defunct journalism review, published several articles on Murdoch when he first took over the Post: “Old-Fashioned Newspaper War in New York?” (Michael Kramer, January 1977); “Murdoch Buys His 84th” (Doug Ireland, January 1977); and “Killer Bee Reaches New York” (Jon Bradshaw and Richard Neville, February 1977). Time’s and Newsweek’s cover stories on Murdoch’ (both of which ran on January 17, 1977) provide useful summaries of his newspaper career to that point.

  Jeffrey Potter’s 1976 biography of Schiff—Men, Money and Magic: The Story of Dorothy Schiff (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan)—offers an intimate portrait of the publisher, as does Gail Sheehy in a lengthy 1973 New York cover story titled “The Life of the Most Powerful Woman in New York.” Robert Spitzler, who worked for Schiff for many years, shared his memories of her with me as well.

  My account of the history of the Post was informed by the Schiff biography; James Wechsler’s memoir, The Age of Suspicion (Random House, 1953); Steven Cuozzo’s It’s Alive: How America’s Oldest Newspaper Cheated Death and Why It Matters (Random House, 1996); Pete Hamill’s A Drinking Life: A Memoir (Little, Brown, 1993), and a number of magazine stories, notably Jerry Tallmer’s “The Mama of Us All” (Dissent, Summer 1961). James Brady recalled for me the details of the night Murdoch celebrated his purchase of the paper.

  6.

  In the spring of 2001 I interviewed Reggie several times over the course of two days at the Yankees’ spring training complex in Tampa. In addition, two books were particularly illuminating: Maury Allen’s Mr. October: The Reggie Jackson Story (Times Books, 1981), and Reggie’s 1984 memoir, Reggie (Villard Books), a relatively introspective look at his life and career, coauthored by Mike Lupica. David Remnick’s May 1987 Esquire profile, “The September Song of Mr. October,” also offered important insights.

  Sport magazine reported on Reggie’s late-night arrival in New York in a brief item in its February 1977 issue.

  George Beck shared his memories of Reggie’s boyhood with me; Jeff Pentland told me about his life at Arizona State; Rollie Fingers spoke with me about Reggie’s minor-league career, particularly his stint in Birmingham.

  Sal Bando shared with me his memories of Reggie’s tenure in Oakland.

  A number of books have been written about Charlie Finley’s A’s, most notably Bruce Markusen’s A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s (St. Johann Press, 2002); Ron Bergman’s Mustache Gang: The Swaggering Saga of the Oakland A’s (Dell, 1973); Charlie O (Herb Michelson, Bo
bbs-Merrill, 1975); and Champagne and Baloney: The Rise and Fall of Finley’s A’s (Tom Clark, Harper & Row, 1976).

  Reggie also published a diary of the 1974 season: Reggie: A Season with a Superstar (Playboy Press, 1975).

  Among the more memorable profiles of Reggie from his Oakland days are: “Home Run King Reggie Jackson” (Ebony, October 1969); “Maris and the Babe, Move Over!” (Sports Illustrated, July 7, 1971); “One Man Wild Bunch: Oakland’s Reggie Jackson” (Time, June 3, 1974); “‘Everyone Is Helpless and in Awe’” (Sports Illustrated , June 17, 1974); “Reggie Jackson: Blood and Guts of the Fighting A’s” (Sport, October 1974); and “Says Reggie: A’s Ain’t Dead!” (Black Sports, June 1975).

  For my account of Reggie’s year in Baltimore I relied primarily on the stories of Thomas Boswell, who covered the Orioles for The Washington Post. An August 1976 interview with Black Sports magazine was also valuable.

  William Fugazy told me about his lunch with Reggie and Steinbrenner at “21.”

  My account of Reggie’s signing is drawn primarily from the New York newspapers and interviews with the beat writers who covered it.

  7.

  For my portrait of Abzug prior to the 1977 mayoral race, I relied on interviews with Harold Holzer and two of Abzug’s other confidants, Doug Ireland and Ronnie Eldridge. Abzug wrote about her first year in Congress in Bella! Ms. Abzug Goes to Washington (Saturday Review Press, 1972). Among the more memorable magazine profiles of Abzug are “Is Washington Ready for Bella Abzug? Is Anybody?” (Jimmy Breslin, New York, October 6, 1970); “Dilemma in the New 20th Congressional District” (Tony Hiss, New York Times Magazine, June 18, 1972); “Bellacose Abzug” (Time, August 16, 1971); “Bella vs. Pat … et al.” (New Republic, June 26, 1976); and “Bella’s Appeal” (New Republic, July 31, 1976).