october12–25, 2020 | newyork 81
who, on one pretextor
another, wouldmanage
to rob them of the
little they possessed.”
The Society handled 212
cases in its first year;
in its fifth, it tookon
2,832. In 1890,thegroup
began offeringassistance
to non-Germanswho
“appear worthy andat
the same time [are]
unabletopay.” The
organizationchangedits
nametotheLegalAid
Society onJune1, 1896.
Today, thereis a similar
society, if notmorethan
one,inevery state.
PublicRelations
PufferCoat
Punk
Q
Q-tips
Quant
R
RabbitEars▼
RadioBroadcasting
RemoteControl
RomanticComedy▼
Thefirstonscreen
kiss—50feetofcelluloid,
runningabout 20
seconds—wasshown
inNew Yorkin1896.
AppropriatelytitledThe
Kiss,it wasamongthe
first motionpicturesever
showntheatricallytoa
payingpublic,produced
byThomasEdisonand
starringMayIrwinand
JohnRice.(It alsocaused
a briefuproaroverthe
depictionofsuchwanton
sexuality.)Onfilm,the
comedy-romance—an
ancienttheatricalform—
developedorganically
throughsituational
andromanticvignettes
producedby
New Yorkst as
Vitagraph,Mutoscope
(laterBiograph),and
Independent Moving
Pictures. But oddly
enough, the city emerged
as a popular setting only
after the industry began
its move west. Cecil B.
DeMille, a New Yorker
who had decamped for
California (he directed
Hollywood’s first feature
film), re-created New York
locations in Los Angeles
for1914’sWhat’s His
Nameand1915’sChimmie
Fadden.DeMillewould
goontomake a series
ofsuccessfulremarriage
comedies,including
1919’sDon’t Change Your
Husbandand1920’sWhy
ChangeYourWife?,both
starringGloriaSwanson.
It ’s a fairlystraightline
fromtheretoMegRyan
inthedeliinWhen
HarryMet Sally....
RushTickets
S
Safety Pin
Scrabble
SinglesBar
Sitcom
SketchComedy
Socialite
Steamboat
SubwaySeries
Supermarket
SuspensionBridge
T
TabloidNewspaper
Ticker
ToiletPaper
TootsieRoll
TrafficRegulations
Tuxedo
U
Unions
UnitedNations
Urinal
V
Vaudeville
Vermont
Voguing
W
Waldorf Salad
“Walk”Sign
WineList
WrapDress
Wrecking Ball▼
Insteadofsucceeding
hisdeli-ownerfather,
SussmanVolk—
inventorofthepastrami
sandwich—inthe
constructionofedible
high-rises,JacobVolk
wentintohigh-rise
destruction,becoming
New York’sforemost
expert inthedemolition
oftallbuildings.In
hisearlydaysinthe
business,thesestructures
werepainstakinglytaken
downbyhand,mostlyby
menwithcrowbars.But
inthe1930s,Jacoband
hisbrotherAlbertbegan
knockingdownwallsand
columnswitha hanging
slabofscrapiron
suspendedfroma crane.
By 1936 theVolkswere
usinga 3,000-pound
“ironcannonball”swung
froma 90-foot-tallarm.
Asthelow-rise19th-
century city gaveway to
thehigh-rise20th,the
wreckingballbecame
ubiquitous.Inrecent
decades,itsusehas
b fade:Although
it vanishedfrom
thedemolitiontrade
altogether,forbig
buildingsimplosionis
fasterandmoreefficient.
It ’s usedtoday lessasa
physicaltoolthanasa
convenientmetaphor,
mostnotablybyMiley
Cyrus,whose 2013
single“WreckingBall”
wasaccompaniedby
a videoofherriding
oneasit swungfrom
a chain.A smashhit.
X
Xerography
Y
YellowJournalism
Yuppie
Z
ZiplessFuck
Zoning▼
Whenyetanother super-
talltowerpokespast the
EmpireStateBuilding,
NewYorkersroutinelyask,
“Wholet thembuildthat?”
Theanswerofteninvolves
zoning,a rulemakingart
thatgoesbacktoNew
Amsterdam,whenPeter
Stuyvesantissueda code
limitingthenumber
oftaverns,designating
certainareasoff-limits
topigsandgoats,and
preventingshacks and
fencesfromspilling over
ontopublicstreets.
Modernzoning, however,
wasprecipitated by one
particularevent: When
the40-story Equitable
Buildingwent upin
1913,eating up a whole
blockandlooming over
lowerManhattan’s old,
narrowstreets, New
Yorkers clamoredfor
more regulation. Two
well-connected reformers,
George McAneny and
Edward Bassett, wrote
the nation’s first zoning
resolution, a revolutionary
document enacted
in 1916 that shaped
growth for decades.
The regulations can get
detailed and arcane, but
they express the way each
place and period sees
the challenges of living
in close proximity; the
political cost of trying to
change that is formidable.
Today it’s often the urban
frontier where battles
over gentrification,
equality, and justice are
waged and the future
of the city is defined.
contributors:
Katherine Barner,
Christopher Bonanos,
Justin Davidson, Bilge
Ebiri, Rhonda Garelick,
Craig Jenkins, Tim
Murphy, and Nikita
Richardson.
voguing: Striking a pose in Brooklyn, 1986.
PHOTOGRAPHS: JENNIE LIVINGSTON (VOGUING); RED ROCKET STOCK/ALAMY (RABBIT EARS)
