el Brooks. Spike Lee. Joan Rivers.
While the three might not seem to have much in common, these entertainment icons all hail from the same borough – Brooklyn.
Their stories, and those of nearly a hundred more borough natives, come together in Song of Brooklyn: An Oral History of America’s Favorite Borough, a new book by Marc Eliot.
Approached by publisher Random House to gather the stories of these Brooklynites – famous and not famous, natives and current residents – the pop culture writer, fresh off his examination of Manhattan’s 42nd Street in Down 42nd Street, took up the challenge to gather the voices of these Brooklynites into one coherent chorus.
“I said no at first,” admits the writer, who is the author of more than a dozen books, including Cary Grant and Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince. “I thought, How many more books about egg creams can people stand?” Egg creams aside, Eliot realized, “I think Brooklyn has a character and a voice worth writing about.”
Those stories come from such vocal, celebrity Brooklynites such as Mel Brooks a Williamsburg native who tells a wonderful story about learning the names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence from the street signs in his neighborhood, as well locals famous in their own right, such as Kenny Vance of Kenny and the Planotones, a close friend of Eliot’s and a “tried and true Brooklynite.” Vance helped the author find subjects for his book.
“We spent the summer of 2006 traveling around Brooklyn every day finding people to talk to who he knew,” remembers Eliot, who was raised in Brooklyn himself by his aunt, who lived in Canarsie, before leaving for Manhattan when he began attending the High School of the Performing Arts. “He brought me to a lot of people who I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to.”
In addition to finding people to talk to through friends, Eliot also had a list of Brooklynites he hoped to include in his song of Brooklyn, among them TV personality Joan Rivers, the Knicks’ Stephon Marbury, CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo (who Eliot finds to be as “far away from the cliché of what Brooklyn is as possible”) and novelist Pete Hamill. Though the latter has written extensively about Brooklyn himself, Eliot thought an interview with him could yield some fabulous information.
Eliot admits the book was a seductive concept, but not an easy one to write to encapsulate the borough into a coherent form and put what his subjects said into a shape that doesn't destroy what they said. Ultimately, he broke up the book into various subjects, including food, politics, music, history and literature, and found the experience like making a movie.
“When doing an oral history, you're kind of the camera,” says the author. “You have to figure out how to get people in there in a way that makes sense.”
Eliot culled from hundreds of interviews with Brooklynites his hundred or so that made it into the book. Others who found their song included in the oral history are makers of the candy Joyva, who have a candy factory in Bushwick that goes back nearly a hundred years, DJ and radio vet Don K. Reed, a “personal hero of mine,” says Eliot, and Brian Berger, an up-and-coming writer in the borough who's behind the local blog “Who Walk in Brooklyn.”
With so many writers living in Brooklyn, it gave Eliot the chance to explore the idea of whether or not there's indeed a “Brooklyn literary scene.” Another big topic in Brooklyn the author delves into is development.
“That part of the story is fascinating,” says Eliot, who spoke to realtors and developers, including Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities, which owns a large stake in Coney Island and will have a role in the amusement park's future, for the book. “Redevelopment, destruction, resurrection – all of that runs throughout the book.”
Two Brooklynites who offered their songs of Brooklyn to the book will join Eliot at a reading on June 17 at Cobble Hill's BookCourt. Mickey Freeman, a Coney Island pretzel vendor, and Kenny Vance of the Planotones will be on hand, with the latter singing a song or two as well.
“Brooklyn people go crazy about this guy,” says Eliot of Vance. “More people will be excited to see him than me by far.”
Marc Eliot reads from Song of Brooklyn: An Oral History of America's Favorite Borough, on June 17 at BookCourt (163 Court Street). For more information, call 718-875-3677 or go to www.bookcourt.org. For more about the author, go to www.marceliot.com.
