Once Upon a Time in New York

January 3, 2000
In what could be considered a follow-up to his 1996 book The Man Who Rode the Tiger: The Life and Times of Judge Samuel Seabury, Mitgang has centered a robust portrait of Prohibition-era New York City on the downfall of the crusading corruption investigator's primary target, Mayor Jimmy Walker. A dandy and former Tin Pan Alley hack, Walker was a Tammany Hall machine politico and a tabloid reporter's dream. More interested in good times than in good government, the Night Mayor of New York always had a witty quip ready and was a frequent beneficiary of journalistic winks and nods. But as the Roaring '20s gave way to the Depression, Walker found himself and the Tammany machine under scrutiny. Mitgang cloaks his research in snappy prose as he follows the headline-making investigation ordered by Governor Franklin Roosevelt, himself a former Tammany man looking to enhance his national image by recasting himself as a "goo-goo" (advocate of good government). Mitgang's lively chronicle of Walker's public demise nevertheless maintains an affectionate tone towards Walker, ex-governor Al Smith, gambling supremo Arnold Rothstein and the many other mischief-making characters who peopled New York in the Jazz Age. "When the Times prints scandalous news," Mitgang quotes New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs, "it's sociology." Mitgang delivers some sharp social insight, but he never forgets that scandal makes good narrative.