In The City

City Lore:
If These Floors
Could Talk

A legendary dance studio with hallowed oak boards, where Astaire glided and Hines tapped.

Tall Tales:
New York City's
Urban Legends

Stories we tell ourselves in order to make sense of the strange world we live in.

CloseUp:
Anti-Noise Activist
Battles Sounds
of the City

East Side activist pauses to write for kids.

New York Times
August 8, 2000

IF THESE FLOORS COULD TALK!

In its heyday, Studio A-4 was called the Snake Pit. Admission 50 cents. Dancers named the rehearsal room after a 1948 movie about a mental institution with an open room where the most severely disturbed patients roamed and chattered incoherently. They said it was a performers' madhouse where sword swallowers, flame throwers, adagio teams, tap dancers and acrobats simultaneously practiced their acts. (cont...)

TimeOut NY
July 15, 1999

GATORS PROWL CITY SEWERS!

The Story: In the '50s, many New Yorkers who visited Florida brought back baby alligators as souvenirs. When the little green cuties developed into — surprise! — alligators, the horrified, if not terribly bright, owners flushed them down the toilet. They proceeded to reproduce, and formed thriving colonies in New York sewers.(cont...)

Our Town
July 27, 2000

THE NOISE LADY!

One of the first things Dr. Arline Bronzaft shows a visitor is how well the door to her terrace seals out noise. When she opens the door, the sound of buses and cars whooshing by floats up to her eigth-floor apartment on East 79th Street. But when she closes the door, quiet descends. (cont...)

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