(B) Bronx - in Literature and Film

Co-Op City
Stephen King mentions Co-op City in two of his novels. His first mention of it was in Running Man.
After hijacking an airplane, he purposely directs the craft into the Games* building in Co-Op City, giving his life to make his first and last political stand.
And in his Dark Tower series, Eddie is from Co-Op City. However, this is clearly not the New York of our own world, as Eddie lives in Co-Op City, Brooklyn, while the real Co-Op City is in the Bronx.
But regardless of the borough King places one of the largest apartment complex in the world in, it still is nice to see your hometown mentioned in a book. I lived in Co-Op City from the age of 4 until the age of 27. My mother still resides there.
* Games building is fictitious. No such building stands or has ever stood in Co-Op City.
Parkchester
The first time I've ever heard Parkchester mentioned in a book or movie was when I read/watched the movie Doubt. The movie was based on a play written by John Patrick Shanley. I saw the movie before I read the play. The book is almost a transcript of the movie.
How fun was it to see my current neighborhood on film. There was a part when Sister Aloysius walks with one of the students mother and they walk into Parkchester. The scene is across the field from my building. I pass it often. It was interesting to see how they transformed the small scene. There were awnings on the Main Floor apartments and no air conditioners were visible (Air conditioners were not allowed in Parkchester until 2001). However, they couldn't hide the Cable TV wires. Oh well, somethings you just have to overlook.
Another truism of the movie was that they made sure to let us know that the mother only WORKED in Parkchester. Parkchester didn't segregate until the late 1960s early 1970s.

St. Lawrence Avenue
Also in the movie Doubt the neighboring neighborhood of Parkchester was mentioned. The fictitious Catholic school was located in that area. Although they used a real school for the location which is actually located in another part of the Bronx (that school is St. Anthony Catholic School).
Buhre Avenue and Middletown Road
In the book PUSH by Sapphire she mentions being on the 6 train and getting off at either Middletown Road or Buhre Avenue. I can't recall which but I do believe they were both mentioned. And what struck me about it is that she mentioned it being a white neighborhood. No one, unless they've actually been there would know that. Most people think only minorities live in The Bronx, but it just isn't true. There are white people and there are alot of them. This part was not in the movie Precious.

Another fun fact about all of the above mentioned books or movie, other than that I read them all around the same time is that they are all a short distance from each other. Let's take a short subway ride on the #6 train.
We'll get on at St. Lawrence Avenue. Next stop Parkchester. We won't get off, we'll stay on until we get to Middleown Road which is four stops away, but we won't get off there either, we'll go one more stop to Buhre Avenue. Oh heck, let's just stay on until we get to Pelham Bay Park which is the closest stop to Co-Op City.
THIS IS THE LAST STOP ON THIS TRAIN, EVERYBODY PLEASE LEAVE THE TRAIN. THANK YOU FOR RIDING WITH MTA NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT. REMEMBER TO STAY ALERT AND HAVE A SAFE DAY.

Son at School / Regis Philbin Avenue

One of his classmates snapped a picture of my son in action. This is him at the board in his JAVA class. I'm not sure if he is explaining a problem, or working something out. But it is nice to get a picture of him there.

The Bronx has some heroes. One that is still alive and kicking is Regis Philbin. His old neighborhood is about a mile from my home, and I finally managed to go that way and take a picture of the sign. The block itself, doesn't look like much, but I am sure it was much nicer 75 years ago.

A stretch of Cruger Avenue in the Bronx where Philbin lived as a child has been renamed Regis Philbin Avenue.

Philbin attended Our Lady of Solace grammar school in the Bronx. He went on to graduate from Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx.

The Bronx Accent by Lloyd Olden

The Bronx Accent: A Literary and Pictorial History of the Borough is not your ordinary dry history book. This book starts with the arrival of the Dutch in the 1600s. It explained how Jonas Bronck (1600–1643) was not a Dutch immigrant as previously believed but was actually an immigrant from Komstad in Sävsjö, Sweden. Jonas Bronck had a farm that spanned only half of what is currently known as the Bronx. Later the borough was expanded north, which was once part of Westchester County.

It went on to talk about some prominent people from the literary world who lived in the borough such as, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain and Theodore Dreiser to name a few.


The book is peppered with excerpts from stories about The Bronx and poetry about the borough. Not to mention pictures from earlier in the 20th century and before that, drawings of places familiar to Bronxites such as Kingsbridge, and Varian House.


Lloyd Ultan is the current Bronx historian. He has had his hand in several books about The Bronx, all which are amazing.

People usually have a negative view of The Bronx, thanks to movies such as "Fort Apache, The Bronx". Although that movie was accurate to the time. In the 1960s and 1970s, The Bronx was a hell hole, and buildings burned on a daily basis. It amazes me how we made it out of those decades alive. We have our Mayor at the time Ed Koch and Jimmy Carter (who was President), who was the only President to ever visited The Bronx. Thanks to their efforts, the borough was rebuilt.

The Bronx has a rich history. A lot of famous people were born and grew up here, and others transplanted themselves here. Regis Philbin who lived at 1990 Cruger Avenue (now named Regis Philbin Way), Bobby Darin, Anne Bancroft, Ralph Lauren, Woody Allen, Penny & Garry Marshall, and many more.

Maybe one day, my name will be added to that list.

I don't think anyone who isn't from The Bronx, would have much interest in this book. I came across it because of a Book Challenge to read a book about my local history. It isn't hard to find a book about the history of New York city, but I wanted to get even more local. I was happy with this book. 4.5 out of 5.

And even cooler, was a picture of my current neighborhood was on the back cover. However, this is actually a drawing, and is quite old. Probably from when the neighborhood was first built in 1940.

The Beautiful Beautiful Bronx

I am currently reading Bronx Accent: A Literary and Pictorial History of the Borough by Lloyd Ultan, Barbara Unger. While reading this, I became interested in other books (novels) that take place in The Bronx. There are quite a few, but these seem very interesting.



The Buddha Book by Abraham Rodriguez Jr.

American Book Award winner Rodriguez revisits the bleak streets of the South Bronx in this novel of guilt and redemption. Jose, who has murdered his ex-girlfriend in a fit of rage, and Dinky, the son of a drug kingpin, are the creators of an underground comic called The Buddha Book. As the chaos around them escalates, this comic becomes the vehicle for a catharsis, which culminates in an apocalyptic reckoning on the streets of the Bronx.

The Kingsbridge Plot by Mann Meyers (Young Adult)

In 1775, young Peter Tonneman returns to New York City from studying medicine in England to find its residents in turmoil-not only because of disagreements with the mother country, but also because someone has been decapitating the local young ladies. As a citizen, the doctor must decide which nation will receive his allegiance; as a coroner, he must assist in the search for the murderer. The plot is enriched by a scheme to assassinate George Washington.

Note: The King's Bridge, erected in 1693 by Frederick Philipse, a local Lord loyal to the British Monarch. The bridge spanned the now-filled-in Spuyten Duyvil Creek, roughly south-parallel with today's 230th Street. The Kingsbridge carried Boston Post Road, connecting southern Westchester County (which became The Bronx) with Marble Hill.

Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctrow

In the Bronx of the 1930s, 15-year-old Billy Bathgate hooks up with a legendary mobster, Dutch Schultz. Schultz becomes an unlikely surrogate parent to the boy, introducing him to the ways of the world and training Billy to follow in his footsteps. After Billy falls for Schulz's latest girlfriend, he begins to question the actions of the mob he was so eager to join. As he seeks to protect the young woman, he gains strength in following his own heart and makes a courageous passage from boyhood to adulthood.

When The Bronx Burned By John J. Finucane

In his novel, When the Bronx Burned, John Finucane, a retired lieutenant with the New York City Fire Department, tells the fascinating story of the burning of the Charlotte Street area of New York’s South Bronx during the late1960s and 70s; an era when arson-for-profit drove hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. It’s an intriguing story that shows a New York that most people are completely unfamiliar with. The premise allows for a great deal of conflict and action, for the heroes aren't just fighting flames, they are fighting a brutal gang of arsonists, the slumlords that employ them, and the political machine that permits the scheme to take place.

Field Trip

This weekend I finally ventured to the Bronx Library Center. It is a newly built major library in The Bronx. It has been there for a few years now, but I haven't gone.



State of the art design, looks modern inside as well. A patio on the 3rd floor. Wi-Fi, elevators...the works. For those people who are familiar with the Mid-Manhattan branch library, this all is familar to you, but people who haven't been outside the borough, will find this all very fascinating. It is clean, well kept, they actually have books and DVDs people want to borrow. Bronx Libraries rarely have these things. They are mostly situated in very urban areas, and people walk out with the best stuff, leaving things no one wants to read or watch.

Between me and my daughter, we took home 6 DVDs that we wanted to see. I found 3 books on the shelves alone. I usually have to order what I want and wait for it to come from one of the 'better' libraries.

It was worth the short bus ride (even if I still had my car, I probably wouldn't travel down Fordham Road). And although this library is also in a very urban area, one of the most urban in The Bronx, it is guarded and well maintained and was not filled with wild teenagers as most of them are in my neighborhood. I hope it stays this way, our community needs something like this. With Fordham University a few blocks away, it is also nice for those students to have somewhere else to go other than their school Library, and somewhere so classy.