{"product_id":"nights-in-fairyland-gossip-blackmail-and-the-many-lives-of-broadway-brevities-9780228026594","title":"Nights in Fairyland: Gossip Blackmail and the Many Lives of \"Broadway Brevities\"","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 1925 the publishers of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBroadway Brevities\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e were tried for running an extortion operation targeting New York’s social and cultural elites. While the first version of the magazine whispered gossip in columnists’ suggestive innuendo, later incarnations shouted bold accusations in graphic tabloid headlines. On the pages of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBroadway Brevities\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e gossip was instrumentalized and urbanized, taking its place among the noisy, sensational features of city life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe life of the magazine’s long-time editor, Canadian-born Stephen G. Clow, runs through this story, connecting the different incarnations of the magazine and the circles in which they were published (in New York, 1917–34, and later in Toronto). Clow’s career took him from Manhattan’s literary world, in his role as a critic and book publisher, to notoriety as a scandal-mongering editor. Beginning in the 1920s Clow gathered – or fabricated – allegations about high-profile people in theatre, cinema, and enterprise, then threatened to publish unless they paid up. Clow would brag to \u003cem\u003eTime\u003c\/em\u003e magazine that he was “the most famous and wicked blackmailer in world history.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBroadway Brevities\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e became infamous for sensational, vicious, and lurid coverage of gay life. Despite its mocking homophobia, Will Straw shows, the magazine can today help reconstitute the spaces and places of historical queer life in New York.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on a singular collection of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBrevities\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e issues discovered over decades of research, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eNights in Fairyland\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a rich account of an overlooked form of periodical publishing and of urban nightlife, queer sociability, and the commodification of gossip in the 1920s and 1930s.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Will Straw","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":52152112021787,"sku":"9780228026594","price":36.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0723\/8392\/2459\/files\/img_7a997441-573e-4f20-a3c0-9808db0a3dd3.jpg?v=1777744689","url":"https:\/\/sapphicsociety.com\/en-ca\/products\/nights-in-fairyland-gossip-blackmail-and-the-many-lives-of-broadway-brevities-9780228026594","provider":"Sapphic Society","version":"1.0","type":"link"}