Morning Art

BGS 2012: Gold Rush

Bronx Banter turned ten in November and to celebrate I thought it’d be cool to reprint a few classic articles. I figured we’d run five pieces but one thing led to another and now we’ve got a series cooking with three feature stories each week. The idea is to present great magazine and newspaper writing that you can’t find on-line.

In case you’ve missed any of them, here’s a complete listing of what we’ve got so far. And we’re going to keep this moving in 2013. Already, we’ve got gems lined up from the likes of Richard Price, Jack Mann, Larry Merchant, Richard Hoffer, Diane K. Shah, Tom Junod, Rich Cohen, John Schulian, Paul Solotaroff, Leigh Montville, Dan Jenkins, Gary Cartwright, Tom Boswell, Pat Jordan, Ira Berkow, and Tony Kornheiser.

The Banter Gold Standard:

“The End of Lenny Bruce” by Dick Schaap

“The Strange and Mysterious Death of Mrs. Jerry Lee Lewis” by Richard Ben Cramer

“Furry’s Blues” by Stanley Booth

“The Boxing Gym”

“The Impression”

“Seven Scenes from the life of a Quiet Champion”
by Pete Dexter

“The Best-Kept Secret in American Journalism is Murray Kempton” by David Owen

Jimmy Cannon and Murray Kempton on Don Larsen and Sal Maglie

“The Life and Loves of the Real McCoy” by John Lardner

“L.T. and the Home Team” by John Ed Bradley

“Sympathy for the Devi”l by Joe Flaherty

“North Hollywood Forty” by Peter Gent

“The Clear Line” by Luc Sante

“Thieves of Time” by Charlie Pierce

“The Killing of Gus Hasford” by Grover Lewis:

“Brownsville Bum” by W.C. Heinz

“Quitting the Paper” by Paul Hemphill

And while you are digging through the archives, check out this compilation of previous Banter Reprints:

Richard Ben Cramer

The Ballad of Johnny France

Serious Business (Yankee Stadium)

Pete Dexter

Dying for Art’s Sake (LeRoy Neiman)

No Trespassing (Jim Brown)

The Apprenticeship of Randall Cobb (Tex Cobb)

Two for Toozday (John Matuszak)

LeeRoy, He Ain’t Here No More (LeeRoy Yarbrough)

The Old Man and the River (Norman Maclean)

W.C. Heinz

One Throw (Short Story)

The Happiest Hooligan of them All (Pepper Martin)

Death of a Racehorse

Speaking of Sports (Howard Cosell)

Maybe Tomorrow, Maybe the Next Day (Jeremy Vernon)

Pat Jordan

Trouble in Paradise (Steve and Cyndy Garvey)

Breaking the Wall (Burt Reynolds)

Bad (Rorion Gracie)

The Curious Childhood of an 11-Year Old Beauty Queen

The Horse Lovers (TV movie of the week)

Inside Marilyn Chambers

A Different Drummer

Running Cars

The Haircut

Dad’s Last Visit

George Kimball

Opening Day at Fenway Park

Fighting and Drinking with the Rats at Yankee Stadium

Carlo Rotella

Bedtime Story (Marvin Hagler)

John Schulian

One Night Only (Levon Helm)

My Ears are Bent (Joseph Mitchell)

No Regrets: A Hard-Boiled Life (James Crumley)

The Professional (George Kimball)

Jack Mann (An Appreciation by John Schulian, Tom Callahan, and Dave McKenna)

Bet a Million (Vic Ziegel)

Robert Ward

Reggie Jackson in No-Man’s Land 

[Photo Via: Ari Takes Pictures]