Leaving Story Avenue

Empty your head…

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:05:30 -0400

On my last day of travels, I wound up sitting alone at breakfast, no longer needing to meet and talk over the day’s activities, what we were going to shoot and not. The pressure was off, we were finally going home. It was bliss.

theparisreview: Via The Believer, the extraordinary 1965...

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 22:32:50 -0500

theparisreview:

Via The Believer, the extraordinary 1965 documentary Ladies and Gentlemen… Mr. Leonard Cohen by Donald Brittain and Don Owen, available to watch in full on the NFB of Canada website. An “informal black-and-white portrait of Leonard Cohen shows him at age thirty on a visit to his hometown of Montreal, where the poet, novelist, and songwriter comes ‘to renew his neurotic affiliations.’” Forty-four minutes well-spent.

Photo

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:15:50 -0500

My Aunt, a real native New Yorker...

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 20:49:48 -0500

I pride myself on being a native New Yorker, born and raised. I’ve never lived anywhere else and, what’s more, I don’t even have an accent. Ask anyone ;)

But my Aunt Betty, now she outdoes me as a real native New Yorker by a mile. I was reminded of that after talking to her the other day. She’s 90 years old and lives on the top floor of a three-story walk-up in Manhattan, three flights that she climbs every day once a day. I can’t reveal the exact address of course but it’s down on the Bowery. And I can also tell you she is rent controlled (not stabilized) because she moved into that building on November 14, 1939. Yeah, you read that right!! 1939! She has lived in the same building for 64 years. I don’t know if this is a record but the floor is open to challengers.

Suffice it to say that Aunt Betty has seen a lot of things come and go over the years, lost pieces of New York like the old Third Avenue Elevated Train line. You young-uns probably don’t even know this but there once was something called the Third Avenue El — an elevated subway line — that rattled through Manhattan from the Battery along Third Avenue and up to the Bronx. It used to run right by Aunt Betty’s building but the Manhattan portion of the line was torn down in 1955 as real estate became more and more valuable.

I actually rode the Bronx section of that El on E. 149th Street. I have vague memories of the straw seats and overhead fans that you can only see now at the Transit Museum in Brooklyn.

Aunt Betty has a much better memory than me. She remembers the day she moved in, the day the El came down in 1955 and the day in 1929 — July 4th — when a relative was killed by a horse and buggy.

The Bowery used to be the place where all the flop-houses existed in New York and even I remember having to step over the alcoholics — we routinely called them ‘bums’ — who were all over the place in the 1960s. Then came the beginning of the modern era when CBGB’s reigned supreme and drew large crowds every Saturday night. Now of course, the Bowery is hip with coffee shops and restaurants, hotels and million dollar co-ops.

I find it interesting that one of my favorite books about old and future New York — “Winter’s Tale” — is now being turned into a movie this very moment. The filmmakers are shooting all over New York but I think maybe they should just talk to Aunt Betty for their historical research.

The crazy season.....

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:03:00 -0500

With Thanksgiving behind us, we’ve officially began “the crazy season,” the time of year when religious holidays usher in a month-long celebration of crass commercialism.

Hardly a new or insightful thought but there it is. We recognize this season for what it is, moan about it and yet, take part in it each and every year. As my children have grown, it’s gotten a bit easier to avoid the ‘must-have’ Christmas toys and accompanying materialistic madness. The days of “Tickle Me Elmo” (which I guess means something totally different now that the official Elmo puppeteer has resigned in the wake of accusations he’s had underage sex with at least two young teenage boys) are over. Now it’s more like, “Dad, tickle my wallet.”

Which I do but I also balance that by buying my kids (really, no pun intended) a goat or a sheep or even a llama. I don’t really give them an animal but I make the donation in our family name to Heifer International which gives said animals to poor communities around the globe where it really makes a difference.

But of course, that’s not enough. As high-minded as my intentions are, I still find myself giving commercial gifts. Part of it is pure human nature — it feels good to give a present to someone you love or like. But I’ve realized that giving presents forces us to consider why we give presents….we begin to think kindly of one another and that alone is something that’s different from the rest of the year, at least for most of us. It may not be as heavy as ‘love one another’ but sometimes ‘like one another’ is good enough.

So the crazy season is upon us and, much as we hate to admit it, it serves a purpose — we think of one another in a way that is more balanced and less judgmental. It may be the one time of year when that happens and that’s sad but, you know what, at least it happens once a year and for that, I’ll put up with all the crass commercialism in the world.

For what it’s worth, one of my favorite Christmas songs has a very similar sentiment. It’s The Flaming Lips’ “A Change at Christmas (Say It Ain’t So).”

And the world embraces peace and love and mercy
Instead of power and fear
And as sure as I’m standing here
I swear it really does appear that a change comes over us
Yes, some kind of change comes over us

And it’s glimpsed for one shining moment
And this change feels like a change that’s real
But then it passes along with the season
And then we just go back to the way we were
Yes, we just go back to the way we were

Oh and if you really want to give a great present, there’s always my memoir, full of great stories about NYC :)

Pecan Pie and scotch thanks to everyone who read my memoir this...

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 23:17:54 -0500

Pecan Pie and scotch

thanks to everyone who read my memoir this year Happy Thanksgiving

I grew up in Monroe Projests . What building did you live in? Do you remember the rooms on the first floor where residents shared that stored baby carriages and bicycles?A peddler went from door to door selling dry goods named Mr Silverman?

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:16:12 -0500

I do remember the carriage room. I grew up in 1790 story avenue and later 800 Soundview. It was cool for a long time and then it wasn’t …..

Meeting the best people in the world...

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:20:39 -0500

For my job as a producer for the CBS News magazine “48 Hours,” I meet a lot people in the middle of unspeakable tragedies, families whose loved ones have been murdered. Working on a story about Canada’s “Highway of Tears” — where dozens of women have gone missing or have been murdered over the past 40 years — I met many such families.

But here’s the thing — as sad as these stories are, I am always amazed at incredible dignity displayed by these families. They soldier on with their lives, often express no bitterness, and draw on an inner strength that seems beyond the bounds of human behavior. It’s hard for me not to think of these families as the best people in the world. Life has hit them hard but they stand up to it.

Consider the Highway of Tears story I helped produce for this week’s (11/17) “48 Hours” (you can always watch it online after Saturday at cbsnews.com).

— Dawn & Eldon Scott whose 20-year-old daughter Maddy disappeared from a campsite in May 2011. They’re devastated of course but they marshaled their resources to offer a $100,000 reward for information regarding Maddy’s disappearance.

— Doug Leslie whose 15-year-old blind daughter was killed by a 20-year-old alleged serial killer, now up on charges of killing four women. Doug started the Loren Donn Leslie Foundation in honor of his daughter.

— Matilda Wilson and Tom Chipman have been dealing with the murders or disappearances of their daughters for years and yet both have that quiet dignity I’m talking about. Same with Claudia Williams who was with her sister Alberta when she disappeared in 1989.

It’s a very tough road these folks have to plow but they’re doing it….somehow and they are remarkable.

I'm reading in NYC next Wednesday 11/14...

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:02:23 -0500

Hi everyone,

I haven’t read my memoir in awhile in public (of course I read it every night in private in front of a mirror….not really) but next Wednesday, November 14th, I’ll be reading at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute and it’s totally free.

Here are the details: The Institute is in midtown at 25 W. 43rd St., 17th floor
212-642-2094. They’d like you to RSVP if you’re coming. I’ll be reading a chapter or two, speaking about why I wrote my memoir and answering questions so please come if you can. Also, copies of the book will be for sale.

I hope to see you there.

Best,

Paul

My memoir free today (11/6/12)....

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:21:09 -0500

As a small token for my fellow New Yorkers — affected by Hurricane Sandy or not — I’m making my the e-book version of my memoir “Leaving Story Avenue” available for free on Amazon today!

It’s about New York in the ’60s and ’70s and might take your mind off our current troubles for awhile…also good diversion from this week’s impending rainstorm. Enjoy!

Paul

More than 50 years ago, I met these three other guys in the...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 20:19:38 -0500

More than 50 years ago, I met these three other guys in the Monroe Houses and we still see each other from time to time. Those were great years. I’ve written about most of them in my book “Leaving Story Avenue, my journey from the projects to the front page.” I’ll never forget these guys….

Review from another memoir author....

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 11:52:54 -0400

One of the nice things about being an author is meeting other authors and trading books. I literally stumbled across the memoir “Last of the Live Nude Girls” by Sheila McClear about the years she spent dancing nude in a peep show behind the glass in Times Square. It’s a fascinating journey into a world not many of us will ever experience and I for one am grateful to Sheila for telling us what it was like.

Of course, I let her know about my memoir and she was generous enough to leave me this review on Amazon:

Former newspaperman Paul LaRosa deftly chronicles his scrappy and sometimes madcap early years, revolving around a new, then declining, Bronx housing project. His childhood playing with the kids in the projects, he writes, was “a world without parents,” where anything felt possible. From trouble-making in Catholic school (high school starts off by getting punched in the face by a priest) to working behind the counter at a deli, LaRosa had a very New York adolescence: “The first day of Driver’s Ed was only the third time I had ever been inside a car,” he writes.

The book really sets afire when he gets a job as a copyboy (everyone is a copyboy, we learn, even girls) at the Daily News. In fact, that’s how he describes the newspaper itself: “alive” and “on fire.” From his days as a lowly copyboy to the the indignities of being the reporter assigned to the slow overnight “lobster shift” — where nothing happens until he gets a call to go to the Dakota, because John Lennon had been shot — the reader feels so close to the action that they may end up with ink on their hands.

‘Leaving Story Avenue’ is a sweet and funny book, one full of curiosity and a constant sense of wonder and about the world.

Thanks Sheila!

The 5-star reviews keep pouring in....

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:49:46 -0400

I just received two amazing reviews today on Amazon about my memoir. One from someone I know and one from a stranger. Both are so flattering, it’s hard to wrap my brain around but they do make one feel great. Here they are:

From Terrie:

Disclaimer: I am not a kid from the Bronx. I did not grow up with, nor have I ever met, nor have I any affiliation with the author of this book. But…I sure wish things were different. I wish I could say I had walked half a mile in his shoes, beside him, behind him because the stories told are so good, so fun, so sweet and so memorable. As I read I found myself cheering on a group of people I’d never met, longing for a sense of the camaraderie earned while living in a neighborhood I’d never entered, wanting to keep the secrets and share the wealth, and all the while I continued to become entranced by the stories I wish I could say were my own.

I imagine the stories told here are what some of the great commentators of times past might have told, or wish they’d told, back in the day. This is the kind of work you’ll remember long past the first read; a little like that of Dickens, Twain, and even Thoreau because of the ability of the author to make you think about the places he’s been, the faces he’s lost and the spaces in between that were survived only because of that very gritty New York attitude. Also a story of hope, I had to stop several times to wipe away tears. It’s so good to see a tale of one of our own succeeding despite the twists and turns of life. Way to go, Mr. LaRosa! You may not always have done it “right” but you’ve done it “so” - and that’s the important thing. I can’t really imagine anyone not finding value in this work.

From my friend Jack:

Paul LaRosa has written a memoir that is part coming-of-age and part true confession. But his story becomes more in quick order. “Leaving Story Avenue” is a fun and tantalizing read for anybody fortunate enough to pick it up. Turn to page one, and in less than a minute, the reader is fully engaged — guaranteed. “Story Avenue” refers to the rough and tough projects where LaRosa grew up in New York City’s Bronx during the 1960s and ’70s; and the stories he has to tell are rousing and lively beyond compare. The popular expression goes, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, and in LaRosa’s case, one is only happy that he not only survived to become not just stronger but a very admirable, humble human being. I was brought to tears, often from LaRosa’s laugh-out-loud storytelling of boyhood antics but as frequently from moments of poignancy in which he persevered against daunting odds. Picture the opposite of Beaver Cleaver and the make-believe community of Mayberry, and instead imagine the unstructured freedom of Paul and his rag-tag buddies in the Bronx projects. In fact, this might be the more entertaining situation comedy. The journey that LaRosa takes to move from the projects to becoming a Peabody- and Emmy-Award winning journalist/author is both stirring and inspiring. If you are a New Yorker, you need to read this book. If you’re not, and you grew up in the burbs, this memoir will be the book to open your eyes. I could tell you about the many choice vignettes, such as the occasion when LaRosa decides to ride on the OUTSIDE of a NYC subway train (yeah, he survived that one too), but give yourself a treat and read this entirely enjoyable book.

The story after Story Avenue...

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 08:35:31 -0400

Anyone who has read my new memoir knows that it ends in the year 1983. There may be a sequel one of these days but, for now, here’s a taste of what happened courtesy of Bill Lucey who has started a blog that highlights the careers of newspaper men and women AFTER they leave the holy fold. Today Bill was nice enough to feature me.

Soon after New York Daily News reporter Paul LaRosa took a buyout from the tabloid in March, 1991 after suffering through what he described as “a violent and contentious five-month strike,’’ he like so many others, took the reporting tools they learned as print journalists and transferred them to another medium.

LaRosa actually had started working for CBS in their entertainment division during the newspaper strike as a writer for “Top Cops.’’ His job involved finding some of the most dramatic blood curdling police stories he could find, write up a snappy description, and then turn it over to the screen writers and a production team in Toronto, who would then work their magic and whip up a dramatic production for television.

Encouraged by his new television experience and hoping to take advantage of the sudden rise in television news magazine productions, LaRosa sent his Daily News bylined clips to CBS, hoping to get hired for the new show, “Street Stories with Ed Bradley.” Though CBS did call him in for an interview, he didn’t get the job, but was so encouraged by the rejection letter (which indicated they might hire him in the future) that LaRosa never became too discouraged.

When LaRosa learned the show was renewed, he immediately sent them another batch of clips. They brought him in for another interview, only this time they hired him on six-month contract basis. Similar to his other television assignment with “Top Cops’’, LaRosa was responsible for finding dramatic police stories, put into writing a compelling narrative and then pass it on to the producers.

After being hired a second time by CBS, LaRosa knew if he was going to have a future in this business, it would be incumbent upon him to learn exactly how television shows are produced from the ground up. So, armed with a notebook, he approached the producers and editors and asked them to teach him all he needs to know about dramatic television production. They were all too willing to oblige this enthusiastic greenhorn, bringing him on television shoots and showing him precisely what makes gripping television drama.

A year later, LaRosa’s boss was reassigned to take over “48 Hours’’ and decided to bring this former Daily News reporter along with her. That was 20 years ago this month. After 18 years producing for “48 Hours,’’ LaRosa has been on the receiving end of two Emmys. He’s also co-produced the highly-acclaimed documentary “9/11” which also won an Edward R. Murrow and Peabody Awards.

“I did learn television’’ LaRosa tells me “and was humbled by it; I consider it much harder than print journalism.’’

His success in the television industry has led to him to some lucrative book deals, something that wasn’t possible working for a daily newspaper. The reason is simple. When you produce for television, there is usually loads of material left on the cutting room floor. One story in particular – the murder/suicide of the Tacoma Police Chief and his wife in front of their two young children in 2003, prompted LaRosa to approach his bosses about writing a book about this chilling episode, which took place at Gig Harbor, Washington, a quiet Tacoma suburb.

CBS agreed; and soon LaRosa was off writing about it, which led to the publication of “Tacoma Confidential.”

LaRosa wrote three more books since “Tacoma Confidential ‘’ and just this spring he published his memoirs, “Leaving Story Avenue - My journey from the projects to the front page,’’ a book which chronicles his humble origins, growing up in the Soundview, Bronx housing projects, landing a job as copy boy at The Daily News fresh out of college, later being promoted to reporter, all during a bygone era before computers and by extension the Internet, has, for the most part, wiped out a once thriving industry.

Among the many stories LaRosa pounded out at the Daily News, the one that will live in infamy is his front-page splash about John Lennon’s fatal shooting at the Dakota, while working the late shift (midnight-8 a.m.), a shift known to news types as the “lobster shift.’’

Despite his success in the television industry, LaRosa tells me that he feels very lucky to have worked at two great jobs at such great places. “Although I’ve worked longer at CBS than The Daily News, I consider myself a newspaperman and writer at heart.’’

LaRosa graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School and Fordham University and attended Columbia University, where he did graduate work as a Revson Fellow. He lives in Park Slope.

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com
July 3, 2012

it’s over but it was gooood

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:48:32 -0400

it’s over but it was gooood

An interview I did for Bronx Journal TV. The host did a great...

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:17:04 -0400

An interview I did for Bronx Journal TV. The host did a great job of asking the right questions. Please take a look and thanks….

Check out the great reviews for my new memoir!

Sun, 13 May 2012 10:41:00 -0400

Check out the great reviews for my new memoir!

"Latest Review of my memoir Reviewed by Vince Cosgrove Paul LaRosa has written a breezy memoir so..."

Sun, 06 May 2012 09:57:23 -0400

“

Latest Review of my memoir
Reviewed by Vince Cosgrove

Paul LaRosa has written a breezy memoir so authentic that you can almost hear the clacking of those oversized typewriters that reporters of a certain age may recall with nostalgia, part of a time when you cultivated speed, clarity and accuracy on deadline without benefit of a delete button.

That was the kind of place LaRosa walked into when he landed a job in 1975 as a copyboy at the New York Daily News, with the warning that he had a one in 10 chance of making it to reporter. The News city room, populated with Runyonesque characters, thrived on its own electric madness; many veteran reporters cursed loudly, drank booze at their desks, smoked incessantly and hurled wisecracks like characters from the “The Front Page.” LaRosa nails this twilight era of American newspapers with the aplomb of the awarding-winning journalist he became, first at the News, then at CBS.

He also writes vividly about his early years, living in the Monroe Houses in the Bronx, attending a strict Catholic high school and overcoming his shyness, in part by learning to kibitz with customers at the Third Avenue Deli, where he worked after school. LaRosa tells his tale with a justified Horatio Alger pride. With talent and hard work, he did beat those 10-to-1 odds.

Vince Cosgrove is a freelance writer from Berkeley, Calif.

”

- The Newark Star-Ledger

The Daily News — the newspaper that is the subject of my...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:55:32 -0400

The Daily News — the newspaper that is the subject of my new memoir — puts me IN the paper. Cool. A story about ‘story avenue.’

Two upcoming readings...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:39:14 -0400

If you were unable to be part of the overflow crowd that came to my reading and book discussion at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum last week, no worries — two more area book readings are scheduled and coming your way.

Here are the details:

FRIDAY MAY 4TH — I’ll be reading and signing copies of my memoir at the Clinton Book Shop in Clinton, New Jersey, 12 E. Main Street, at 7 p.m. I’m told it’s a lovely little town so I’m really looking forward it.

SATURDAY MAY 12TH — I’ll be reading along with poet and short-story writer Ken DiMaggio at the Cornelia Street Cafe in Greenwich Village at 5:45 p.m. in an event sponsored by the Italian-American Writers Association.

Please come by and say hello!

Paul