| Description |
1 online resource (1 audio file) |
| Playing Time |
090000 |
| Description |
digital rda |
|
audio file CD audio rda |
| Summary |
Before the charismatic John Duval Gluck, Jr., came along, letters from New York City children to Santa Claus were destroyed, unopened, by the U.S. Post Office. Gluck saw an opportunity and created the Santa Claus Association. The effort delighted the public, and for fifteen years money and gifts flowed to the only group authorized to answer Santa's mail. Gluck became a Jazz Age celebrity, rubbing shoulders with the era's movie stars and politicians, and even planned to erect a vast Santa Claus monument in the center of Manhattan-until Gotham's crusading charity commissioner discovered some dark secrets in Santa's workshop. The rise and fall of the Santa Claus Association is a caper both heartwarming and hard-boiled, involving stolen art, phony Boy Scouts, a kidnapping, pursuit by the FBI, a Coney Island bullfight, and above all, the thrills and dangers of a wild imagination. It's also the larger story of how Christmas became the extravagant holiday we celebrate today, from Santa's early beginnings in New York to the country's first citywide Christmas tree and Macy's first grand holiday parade. |
| Note |
Downloadable audio file. |
| Performer |
Read by Eric Michael Summerer. |
| Summary |
Recounts the true story of John Duval Gluck, Jr., who in 1913 founded the Santa Claus Association, which had the sole authority to answer Santa's mail in New York City, until a crusading charity commissioner exposed Gluck as a fraud. |
| System Details |
Requires Boundless App. |
| Subject |
Gluck, John Duval, 1878-1951.
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Santa Claus -- New York (State) -- New York.
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Gluck, John Duval, 1878-1951. |
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Santa Claus. |
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Santa Claus Association, Inc. (New York, N.Y.) -- History.
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United States. Post Office Department -- History -- 20th century.
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Santa Claus Association, Inc. (New York, N.Y.) |
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United States. Post Office Department. |
| Chronological Term |
1900-1999 |
| Subject |
Christmas -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century.
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Charities -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century.
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Swindlers and swindling -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
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Charities. |
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Christmas. |
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Manners and customs. |
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Swindlers and swindling. |
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New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.
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New York (N.Y.) -- Biography.
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New York (State) -- New York. |
| Genre |
Audiobooks.
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Biography.
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History.
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| Added Author |
Summerer, Eric Michael, narrator.
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| Added Title |
Rise and fall of a Jazz Age con man and the invention of Christmas in New York |
| Other Form: |
Electronic reproduction of (manifestation): Palmer, Alex. Santa Claus man : the rise and fall of a Jazz Age con man and the invention of Christmas in New York [Old Saybrook, Connecticut] : Tantor Audio, [2015] 9781494517250 (NjBwBT)bl2016046314 (OCoLC)930403019 |
| ISBN |
9781494597252 : $47.95 |
|
149459725X : $47.95 |
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