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Great exhibition:

Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010
September 21, 2012 – February 3, 2013
The Bard Graduate Center, 18 West 86th Street, NYC.

Great book:

Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010
Matthew Wittmann
Published by the Bard Graduate Center, 2012
Distributed by Yale University Press

(Five or six great Weegee circus photos in both…)


Mike Wallace Asks, Simon and Schuster, 1958
A transcript of the “real” interview indicates that perhaps Weegee and Wallace didn’t have a great rapport; didn’t really like each other very much… This printed version is much edited, and is the only interview of about 50, where Wallace asks one question, and the interviewee rambles on for the entire chapter…
Although it’s only a page long, it’s a great page (a few excerpts: edited edits):

WALLACE: Weegee, you used to be the top murder photographer in the country. Why did you quit?

WEEGEE: Murder, Incorporated went out of business. I used to be the official photographer for Murder, Incorporated. I used to have one a night… I advised the boys on taste…
Murder’s not anything anymore. In the old days Murder, Incorporated, had a garage in Brooklyn… they’d teach them the trade, teach them how to shoot and so on. Train ’em like feudal craftsmen. They made a fine art of it. Each murder was better than the one previous.
But murder has gone out of style. It’s a different trend. Everything is organized these days. Instead of fighting with each other, they call a meeting They’re executives. You know what a an executive is? A guy that doesn’t eat in cafeterias. Today, it’s all organization and efficiency. They don’t need an artist like me anymore…. I’ve changed too. I used to go to Sammy’s on the Bowery. I had my own table… The younger generation is making a mockery of the fine art of murder.

Perhaps the Lili St. Cyr interview is a little more typical…

Wee could be completely wrong about this!

Nevertheless… the following might be (slightly) true…









Weegee, Naked City, (first edition, first printing)







Weegee, Naked City, (first edition, second printing)













Weegee, Naked City, first edition, first printing, on top…







First edition, first printing has a coarse, thicker, slightly darker (or maybe my copy is dirtier), book cloth cover, and more importantly no images on the rear end pages…

First edition, second printing has a thiner, smoother book cloth, and beautiful rear end pages…

(First edition, second printing or third printing also has Duell Sloane and Pearce printed on the bottom of the spine, below Essential Books…)

(Who took the photos on the end pages? Was it Simon Nathan?)

Again, wee could be completely wrong…