Rosenblum, Constance

PERSONAL: Female. Education: Bryn Mawr College, graduated, 1965.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, New York University Press, 838 Broadway, 3rd Fl., New York, NY 10003.

CAREER: Editor and writer. New York Times, New York, NY, arts and leisure section editor, then city editor, 1998–. Former culture editor for Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA.

WRITINGS:

Gold Digger: The Outrageous Life and Times of Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Metropolitan Books (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor) New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times, New York University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: In her book Gold Digger: The Outrageous Life and Times of Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Constance Rosenblum tells the story of the early-twentieth-century showgirl who worked in vaudeville, the Ziegfield follies, and eventually movies. However, the ingenue became more famous for epitomizing the "Jazz Age" and Joyce was labeled notorious for her relationships with men, including marriages to several millionaires. Joyce was born Marguerite Upton in a small town in North Carolina. Leaving home at sixteen, she quickly married, divorced, and then began a string of marriages to wealthy men, such as James Stanley Joyce. After her marriage to Joyce ended, she worked a little in films and had numerous lovers, including Charlie Chaplin and film studio head Irving Thalberg. Joyce's numerous indiscretions, however, began to hurt her career as well as her reputation, and in 1922 the Motion Picture Theater Owners of American decided to no longer show any of her films. By the end of the 1930s, she was largely forgotten. Joyce married six times in the course of her life, the last marriage being to a young bank clerk.

In a review of Gold Digger in the Library Journal, Elaine Machleder noted that "the author evokes an era of café society, Cole Porter lyrics, and passionate affairs with noblemen and titans." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "Rosenblum not only brings her subject to vibrant life, hut also reveals how the cult of media celebrity grew in this century." Writing in Booklist, Donna Seaman commented that the Rosenblum includes "a shrewd analysis of Joyce's rapport with the press." Jonathan Bing, writing in Variety remarked that Rosenblum bases much of her book on her discovery of Joyce's personal papers and added that the author "artfully documents this original material girl's brief but incandescent waltz through the national consciousness."

Rosenblum is also the editor of New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times. The book features a series of articles that have appeared in the City Section of the New York Times beginning in the early 1990s. Rosenblum, who edits the section, includes essays and articles from well-known writers and new writers as well. Included are both humorous and serious pieces, their topics ranging from an essay about a blown up apartment inhabited by members of a radical group in the 1970s to the famous ability of New Yorkers to ignore even the most outlandish and strange behaviors. A Publishers Weekly contributor called the collection "an excellent addition to New York history and a pleasure for casual browsing." Writing in the Library Journal, Rita Simmons commented that "the pieces evoke a powerful sense of place," adding that "the material is of high literary caliber."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Biography, fall, 2000, Leslie Chess Feller, review of Gold Digger: The Outrageous Life and Times of Peggy Hopkins Joyce, p. 810.

Booklist, April 1, 2000, Donna Seaman, review of Gold Digger, p. 1424.

Library Journal, February 15, 2000, Elaine Machleder, review of Gold Digger, p. 174; May 1, 2005, Rita Simmons, review of New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times, p. 107.

Publishers Weekly, February 14, 2000, review of Gold Digger, p. 180; April 11, 2005, review of New York Stories, p. 45.

Variety, May 1, 2000, Jonathan Bing, review of Gold Digger, p. 39.