Newport: The Sin City Years (Images of America)

I remember a lot about Newport having grown up in and around that area in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. From going to bingo with my grandma as a child to the more adult entertainment experiences of my college years — Newport was certainly the place back then. Somewhat lamentably those days are gone. But this book does a good job capturing some of those memories. Well worth the price and highly recommended!

loved reading about the old days, confirming some of my Grandfathers stories

Newport really was a sin city before Las Vegas. It is really interesting to look back at how life was like in Newport in the 1950's. When they finally did crack down the most of the people involved just moved on to Las Vegas.

I learned a lot about the city where I grew up. I am so glad the author did all this work to put the info together

I got these when I joined postcrossing.com, an international postcard exchange program because they give a slice of the city where I was raised and live. The lion's share of the post cards are devoted to the Beverly Hills Country Club, which ended in one of the worst fires US history. Two show old fashioned delivery tructs for the now defunct Wiedemann Brewing Company--one a horse drawn wagon. Other's focus on the city's stint as a major illegal gambling center with news photos of raids on underground cassios. There are also several prohibition photos including the destruction of moonshine stills by a National Guard tank, lawmen taking axes to whiskey barrels, and a bootleg wagon in full operation called "The Brown Jug." My favorite postcard, however, is a shot of Monmonth Street from the early 1980s, as I lived just two blocks away from the notorious street. Another favorite is the headquarters of Committee of 500, a reform group bent on cleaning up the city. In the photograph the headquarters is decked in campaign posters for Ratterman, dating it to the 50s. The Ratterman-April Flowers scandal is still talked about and anyone in Newport during the 50s is sure to remember that.while I send out many scenic postcards and postcards of local attractions, these offer something diferent and unique. (Although I've seen postcards from other series by Arcadia publishing.)'For $7.99, the price equals 53 cents a postcard, priced slightly higher than the standard post cards (which run 30-35 cents in the area) to 75 cents for "quality" post cards.

Most of these books just have photos with captions. This one has chapters chock full of interesting history about the people and places of Newport. I found it fascinATING!