Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz

I plan to explore the hidden and public arenas of New York sporting men, particularly as they are linked to the formation of American popular culture. Sporting men were critical members of the audience of popular theater, the minstrel, and the concert saloon. By studying the writing about entertainments in the city's sporting press and penny dailies, inquiring into entrepreneurship and commerce directed at the sporting world, and examining the evolving pattern of particular zones for sporting men's dealings, leisure, and amusements, I hope to reveal key elements in the creation of American popular culture and something of its lasting contours.