I've been saying for months to anyone who'd listen that the new HBO
Martin Scorcese collaboration "Boardwalk Empire" would be an event
worth waiting for.

Not only is it set in Atlantic City in 1920 at the very beginning
of Prohibition, the good folks in charge of historical accuracy have
peppered the soundtrack with tunes played by Vince Giordano and His
Nighthawk Orchestra, as well as authentic remastered tunes by Sophie
Tucker, Al Jolson and others -- and wait a minute! -- Wurlitzer band
organ music ("Dardenella" and others) as well as orchestrion music
(another Wurlitzer with xylophone) as heard on the recreated boardwalk.
The true '20s buffs won't be able to carp about the art direction or
the music, as none of what I've seen and heard so far is later than 1920.

Plus, there are plenty of old phonographs, telephones and cars to make
the collector of such things salivate. In addition, there's an unbilled
singer doing a pretty good imitation of Eddie Cantor putting-over some
spot-on vaudeville bits that were actually quite funny...and even a guy
tinkling a piano in a movie house accompanying a Fatty Arbuckle flicker!

As "Mad Man" has ignited the '60s craze for retro style and fashion,
I'm predicting that "Boardwalk Empire" is about to do the same for the
'20s.  Wait till "the young folks" who want to be on the cutting edge
of hipness galvanize into action when they "discover" the neat stuff
they've been missing from the era of bootleg hooch!

Good thing I already have my old phones, old music and old piano rolls
-- there just might be an onslaught of fresh, new, eager young buyers
out there willing to take those items that have been languishing in
basements off their owners' hands.

No, the '20s aren't dead, like so MMD'ers have recently lamented.
They've just be reborn, thanks to HBO, Martin Scorcese and "Boardwalk
Empire."

Mark Forer