Florian Freitag - Popular New Orleans: The Crescent City in Periodicals, Theme Parks, and Opera, 1875–2015

New Orleans is unique which is precisely why there are many Crescent Cities all over the world: for almost 150 years, writers, artists, cultural brokers, and entrepreneurs have drawn on and simultaneously contributed to New Orleanss fame and popularity by recreating the city in popular media from literature, photographs, and plays to movies, television shows, and theme parks. Addressing students and fans of the city and of popular culture, Popular New Orleans examines three pivotal moments in the history of New Orleans in popular media: the creation of the popular image of the Crescent City during the late nineteenth century in the local-color writings published in Scribners Monthly/Century Magazine; the translation of this image into three-dimensional immersive spaces during the twentieth century in Disneys theme parks and resorts in California, Florida, and Japan; and the radical transformation of this image following Hurricane Katrina in public performances such as Mardi Gras parades and operas. Covering visions of the Crescent City from George W. Cables Old Creole Days stories (18731876) to Disneylands New Orleans Square (1966) to Rosalyn Storys opera Wading Home (2015), Popular New Orleans traces how popular images of New Orleans have changed from exceptional to exemplary.

Florian Freitag is Professor of American Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.

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95 Popular New Orleans

The Crescent City in Periodicals, Theme Parks, and Opera, 18752015

Florian Freitag

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First published 2021

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Freitag, Florian, author.

Title: Popular New Orleans : the Crescent City in periodicals,

theme parks, and opera, 18752015 / Florian Freitag.

Other titles: Routledge studies in cultural history; 95.

Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge

studies in cultural history; 95 | Includes bibliographical references

and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020026041 (print) | LCCN 2020026042 (ebook) |

ISBN 9780367437718 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003005650 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781000196917 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781000196931 (mobi) |

ISBN 9781000196955 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: New Orleans (La.)In popular culture.

Classification: LCC F379.N54 F74 2021 (print) | LCC F379.N54

(ebook) | DDC 976.3/35dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020026041

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020026042

ISBN: 978-0-367-43771-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-00565-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

In Why New Orleans Matters, Tom Piazza writes: Long before I visited New Orleans I would visit it in my imagination. One of the first times I made that imaginary journey was while reading Kate Chopins short stories about the city, sometime in 2010, when I was preparing for my Ph.D. oral examination at the University of Konstanz. A few years later, I went to Disneyland in California in order to conduct field research for a project on theme parks, and while wandering through the streets of New Orleans Square, I again imagined myself visiting the Crescent City. In 2015, finally, I traveled to Dallas in order to attend the premiere of an opera about New Orleans, which once more imaginatively transported me to the city. By that time, I already knew that my next book would be about New Orleans, but what I did not know was that I had already, and unintentionally, retraced the different steps in the history of New Orleans in popular culture that I would eventually examine in this book. Also, I still had to actually visit the place I had been thinking and dreaming about for so long. Research for Popular New Orleans would eventually take me to New Orleans, but also to many other places that I had never thought I would see: New York City, Orlando, even Tokyo. In all of these places, I have met people who, in one way or another, share my fascination with the Crescent City and who, more importantly, have become wonderful colleagues and friends: Rosalyn Story, Mary Alice Rich, Barbara Hill Moore, Mark Noonan, and Bryan Rice. Thanks are also due to the German Research Foundation, the Volkswagen Foundation, and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, which supported my travels with their generous grants. Traveling was important, and fun as well, but most of the reading and writing that has gone into this book was done at home, in the small town of Lingenfeld in southern Germany. There, too, some extraordinary friends and colleagues have provided advice, support, and friendship: Filippo Carl-Uhink, of course, but also the Bauer family and particularly the group of senior citizens who gather at the local Grtz bakery and caf. Jutta Ernst has guided me through the process of writing this book with patience, indulgence, and resilience; and Ines Fricke-Groenewold, Marisa Mhlck, and Cornelius Beckers were invaluable proofreaders. Finally, my parents have always kept me going by telling me how much they look forward to reading Popular New Orleans, although they do not speak a word of English.

Yet another place that has proven indispensable for Popular New Orleans is Hamburg. Hamburg has nothing to do with New Orleans (as far as I know), but it is the place where Alex lives, and how could I have ever written this book without him?