Manhattan Gothic

“…amongst their own kind, children are the world’s most thoroughgoing skeptics.”

But not eleven-year-old Jeff Greenaway. When his parents suddenly come into possession of hard-to-get tickets to the smash musical How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, but can’t find a babysitter, Jeff ventures out in the Manhattan night to meet his hero, Count Zackuloff, the mad, moldy host of Channel Five’s Midnight Mystery Theater, a horror movie program. Amazingly, the Count takes Jeff along on a publicity stunt in costume to the Horn and Hardart Automat, drawing crowds of curious fans. Next, the Count takes Jeff to a double feature horror matinee at the 58th Street Translux. An unusual friendship develops between the boy and the ghoul. Through it all, Jeff nutures dreams of becoming the Count’s on-screen sidekick. But the Count has his own dreams—and they do not include a lifetime of introducing old horror movies on a third-rate New York TV station.
James Howard Kunstler’s charming tale takes us back to an age when New York City was a natural playground for a little boy and his own, personal vampire hero—a time when it seemed possible that all of our dreams could come true.