Meet Mazie Phillips: big-hearted and bawdy she's the truth-telling proprietress of The Venice
the famed New York City movie theater. It's the Jazz Age with romance and booze aplenty--even
when Prohibition kicks in--and Mazie never turns down a night on the town. But her high spirits
mask a childhood rooted in poverty and her diary always close at hand holds her dearest
secrets. When the Great Depression hits Mazie's life is on the brink of transformation.
Addicts and bums roam the Bowery homelessness is rampant. If Mazie won't help them then who?
When she opens the doors of The Venice to those in need this ticket taking fun-time girl
becomes the beating heart of the Lower East Side and in defining one neighborhood helps define
the city. Then more than ninety years after Mazie began her diary it's discovered by a
documentarian in search of a good story. Who was Mazie Phillips really? A chorus of voices
from the past and present fill in some of the mysterious blanks of her adventurous life.
Inspired by the life of a woman who was profiled in Joseph Mitchell's classic Up in the Old
Hotel SAINT MAZIE is infused with Jami Attenberg's signature wit bravery and heart. Mazie's
rise to sainthood--and her irrepressible spirit--is unforgettable.
