TUNE IN YESTERDAY

by T. Ernesto Bethancourt ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 1978

When two semi-cool Long Island dudes go time-tripping via a cemetery Gate that is guarded by a most unghostlike 18th-century freedman, they turn up not in a mythic battle but smack in the New York jazz scene of 1942. Jazz lovers Ritchie (white) and his buddy Mattie (black) have chosen the date in order to catch Glenn Miller at the Paramount, and they get more than they came for: two girls from Brooklyn for mixed doubles in the balcony (though not all their contacts are that racially cool), Louis Armstrong at the Apollo, and all of jumpin' 52nd Street. What they hadn't counted on were the German saboteurs they overhear plotting in an upstairs after-hours joint. The boys follow them, are caught, questioned, slapped around, but escape; their adventure ends with a wild chase in a stolen police car and, finally, their only out: another step through the Past Gate, where we leave them bravely facing life in 1912. With even the Bermuda Triangle dragged in as the site of a possible Future Gate, it's a lowbrow time fantasy for sure; but Bethancourt knows the scene, and kids who'd never give Old Ones or Other Places a tumble will find The Street in its heyday an all reet place to visit.

Pub Date: March 15, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holiday House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1978

Categories: FICTION