The Better John Guide: Where to Go in New York

by Jonathan Routh, Serena Stewart (With), John Glashan (Illustrator)

Where to go in New York

126 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Jonathan Routh, born John Reginald Surdeval Routh, (1927–2008) co-starred in the British version of the television show Candid Camera (1960–67) and co-starred with Germaine Greer and Kenny Everett in a later attempt at a revival, Nice Time (1968). He published a number of humorous books, and also painted for many years.

Reviews

[Hal Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously this book is, at this late date, useless for its putative purpose, viz. to give the reader an unbiased guide to the quality of various NYC restrooms. As a snapshot of 1966 New York, though, this Better John Guide is indispensable to the cultural anthropologist. Not a lot of surviving documentation tells you how common razor blades were in high-end restrooms, how ubiquitous the signs forbidding hair combing (!). There is no other living record of the once-common graffiti tag: “Abramowitz is a Neo-Classicist.” Also, John Glashan does boffo cartoon illustrations.

Companion volumes cover Paris and London.