Healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Well, okay. It sounds good, but you know what it means: eyes shut before the late news, up & at ‘em before dawn, what kind of fun is that? You work hard all day, you deserve to enjoy life and, as in the new book “Up All Night” by Imogen Willetts, when the sun goes in, you want to go out.
What’s happening tonight?
It’s a valid question any night of the week, even if you’re only heading to bed with the TV. But there was a time in nearly everyone’s life, as Willetts says, when “the end of the week [brought] a welcome flurry” of invitations for fun. And that’s been a very good thing.
“Nightlife,” she says, “has been the greatest generator of cultural inventions…” Dances, music, entertainment, even the dance floor was created for it.
“We owe it a lot to the night.”
Nightlife, she says, started in Japan in 1657, when the men of Edo “flooded into Yoshiwara, a flashy pleasure quarter,” making Edo “the world’s first nightlife destination.” It might have been the longest-run, too: Yoshiwara closed “for good” in 1958.
Eighteenth- and nineteenth century Londoners had their fun at Vauxhall’s “Pleasure Gardens,” which were, at one point, based on mere oil-painted backdrops. A place called Globe Hall made New Orleans the birthplace of jazz, thanks to a musician most people have never heard of; folks looking for fun there, says Willetts, often partied all night, worked all day, and didn’t worry about sleep.
Harlem became a hotspot, in part because of the Great Migration and the safety of the streets at night; Chicago embraced the Jazz Age. Las Vegas had its Rat Pack and casinos and a legacy that stretched to Havana, Cuba. New Yorkers enjoyed discos and clubs and gay bars and rages.
Today, says Willetts, we’re “in a slump” but just hold on.
“History tells us that eventually, something new and better” will come along.
So what’s up this weekend? If you had no plans before, well, now you do: reading “Up All Night.”
While it would be a stretch to say that there’s a party on every page here – the ancient history parts are a bit confusing, with a lot to follow – author Imogen Willetts takes readers out of their living rooms and into debauchery, diversion, drama, and dance halls. She shows you how nightlife follows culture while, at the same time, creates it, and you’ll be amused by what our ancestors considered to be fun.
Digging deeper into this book, Willetts’ history of the Twentieth Century is totally captivating, with accounts of celebrity, cash, and flash. Here, the relevance is clear and things become really quite fascinating. You’ll enjoy the gossip, the peeks into different types of venues, and you may have good (or bad) memories.
This is an enjoyable book, both for historians and for anyone who loves a night on the town. If that’s you and staying home is your option this week, “Up All Night” is a wise choice
‘Up All Night: A World History of Nightlife’ by Imogen Willetts c.2026, Grove Atlantic $28. 374 pages.
This story is brought to you by Rosedale Health and Wellness and Dudley’s Place.
