New Novel Puts Bronx Belmont Neighborhood in the Spotlight Once More
With Chaz Palminteri’s A Bronx Tale taking the spotlight again in the form of a new musical appearing Off Broadway, ENJ Carter seeks to bring a new perspective to the same Belmont neighborhood with his just published novel Doo-Wop Dreams.
“Doo-Wop Dreams is a thriller,” says ENJ. “Possibly the first to use Doo-Wop singers in this kind of genre, the story is about four teen-age gang members who turn to their love of harmonizing together to escape their mob-influenced environment. However, unforeseen events force them to make choices that almost destroy their lives.”
ENJ Carter (PRNewsFoto/ENJ Carter)
ENJ Carter, who grew up to create a famous theme line for the US Army, ‘Be All You Can Be,’ witnessed a number of lives destroyed in his old neighborhood, as colorful as it was.
“The Belmont section of the Bronx was a tough place,” he says. “The pressure to be nobody was endemic. They didn’t say ‘good morning’ lots of times. It was more like, ‘What number came in?’ My first paying job was being a chickie (watching out for the police) for a crap game. I was seven.
“I still remember the first time I saw Carlo Mastrangelo playing drums in the J.H.S. 118 band, and Fred Milano, standing in the schoolyard, possibly the only person skinner than me. Who would have thought they would become world famous as The Belmonts, and deservedly so.
“There was one doo-wop group who used to rehearse on the rooftop of my tenement building right above my 4th floor window.
“They had screwed up with the law, but the detective at the 48thPrecinct, instead of sending them to jail, sent them to The Apollo to compete on amateur night. They came in second, which was amazing then for a white group.” ENJ Carter fills Doo Wop Dreams with similar unlikely but true tales.
Doo-Wop Dreams is on sale at Amazon as a paperback or e-book.
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