PRESS RELEASE FRONTLINE CHRONICLES THE IMPACT OF THE RECESSION ON ONE UNLIKELY AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOOD FRONTLINE Presents Close to Home Tuesday, October 27, 2009, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS www.pbs.org/frontline/closetohome As the U.S. unemployment rate hits a 25-year high and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits a six-year low, award-winning FRONTLINE producer Ofra Bikel (The Hugo Chavez Show, When Kids Get Life) chronicles the recession's impact on one unlikely American neighborhood -- New York's Upper East Side. In Close to Home, airing Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), Bikel decides to set up her cameras in the hair salon she's patronized for 20 years. It's an intimate space where she has come to know well the surprisingly diverse clientele -- from athletic trainers and housewives to high-end bankers, actors and opera singers. Despite expectations that this neighborhood is a secure bastion of privilege, these days, when clients get in the chair, they offer a window into the country in recession: Some are broke, others don't have a plan, and they're all looking to commiserate. Deborah Boles, the owner and sole hairdresser at Deborah Hair Designs, started the business in 1985. "I wanted a place where people can go and they can feel comfortable," she says. "They know they belong here." But it's all on the line with the current downturn -- clients come less often; some skip coloring or skip the trim -- and as Deborah watches neighboring businesses go under, she wonders how long she can survive. Barbara, Deborah's sister, helps out at the salon, but she has been struggling with her own economic crisis. After buying a home in Florida at the height of the market, she now has a subprime mortgage that she can no longer afford. Unable to pay the exorbitant interest, she has had to take in four tenants, each with their own stories of foreclosure and unemployment. Close to Home is a FRONTLINE co-production with Ofra Bikel Productions. The writer, producer and director is Ofra Bikel. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of the WGBH Educational Foundation. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David Fanning. Watch preview: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/closetohome/
"Dow Jones Industrial average hits a 6 year low"????? Dow's up 60% from it's low. How old is this "Frontline special"? ???????????????????? Nice journalism. LOL.
1) She started right at the beginning of a huge bull market. 2) Confirmation of the obvious......during bull markets, people have money to be well-preened with. During bear markets, people become scruffy.
I purposely have been delaying my next haircut, I like to hear my barber bitch. Oth, I heard him tell the barber in the next chair to not cut customers hair too short so they need to come back more often. It is a economic war zone in there.
buylo, i just started out in business (entered family empire) in 1990 and witnessed all that you post in real time. strip malls empty; foreclosures (our company made a killing working for banks to get houses "sell ready"); and zero consumer buying. i can't tell you the amount of businesses i saw go under. certainly with your "time" you could get articles written in 1990-1993 range that will be indistinguishable from those sky is falling ones written today. since we are living through this; one could feel like it is "the worst ever"; but i am sure history will show that it was not as bad as it was thought to be. once we get through this and boom for 12 yrs or so; then bust, i'm sure you will speak as i do now. i just hope you are not so far gone mentally as you seem to be so as not to recover from your paranoia and become a productive healthy member of society.