Harlem (New York, N.Y.); New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs
The places caught on, and even after the shortages eased the once lowly
gin mills continued to draw the carriage trade, considered by everyone
in "the know" as the last word in "steakeasies."
Among them are the Palm, Second Avenue and 45th Street, known to
initiates as Ganzi's; the Montreal, 45th and Second, known as
Colombo's; Pietro's, at 45th and Third, once called The Key Club,
because during Prohibition you used your own private key instead of a
card; the Pen and Pencil and the Scribes in 45th between Second and
Third; and Danny's, the Press Box, and Chris Cella's, between Third and
Lexington.
A recent development on the East Side is the looming prominence of
Lexington Avenue as a "Main Street." Lexington's rise can be traced in
an inverse ratio to Broadway's decline, as the better class of visitor
began to select East Side hotels and do his dining and dancing nearby.
Before the war--say a dozen years ago--Broadway drew a different type
of tourist. Then he was a buyer, with fire in his eyes, desire in his
blood, and all tabs paid for by the manufacturers and salesmen who were
out to give him a better time than did their competitors.
Other visitors were well-heeled Rotarians from the interior and their
ladies, here to see the sights and shows and do some shopping.
These people of ample means were Broadway's leaven, keeping it gay and
prosperous.
Both large groups dried up during the war. Their places were taken by
millions of gaping and gawking servicemen from everywhere, here on
leave or passing through, and other millions of defense-plant workers
from nearby Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut communities, their
pockets bulging with unaccustomed wealth, for the spending of which
they had no talent.
It takes many years of practice and some taste and intelligence to make
a buck do the things New York can make it do.
These barbarians inundated Broadway. They drove the last remaining
residents off the White Way, and with them went much of the flavor of
the Stem.
To cater to this horde, which preferred to ankle aimlessly up and down
Broadway, eat at hot dog stands and see a movie as the high point of
the evening, came shooting galleries, flea circuses, "playlands,"
photo galleries, souvenir stores with pennants and fancy pillows
embroidered with mushy sentiments, grind movies, "sex" bookstores,
ham-and-eggeries, portrait artists who paint your picture while you
wait, and stands that sell "cocoanut champagne" at a dime the drink.
When the war ended, the "cheap-John" gravy train was over, too. But
the better class of visitors never returned to Broadway, which is now
forced to get along on a mere dribble of pikers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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