IW].Thb Sunday Bee
VOL. r>2—NO. 46. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING. APRIL 29, 1923. FIVE CENTS
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Muxfleld t'arrisli's painting, “Old King Cole,” which
hung behind the Hotel Knickerbocker bar in pre
Volslead flats and formed one of Itroadway's
most admired wonders
Cabaret performer*
.Murray's Roman
Gardens'* restau
rant, whose
i doors may be
& locked b)
■ prohibition
3 t.ffhials
■ \t ilie left.
■ * night view
f of {{roadway
in days wlten
it was do crime
for tlie name of a
certain well known
beverage to sparkle
anifing the bright lights.
Old King Ode was a merrv old sow.
And a merry old soul was he:
He called lor his pipe and he railed for his bowl.
And he railed for his fiddlers three
But, when the jovial, ruddj faced old monarch
found the best he could get in that bowl was
water or unfermented grape juice he promptly
stepped down from hi* throne and vanished inlo
obscurity, along with other familiar figures of
the da> s when Broadway was one of the world s
favorite playgrounds
lb-low, the famoU'
Waldorf - Astoria
cafe before it was
turned into a soda
water and lunch
room. Over this
massive bar is be
lieved to have
flow ed enough a I
rohnl to float the
I'nited States
navy.
Evan Eonlaine, whom
prohibition lias left
without a cabaret to
dance in.
Remember me r. Herald Sf)m*rc;
Ted all ihe boys on l-'irty-second street
That I will aoon be there.
ivi sang tii urge m, Cihan In what
many regretful Americans cannot
help regarding as the “good, old
days." Hut ti,« Broadway of which
Mr. Cohan and hundreds of other
song writers hare so enthusiastic
ally sung—the gay white way, that
was known from one end of the
world to the other as the place of
unending joyous light and laughter
—will soon be a thing of the past
Already it is nothing but a dull,
dr ib shadow of its former brilliant
self. And with every day seeing
more of its bright lights dimmed,
more of its joyous jazz stilled, more
of its famous palaces of pleasure
eios.np tneir tours, tne
time when it will be mere
ly a prosaically busy street
■—differing only in
size from the
Broadways of doz
ens of other titles
—ffinnot he far dv.s
tarit.
It s goodby for
ever to New York's
gay white way, the
thoroughfare that
for more than a
score of years has
vied with the Itoul
(cards of Baris'ns
the place where
anybody with the
price could And at
any hour of night
or day any form of
amusement that
the pleasure seek
ing mind of man
ever devised.
The street that
never knew when
morning came has
been unable to sur
vive the pall which na
tional prohibition has
cast ujK»n it. Its laughter is
l»«*ing choked, its radiance
< 1ou<1*h1. its dan* ing feet par
aJyced.
impartial observers r-gard the
tr.ip-fortnaiion of Broadway front
nn International playground into a
humdrum street of stores and thea
ter*. dime museums and cafeterias
1,* one of the most significant re
sults tiie passage of the 18th anu nd
tuent' has yet produced.
on tiie memorable night before
the Volstead act went into effect an
elderly man stood ir. the cafe of the
Hotel Knickerbocker, facing Max
Held Parrish * glowing canvas of Old
King Cole that stretched the whole
length of the rich mahogany bar
and formed one of the gay white
way s most admired wonders.
He was a mail whose name al
most every reader of tills page
would recognize—a tnan who lias
passed the 71 lost of a lifetime on
Broadway or within easy reach of
it and who knows the life there as
well as he knows his own light
h mil
As lie lifted his cocktail glass to
Ins III* lie turned to the young
fiicnd who was joining him in a
drink and said:
•Keep your eyes and oars open
tonight. lou "ill never know
Broadway again as it is now."
The young man look up Incredu
lously For .1 second he was almost
tempted to think the cocktail had
gone to tils friend's head. It
seemed so nonsensical to think that
anything oven ;» constitutional
amendment, could dull the bright
lies- ,if thi Hay White Way or clull
i!:t hikjli spirits
,\ii,i in* :u th.it moment and in
III, |d .. . could have thought dif
fi u ntil '
It w is the height of the coektall
hour snd th - ale w is filled with a
well-dres**-!. cheerful throng Tie
hind the bar deft, w hite aproned
men worked as if they faced an
eternity of concocting delectable
drinks.
From the grillroom where youth
and beauty were already beginning
to gather for their nightly revels,
came the strain* of a gypsy or
chestra's dreamy wait* music. And
in the street outside the tide of
light hearted humanity was swell
ing toward the flood it would not
reach until long after the clov ks
had tolled midnight.
Hut the young man who stood
at the Knickerbocker Kir that eve
ning has lived to see how true hi*
elderly friend's prophecy was Be
fore another 24 hours had passed
he could see the beginnings of the
great change that was coining over
the Gay White Way. and each day
since then has shown him a Broad
way less and less like the Broad
way of other days.
At the cocktail hour the next
afternoon the Run kt-rbockcr cafe
was a strangely forlorn place—
silent and deserted save for a little
group of workmen busy taking
down the Parrish masterpiece to
carry away to the country, estate
of the hotel's owner.
The scores of other hotels which
crowd llroudway and the adjoining
streets had the same story to tell.
Th« luxurious cafi - and Kirs » line
thousands of Nep Yorkei s and visi
tors to the cltyNhad been in the
ha hit of gathering at tl - hour every
day to lay their plans for the eve
nin » pleasure were empty alike
of bartenders, waiters and custom
ers.
In the caf- of the Waldorf Astoria
ver whose massive btir has pn.it*
ably flowed enough alcohol to float
the L'nlted States navy, carpenter
were already busy with prepa ration*
for the installation of the soda four.
taJn and lunch counters which pro
hibition demanded.
Only in the cabarets and the lob
•ter palaces and the homes of }a»*
did life malte any pretense of going
on as before The proprietors of
these places made a brave show of
trying to m.ake themselves believe
prohibition could never transform
It road way. They even spent many
thousands of dollars on new fur
nishings and decorations and more
expensive troupes of professional
dancers.
But it was no use. It fonts there
is no surviving the suffocating in
fluence prohibition has thrown over
the life of the once Gay White Way.
The famous Rector's. Churchill's
and the Hotel Ciaridge. a’.l land
marks of the Times Square district,
were the first to give up the losing
struggle. Then came the closing
of Heisenwober's Paradise cafe
under an Injunction secured by the
prohibition enforcement officials.
Shanley's was among the nest to
go—one of the oldest of the lobster
palaces and one that for years had
tieen filled to capacity every night
from twilight to dawn.
And now comes the announcement
from the proliibittbn enforcement
officials that they are preparing to
close by injunction the follow rg of
the few remaining cabarets and jam*
palaces on Broadway:
Murray’s Roman Gardens the
fashionable Kittle Club, where Kvaa
Burrows Fontaine has Iveen one id
the entertainers; the Kt : kerbocker
grill, the Ringside and the Club
Royale, Gjpsylnud and the Three
Kings restMuratit.
The closing of these well known
ar.d long flourishing places is sure
to be followed by that of scores
of others loss prominent When
this is accomplished the thousands
who crowd Broadway's theaters
every night w.U have r.o place to
go after the performance is over
except to sedate hotel dinlrg rooms
anJ the cafeterias ar.d the one-arm
lunch rooms.
With no jam or cabarets to dis
tract their attenti >n from the cares
of life, they will be able to sr.atch
a bite to eat and got home to bed
in short order. By midnight Broad
way. which once used to be lust
beginning to wake up at that hour,
should be almost as Quiet and de
serted as ary email town a. morn
•treet.
A your.g woman from the
«.<*t who has always beta
a loyal supporter of proh.
bition recently made her
first visit to New York and
expressed surprise at find
ing Broadway not half the
lively place she had expec -
ed It to be. Her bests ex
plained that it was due to
the pall cast by prohibitin'
"Oh. weli said «he. "the
' people still have thc-se wron
• .
t. " LJ.e *
are that they tr.U
rot have even
th^se f -r v eryl 'fjr
The value of
or. electric
~ . g n deper Is
fjD tfce number
f people w •»
see i* and 'hj
^.ze «*f t he
night cn.'Wd'<
m
j - It1
gr wing lt>*
; Hid less
When t b e
cabarets ar.J
jazz patao-s
were in fu!"
Mast for 11 ' 4
12 hours ever',
rusht a sj: _
was sure *»1
being seer* t *
thousands or pa:rs o*
eyes almas: as long
darkness prevailed Bj
with the cabarets elos- .
ui. i the theater crexros gotr.g r.
;crx*und midnight, one car* read,
v-e how greatly the polling pew
of the signs Is reduced and h • '
many advertisers mar hesitate to
hear the heavy expense of ma.n
ta.mr.fr them
Perhaps this would b~ a f.iur *
f i!e to the tragedy of New Yor e *
Bnadway—to have all the spark
1:r.g electric s~gns that once ma i
.* i re a. fairyland ' Me iy c
to sh.ne and leave the street t--»
•ta: kr.es* and the regretful m-r •
;es of those wh can recall w
tbe Gay White Way was like wh
it sparkled with w ne bubble* d .
men.is ar.i merry eyes ar ! n* -■
wh nines*' la»veht**r dam -
feet
Karr*st supporter* pr> tut:.. •
n»:ut to the transformation
midway as evidence that No
Y-*rk is being dried up—that t e
law is being enforced »n the of
* ere tt wis_ expected to e
the greatest difficult**
But men ar.1 women why fre
quent Broadway bate a d.ffcr* t
story to teU They say the floods
of w res. liquors ar.d other alcofc
beverages are almost as abur.JU t
as before and that no one with tbs
pr.oe need go long thirsty
What r.'.akea Broadway <• - m dry.
they explain, is that the drinking,
instead of being done as formerly
m the publicity of brilliantly hgh 1
cafes restaurants ar.d csharv.s. -
n -w done in the secrecy of ha- *
irent "blind tigers " hotel w *
and saloons masquer* i n« as clubs
Whether Broadway is dry or w
it is certainly no burger the Clay
White Way of other day's T’-\ ,
lur* that made it the - >y » » -
tng place for the worn s
eigcr pleasure seeket s act-ms to ■»
g >r. ■ forever.