Invitation to my mother's 10th birthday party, 1938 |
My mother has forgotten many
things but not the luncheonette that her parents owned at 23 East 20th Street
in Manhattan. These days the
neighborhood is very fashionable, known as the Flatiron District. During the 1930s,
however, it was largely given over to manufacturing.
Of course, as goes the urban
cycle, the area was home to affluent New Yorkers through much of the nineteenth century. In 1858, Theodore Roosevelt came
into the world in a brownstone at 28 East 20th Street. An American flag waves out front, as it did in
the thirties.
At the little restaurant, one
could have breakfast and lunch Monday through Saturday. The customers were largely factory workers from
the cast-iron buildings that clustered around Broadway, which cuts across a
large slice of Manhattan from west to east.
The Flatiron Building rises
where Broadway crosses Fifth. In its shadow, the blocks are short with little
sunlight.
My mother recalls a
well-muscled guy who looked just like Tyrone Power. He worked in a carpet
factory around the corner. On Saturdays when he came in for lunch, she sat at
the counter, sneaking glances.
In addition to Tyrone Power,
there was Frank, the sandwich man. In 1939, Frank went west to work for Boeing,
where he would earn a lot more money.
My grandmother handled the
cash register and my grandfather was the cook.
One day, a man in a fancy
suit entered the restaurant. He held his hand in his pocket, as if he had a
gun. He said to my grandmother, “How many guys you got working here?”
He wanted to know if there
was organizing to be done.
He went into the kitchen and
spoke with Frank and the dishwasher. After a few minutes, he left the store.
In 1932, at the bottom of the
Depression, a customer asked if he could get a meal in exchange for drawing a
picture of my mother.
The luncheonette also was the
scene of her tenth birthday party. That is her last memory of East 20th
Street. One year later, her father sold the restaurant to his cousin Murray and
bought a luncheonette further uptown, on Broadway between 39th and
40th Streets, close to Times Square.
From there it was a short
walk to the Capitol Theater where The
Wizard of Oz opened in 1939. She remembers prancing up Broadway with her
mother and a friend, full of eager anticipation.
Before the show, Judy Garland
came on stage. Everyone was
shocked. The actress had become chubby and
wore her hair in short blonde ringlets, but she sang beautifully.
In a way, the luncheonette was
a snapshot of the 1930s. A square meal, a job, the advancing war, and the lift
that came from finding a movie star, real or imagined, in your midst.
https://www.throughthehourglass.com/2017/05/luncheonette.html
Serious treasures, these memories. I love love love the artist resourceful enough to figure out how to eat in the depression.
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