Judge, 1927-06-11 · page 13 of 36
Judge — June 11, 1927 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "High Hat" - Greenwich Village Satire This Judge magazine column mocks Greenwich Village's pretensions to bohemian authenticity while simultaneously promoting its nightlife venues. The author ("Mac") claims to expose the "real" Village—presenting it as a cheap entertainment district where working-class people (shipping clerks, stenographers, brokers) escape Park Avenue's constraints. The satire targets **poseurs capitalizing on bohemian atmosphere** while listing actual establishments: the Brevoort, Pirate's Den, Blue Horse, and Barney Gallant's. A humorous sidebar features Don Dickerman's stunt: a penny-farthing bicycle (large front wheel, tiny back wheel) he rents for challenges on dance floors—satirizing the Village's gimmicky attractions. The concluding critique suggests Greenwich Village needs legitimate development ("turn Washington Square into a midway") rather than unadvertised, shabby establishments. The piece ultimately mocks both the neighborhood's false bohemianism and middle-class tourists seeking cheap thrills nearby.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE os AIG For no reason at all, “Mac’’ and I decided to cover, or rather un- cover, the Village this week .. . by the village, I mean Greenwich Village, or the Shoe Clerk’s Para- dise .. here in the southern part of this here now great metropolis you will find true Bohemia! . . . here you will see the shipping clérk and his stenographic mamma letting go in wild abandon, here you will find the n: ty broker and his paramour far from the maddening throngs of Park Avenue and here you will find the real Greenwich Villager capital- izing on his atmosphere, and sell- ing the shipping clerk and the broker big hunks of it at so much a matter of cold fact, son for the present popularity of the Village is be- cause it is a cheap place to spend the evening. ... —f Nevertheless, there are some darn good places down there. .. . The Brevoort, for instance, and ette, and the County Pirate’s Den, and the Blue Horse, and Barney Gallant’s, and . . . we took in sixteen places in six hours and an hour of that was spent at the County Fair! Oe oa Don Dickerman’s got a stunt down there th a peach... he’s got an old-fashioned bicycle, one of those things with a wheel about six feet high and a little bit of a wheel in the back, and the saddle’s up on top of the big wheel (sounds like a negro spiritual), 2: and he offers one twenty bucks, or some- thing like that, AT lel Ov Ge SuDGE JAP SrART- ABNE_rOu BE Him WE SeQnr? LATER II, YC~ i who can ride it around the dance floor . . . he could offer a million and still be safe! o. I tried the darned thing about fifty times and couldn’t go ten feet without going on my neck! oT neaking suspicion kicked it out from just as I'd get started! d like to see the Prince try that baby!... There’s one awfully nice thing about the Blue Horse . . . but I won’t mention her name! .. . then there’s the Pirate’s Den, but after some of the pirate’s dens I’ve been in uptown, this one is a charitable institution! . . . the waiters down there dress as pirates—that’s more than they do uptown! .. . and there’s — the Greenwich Village Inn—an awful dump . and Barney with a f an orche: Sam S ‘i which is so crowded you keep slipping out the windows. . . . In fact, you could spend a whole week of evenings in the Village and still miss quite a few places . . . yes, you'd miss a lot of good places because you wouldn't know where they were y and they are the kind of at a not advertised! reenwich Village needs the Coney Island of Manhattan is to turn Washington Square into a midway ! hye Qe comicbooks.com