The Bowery Hall of Fame (Continued)
CHUCK CONNORS, "THE MAYOR OF CHINATOWN"
Chuck Connors, born George Washington
Connors, had a trait that made him very popular in the press:
a willingness to be quoted saying anything. As a result, Connors
is credited with inventing the phrases, "the real thing,"
"oh, good night," "oh, forget it," and "under the table."
Connors' primary claim to fame is his autobiography Bowery
Life, ghostwritten by reporter and editor Richard K. Fox of
The Police Gazette.
Connors was most likely born in Providence,
RI, although he claimed to be born on Mott Street. As a child
in New York City he worked odd jobs, including a gig as a
clog dancer in the Gaiety Museum. He grew up tormenting the
Chinese by pulling their pigtails, but eventually learned
some Mandarin--earning him his nickname, the Mayor of Chinatown.
As an adult Connors worked as a bouncer
in a variety of dive bars. He married, in a brief stint at
an "upstanding life," but it ended when his wife passed away.
Connors traveled to London to recover, and returned with a
new outfit: bell bottomed trousers, a blue-striped shirt,
a bright silk scarf, a pea coat, and big pearl buttons.
This was known as the Connors look. He
even had a song to describe his outfit:
Pearlies on my shirt front
Pearlies on my coat
Little bitta dicer, stuck up on my nut
If you don't think I'm de real t'ing
Why, tut, tut
Connors also became well known as a tour
guide for celebrities, prominent authors and royalty. Connors'
reputation as a friend of the Chinese made him a convincing
guide to his danger-seeking clientele, who believed him when
he identified innocent passers-by as hatchet men.
Connors also created bogus opium dens,
where the "fiends" paid no attention to the tour groups passing
through. He also capitalized on his fame by throwing galas
for the Chuck Connors Association, a charity benefiting Connors
himself.
THE WRETCHES OF POVERTYVILLE
Another manifestation of the middle-class
fascination with the Bowery was the social reform movement's
horrified condemnation of the physical, social and moral horrors
to be found on this street. The most famous of these was Riis'
How the Other Half Lives, an 1898 photo expose and reform
tract. Another work from the period, Ignatz Leo Nascher's
The Wretches of Povertyville, begins:
'Tis a wretched world, this underworld
of Povertyville, where poverty begets vice, and vice begets
crime, where virtue has its price, and conscience is stilled,
then forgotten.
OLD GRUNGE AND NEW: EXCERPTS FROM
HILLY KRISTAL'S HISTORY OF CBGB
"What is CBGB -- and has been for over
26 years -- was an old derelict bar from the turn of the last
century. It was called "The Palace Bar" because it was right
under The Palace Hotel (some hotel, a real palace!).
"Having a rock club on the Bowery, under
a flop house (believe it or not), does have some advantages.
(1) The rent is (was) reasonable (2) Most of our neighbors
dressed worse than, or more weird than our rock and rollers
(3) The surrounding buildings were mostly industrial and the
people who did live close by didn't seem to care too much
about having a little rock and roll sound seeping into their
lives.
"The Bowery was, to repeat, a drab ugly
and unsavory place. But it was good enough for rock and rollers.
The people who frequented CBGB didn't seem to mind staggering
drunks and stepping over a few bodies."
"Mostly, knives were the weapon of choice.
By the time things improved around here, I had collected over
three dozen knives and other assorted weapons. The muggers-or
"jack rollers"-as they were called on the Bowery, were not
as dangerous to ordinary people as they seemed. They were
used to picking on the old men or others who were completely
out of it like three sheets to the wind."
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