HUNGRY GERALD

New York, for many decades, was much like Paris.  Life was lived in cafes and restaurants.  Before television became the dominant entertainment and news force,  New York gossip columnists (and, of course, Louella and Hedda in Hollywood), were important movers and shakers.  One of the class acts among the columnists was Leonard Lyons whose column, “The Lyons Den,” appeared in the New York Post and syndicated in 200 other newspapers  (today’s New York Post is just one big inferior gossip column leavened with right wing blather).  Lyons was literate, a CCNY graduate (like HG) and a lawyer.  His bitter competitor Walter Winchell left school after the sixth grade. There was plenty of show biz in “The Lyons Den” but also lots of good anecdotes about novelists, artists, political figures, etc. Hemingway was a particular LL favorite.  The column ran from 1934 to 1974.  LL called it quits on its 40th anniversary.  He died in 1976, age 70.  LL lunched daily in the Oak Room of the venerable Algonquin Hotel on W.44th.  His inevitable companion (and primary news and gossip source) was the celebrity lawyer (and author) Louis Nizer. Nizer represented (among many others) such marquee names as Johnny Carson, Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, Salvador Dali and the basketball star Dr. J—Julius Erving.  LL and Nizer were two short, intense men and their voices rarely rose above a whisper. They did not want to be overheard even though HG, an Oak Room regular, did his eavesdropping  best. HG always had a good table because he exercised with the hotel owner, Ben Bodne, at the same bleak health club.  (Before HG continues, Gentle Reader, a warning is issued not to confuse the  Algonquin Oak Room with the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room and Bar, wondrous places that went downhill in the 70’s).  The Algonquin had a literary reputation  (the  famed Round Table–George S. Kaufman, Dorothy Parker, Alexander  Woolcott,etc.–met  there in the 1920’s).  Always lots of writers lunching with their editors in the Oak Room plus people from the New Yorker Magazine (located down the block). What did HG eat?  Four things were splendid: Roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding; seafood salad with lots of shrimp, lobster, scallops and crab meat–all first rate; the HG favorite of grilled sweetbreads atop Virginia ham, accompanied by perfect French fries and topped with sauce bearnaise. Dessert was a coconut snowball—vanilla ice cream rolled in freshly grated coconut and doused with bittersweet chocolate hot fudge. HG hasn’t visited the Algonquin in 25 years but in its day it  mimicked an aristocratic English country house with shabby carpets, gentle lighting,super-annuated waitpersons, comfortable chairs and lots of eccentricities.   For example: a mangy house cat was always pampered and had the run of the place. If a novelist presented an autographed copy of his (or her) just published novel, the novelist got a free room. A gracious bow to literature.

§ 5 Responses to Another Columnist. Another Restaurant."

• Jeremy says:

  January 8, 2011 at 5:51 pm

  Wonderful post. However, I disagree about something. Life in New York is still lived in restaurants and cafes. People feel comfortable in restaurants here and many people do not cook at home. From the fanciest spots to the most basic coffee shops, people treat their dining out experience as an extension of their personal life. It might seem like something basic, but in other US cities people treat going to a restaurant as something seperate from their day-to-day experience.

  Reply
  • Gerry says:

    January 8, 2011 at 6:10 pm

    You are right on all counts…..but, in the old days restaurants (and the people who frequented them made news). You couldn’t cover Hollywood without covering the Stork Club ( Humphrey Bogart had some celebrated punch-ups) and you couldn’t cover the Broadway theater without covering Sardi’s.

    Reply
• Rachele Hammers says:

  January 13, 2011 at 11:17 am

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  Reply
• Tommy Guss says:

  January 26, 2011 at 4:16 am

  This website is very well written, keep up the good work!

  Reply
  • Gerry says:

    January 27, 2011 at 10:34 am

    Thanks. I’ll do my best.

    Reply