The Big Drag Has Begun to ’

O O O O O OO O OOO OO O O OO O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O OO O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O OO O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O OO O O O O O O O OO O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O v DRA by M EL H EIM ER Illustrations by PEGGY BA CON WH IT TLES EY HOU S E - H M P M CG R A W I L L B x C A N Y IN C . oo O , NEW YOR K L OND ON THE BIG D R A G M ELV IN L Co ri ht 1 b . HE IME R py g , 947 , y i d T hi b ook or a h ht v . of A ll r g s reser e s , p rts t ere , m ay no t b e rep rod uced in an y form with out l p erm issio n of the p u b ish ers . The q ual ity of the materials used in the ma nufac ture i ok i ov d b co i u d o wa ho a of th s b o s g erne y nt n e p st r s rt g es . PU B L IS H ED BY WH ITT L ES EY H OU S E A D IV IS ION OF TH E MCG R A W- H IL L B OOK COMP A NY , INC . P R INTE D IN TH E U N IT ED S TA T ES OF A ME R ICA CONTENTS SCARS ISSE I GOT A G S O Y L N, REAT T R O . T N . Y . L A . THE GREAT EM ANCIPATION THE GIN- M ILL B LU ES CITY SLICKER P OU R LE SP OR T NIGHT LIFE OF THE GOD S H OTH OU SE FLOWER IS EVERYB OD Y HA P P Y? S NIGHT A H YES IGHT LA T , TERN O C SEE V F O GOTT N E N, NE ER R EN Beau tiful L ady with S cars IT IS A i e slow, somehow macabre ser es of vents that begins each morning at a certain unearthly hour in many parts of this land . Roosters waddle obscenely out of the henhouse and scream - their ugly , marrow chilling reveille . Alarm clocks cut out ’ sleepers hearts with hot knives . Cold showers , the rainstorms ’ of the devil, beat men s souls into jelly . Eyes are opened , shoe is laces are tied, coffee drunk and busses are caught . Finan cial pages are read , small talk dribbles across the landscape retchin s of r who like the g a d unk , and men have grappled through the night with the problem of whether to murder their brothers now behave to each other as if they were genu sk inely glad the y was blue and the sun bright . In one form or another , this unholy ritual takes place in downtown Chicago with the damp lake air blowing in like ’ wet a kiss , in Boston s Beacon Hill with the milk horses clat w o 1 tering and skidding on the de y cobblestones , al ng Route winding its gray way through Maryland and in a thousand l other cities , vi lages and allegedly civilized places where men . If ou and women live y get right down to it , it even takes f a New York . o o place in In the far reaches the Bronx, an / countan t inspects his tongue gloomily by the bathroom mir ror . Somewhere in Greenwich Village , a nurse stares at a ’ she strange ceiling , wonders how in God s name got there and tries to figure swiftly how long it will take her to taxi up to 2 The Big tD rag u . P Bellev e for the early trick Over by Sutton lace , a willowy blonde struggles into her jodhpurs and out in the wilderness of b o Queens , an office y listens sleepily to his old man giving s him hell forhaving the car out o late . u — All these things occ r everywhere except in Broadway . “ ” “ ” “ ” I s a . Notice y in Broadway , rather than along or on I s a y it this way because Broadway no longer is just a street , ‘ is l of o s although there sti l a winding path full sh oting gallerie , movie houses , shirt shops , pineapple juice stands and cafe — terias ; Broadway now is a section the whole rococo , garish , hoopla midtown Manhattan area is Broadway , and to say you “ ” of are Broadway could mean that you live in the Waldorf, or write songs in the Brill Building or peddle reefers along t - F . is i ty second Street More than that, Broadway a state of ‘ ' —a rarifie d t s im le arid mind , refined attitude hat may seem P harsh to the outlander but which actually is a complex and t involved thing hat could and will take a book to explain . for ? No But morning Broadway roosters , no alarm clocks , e no cold showers and, especially , no pl asant morning chit ’ chat . Is it five o clock that the first rooster crows in the out ’ ? u lands At five o clock , most of Broadway is in that first ho r i of deep sleep that the wise men tell us s the best. The effects of the las t midn ight benzedrine tablet have worn off and the effects of the first sleeping tablet are begin ning . Paper and cardbo ard and trash lie sprinkled for blocks on end on side l - wa ks and in gutters , like the trail of a gigantic hare and - hounds chase . The movie house marquees have blinked out, —oh l n and the dawn is cold , so cold even hot August ra Ma b e and g y s y a sailor beats his lonely way up the street , A A x u s uncertainly , waveringly . cop yawns . ta i b mps lowly A his over the trolley tracks . drunk shivers and draws legs B eautiful Lady with S ears 3 T closer to his chest in a doorway . his is Broadway asleep fitful , frowning, grinding its teeth in a bad dream ; waiting for - l the next day , waiting for the hundred dol ar parlay, the ’ ’ break at Loew s State , the blonde who s going to come around ’ for the corner of Lindy s ; waiting the big , wonderful surprise of tomorrow . o . as By nine , the utlanders are on hand The street is dead f as old s o all r b and lat champagne , and are its sidest eet tri i — n dr utar es out o e . cold , from the ink too many But the drones are beginning to spill out of the subways and bus terminals and trolleys and train stations . They walk through i e the streets of Broadway l k the shapeless figures that float , r ~ the red and misty , th ough a bad dream . Past Paramount t f movie house hey shuf le , past the cheap little dance halls SO—GIR LS—SO With the signs , past the pigeons spread out i t l ke a dirty deck of cards before the sta ue of Father Duffy , past the big gin mills like the Latin Qu arter and the Zan dru zibar , which are tighter than a m , through the long , hard streets of crosstown all headed for a desk and a typ e or . writer, a cage and an adding machine The Broadwayite sleeps . But by eleven , life along the Big Drag has begun to ’ i . quicken , like an unborn babe k cking at his mother s stomach The bartenders and the waiters wander into their cool, beery rl of places of employment , the very ea 'iest Broadway birds appear on the sidewalks in front of the raffish little hotels in the Forties/and maybe from an upstairs academie de mus i ue q we hear the first , tortured scales of the Manhattan — morning lark a trumpet stumbling over the latest broken of hearted ballad . The streets have emptied themselves the i e m ‘ al en elem nt of com uters , and only in front of the movie 4 The Big D rag s ee k n wan houses do we the Jackson Heights and, Broo ly derers . , eyeing the latest Hollywood masterpieces Now the real Broadwayite begins to pop up along the main as if . stem , up through the sidewalks The dark shirt and light r No tie appears . The pegged trousers and the d aped jacket . ’ hat, natch . The long hair and the thick , Actors Equity side “ ” b e inn in of burns and, since it is the g g the day , the rogue - sport shirt with no tie . The open toed sandal, if it is summer; the brown suede brogue , if it is winter . The deep tan right of — - out the barber shop , and the cigarette ever present , smol — dering , sinister the final touch that makes our man another Humphrey Bogart , as he wishes . P M Somewhere in the neighborhood of . , Broadway makes its first move .

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