Word: honkytonks
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...heart of Baltimore's tenderloin is a flashy basement honkytonk called the Oasis. Passers-by are invited to "walk down one flight and save nothing," enter "the worst night club in America," witness "the lousiest shows in the world...
Subjects of the 71 pieces in Inhale & Exhale range from the reminiscences of a (Saroyan) schoolboy to speculative statements on the (Saroyan) universe. But whether the scene is barbershop, vaudeville, honkytonk, back street or California valley, Saroyan's brooding eye sees more in it than would meet an ordinary fact-finding glance. He sits through a custard-pie cinecomedy "but God Al mighty it didn't seem funny to me and I sat in the darkness trying to laugh, but I kept thinking, 'Why are they wasting everything, why are they making all these mistakes...
...vulgarity, I have seen musical comedies on Broadway that are more vulgar than any show I've ever played in." Asked whether she received many mash notes from members of the audience at her shows, the birly-cue actress said. "Of course I do. Every girl in the 'honkytonk' gets lots of them. And you know, it's a funny thing, but a good number of theme come from college fellows. I guess other men must know better. I never answer these notes only in a few exceptional cases, where my curiosity is aroused...
Torch Song. Few playwrights excel Kenyon Nicholson (The Barker, Eva the Fifth) in exploiting honkytonk, backstage or carnival scenes. Few producers can put on a better show of this sort than Arthur Hopkins, who directed and helped write Burlesque. A Hopkins-Nicholson collaboration has now resulted in an extraordinarily valid and impressive play called Torch Song...
...Over the jangling piano of many an old cow-town honkytonk used to hang this notice: "Don't shoot the piano player. He's doing the best...