Drop me off in Harlem

Frank Jacobs' great Strange Maps blog turns up a real treasure this week: "A Night-Club Map of Harlem," drawn ca. 1932 by cartoonist Elmer Simms Campbell. The map hits all the high spots, metaphorically (The Cotton Club, Small's Paradise, The Savoy) and literally (131st and Lenox, where a figure helpfully identifies himself as "th' Reefer man"). The only major omission, a caption says, "is the location of the various speakeasies but since there about 500 of them you won't have much trouble." The thing bristles with helpful information (Tillie's "specializes in fried chicken -- and it's really good!") and bursts with life -- all over the map, figures furtively ask about the day's number, and at 142nd and Lenox, a white-tuxedoed Cab Calloway rises toward the heavens, wailing an ecstatic "Hi-De-Ho." If Harlem was half as jumping in 1932 as Campbell makes it seem, every legend about uptown in its heyday must be true.

• [Anonymous]

  “What’s the number” is a reference to the numbers game – for more, see the blog pages about our new book, “Playing the Numbers: Gambling in Harlem Between the Wars” — http://digitalharlemblog.wordpress.com/playing-the-numbers-the-book/

• [Anonymous]

  This is an odd map — it jumps from 110th street to 131st. For those unfamiliar with the neighborhood, none of the businesses referred to on the map still exist except for the police station on 135th street. Small’s Paradise is now Harlem’s International House of Pancakes.

• [Anonymous]

  Calloway, still rocks.

  Minne the Moocher was a standard song at our college basketball games (along with Mac the Knife and others led by a pretty good singer). The crowd would switch from foul mouthed in the the extreme to singing in unison to old big band hits. And back.

• [therockmachine]

  As cool as I think this is, do you think Chris Ware’s head exploded when he saw this?

• [Giler]

  I think the “What’s the number” question refers to the Numbers or Policy racket that was popular (especially in poorer communities) at the time. The people asking are trying to find out the day’s number to see whether they’ve won that day’s game. See this page for more details.

  No proof of my theory, I hasten to add, although a bit of Googling yielded the line “I felt the rush that comes when a Harlemite whispers, “what’s the number?” and their local barber or newsstand vendor replys by announcing the winning combo they’ve long been seeking!” (source)

• [bbbaldie]

  Thanks for this, BB! I love to grab cool big graphics and drop them in my wallpaper folder, so desktop drapes can cycle through them.

• [Anonymous]

  Anchors away with the Black Rider
  I’ll drink your blood like wine
  I’ll drop you off in Harlem with the Black Rider
  Out where the bullets shine
  And when you’re done
  you cock your gun
  the blood will run
  like ribbons in your hair

• [Anonymous]

  Makes me want to have that map in hand when reading Chester Himes (hardboiled noir in the heart of Harlem.)

• [Anonymous]

  Speaking as a Harlemite — the “what’s the number” reference is unambiguously a reference to the numbers game. Between about 1920 and 1930, it would have been a more common topic of conversation than the weather.

• [Anonymous]

  “Th’ reefer man” could be another reference to a Calloway song–”That Reefer Man,” natch.

• [Anonymous]

  What is the true meaning of the phrase “What’s the number”, mentioned by many people in the shot?

  I originally thought it was something to do with prostitution OR the time.

  • [Ugly Canuck]

    Or the bootlegger’s flat number – thus is the era of alcohol prohibition – but AFAIK, the reefer was legal until 1937, Stateside.

    And although Cab Calloway, mentioned on the map, did play the Cotton Club, and often, Duke Ellington’s was the house band there for many years during the Harlem Renaissance.

    Check this out, from 1929, Duke Ellington’s first movie, “Black and Tan”:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy4CL2L0ono

    That’s the sound of this map, made while the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing – and boy oh boy did they swing!

    Duke’s stuff is so good, I gotta go lie down now for a while – I’m so excited by this music.

    For more about the great Duke Ellington at this time:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington#Early_career

  • [Ugly Canuck]

    Or a phone number…