1927 Barflies and Cocktails

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You' ve heard so much about the Birth of a Nation, the Birth of the Blues, and the birth of quintuplets to a prom– inent Slovak society woman of Pottsville P . A ., that it's about time to recall the Birth of the Barflies. Up to date, this last and greatest birth has not been fittingly commemorated. No Tinpan Alley-ire was around to set it ro music· ; no David Rex Stroheim to say it with. celluloid ; nor was there present even such a humble benefactor of society as a journalistic obstetrician. So it is up to me, in my capac– ity of amanuensis to Harry, 0. 0 . Mcintyre, and Wynn, to belatedly chronicle the big event. And not having arrived before the Committee until seventeen other candidates had been passed for membership, I can orily speak as an ear witness. Back in the autumn of 19 24 , the sympathetic 0. 0 . Mcintyre wrote a mournful article for the Cosmopolitan anent the "Beachcombers of the Boulevards", wherein be sorrow– fully referred to the "barflies" of this, our fair city. There– upon the irrepressible Jed Kiley, then Kleagle of a Kabaret, advertised in the public prints that the proceeds of Christ– mas Eve at his Montmartre joint would be donated to the needy barflies of Harry's, Frank's, Ritz Bar, and other charitable institutions. Harry McElbone' s prompt response was a follow-up advt. in which be called for an organization meeting of barflies at bis own urban retreat. (You under– stand, of course, that both Messrs. Kiley and McElbone, being genuine philanthropists, it must not be construed that the

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