1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

Old Waldorf Bar Days but when one of those who shared that cellar had pro– grammed a party, Taylor had to help get out the booze and start it on its discreet way to the scene of the fes– tivity. No need to excite the police unduly. They might be embarrassed if a court ordered them to return liquor that, in the eyes of the law, was inviolate, but which they might ignorantly have smashed or disposed of just as if it were ordinary bootleg stuff. On the other hand, the prompt and safe arrival of the liquor would often make the party, and the host must not be embarrassed by its lack. So, despite the under– ground character of his job and at times of his methods, Taylor's last job at the Waldorf was not without its responsibilities. The reason for the sacerdotal alias of this former priest of Bacchus during more than two-thirds of the thirty-three years he worked in the Waldorf lay in the disinclination of Phil Kennedy, his principal and the boss bartender, to address as many as two of his sub– ordinates as "Joe." On the Bar staff, when Taylor ap– plied for a job, back in I 894, was already one man with the front name of Joseph. So Kennedy, an autocrat in his day and way, said to the recruit: "It's Joe you're named, is it? Faith and I won't be calling 'Joe' and having two men quit their work when I want only one tQ, come. From now on you're 'Dan,' d'ye hear?" and Joe became Dan, and so remained until the old hotel went out of business. The book Tay.Jar compiled proved such an eye-opener when I looked through it, I spent a week testing the memories of friends who had prided themselves, either

( IIO]

Made with