1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

Bar Patterns would watch the ticker, agree on the price at a certain point and, bingo! with the exception of the Stock Ex– change proceeding, the deal was made. The office saw a lot of such cross-transactions of purchasing and sell– ing, personal, in effect. As a matter of fact, the crowd was like one big family. All knew each other by their front names, and Benkhard's branch was just like an exclusive club, but with something going on all the time. That office, according to its manager, used to make a net profit of a rpillion dollars a year. One must handle a lot of stock for those days to make that much money. As soon as the market had closed, somebody in the crowd would remember that it was time for re– freshment, and a procession would empty the office and head for the Bar. In almost constant attendance after office hours one would note the Housman brothers, brokers, and E.W. Slattery, who was manager of a brokerage office. And on days when there was no matinee, -one would invari– ably discover Frank Henhessey, manager of the old Casino Theatre, who, after this long lapse of time, is still an active student of the stock-tic.Ker. Hennessey still claims never to have taken a drink of alcohol in his life; he admits, however, that in those days he was the greatest consumer of "pop" that ever had to manage chorus girls.. In the same circle in the Bar with Hen– nessey one often saw "Joe" Gatins, an Atlanta million– aire, who was rumored to be a heavy operator in the cotton market. * * * * As has been indicated, this will prove no directory of patrons. One could use up as many sheets as a New [ 49]