#old harlem

A jazz band performing in a smoky Harlem club, 1938.

The June 1926 issue of Opportunity, a magazine of the Harlem Renaissance. Cover by Aaron Douglas.

Guests at a 1925 breakfast party for Langston Hughes, hosted by Regina Andrews (then Anderson) and Ethel Nance (then Ray) at 580 St. Nicholas Avenue. Hughes, then in his early twenties and newly arrived from Paris, is second from left.

Tap dancers onstage at the Cotton Club, ca. 1937.

Woman walking in Harlem, 1950.

Harlem street scene, 1939.

It Was Fun While it Lasted by Frederick A. Birmingham, published in 1960, is a memoir of life in white Harlem between 1915 and 1925.

From the Dartmouth alumni magazine: By Frederic A. Birmingham '33. Philadelphia: J. B.Lippincott Co., 1960. 224 pp. $3.95.

A joyous boyhood in Harlem forty years ago is the subject of Mr. Birmingham's warmhearted book about days that in retrospect seem so much more appealing than those enjoyed by the motorized and gadget-minded youngsters of today. As the title of the book suggests, there was fun of a special kind, and the author was lucky enough to have his boyhood pleasures enhanced by a delightful family. Former editor and now a free-lance writer, he is able to tell his story in a most readable and amusing way. For light reading, especially at this time of year, here is just the book.

It Was Fun While It Lasted is of the "life with father" genre. And Papa Birmingham dominates the book as he apparently dominated the family, all in a firm but charming way. Meticulous in dress, ramrod straight as a gentleman should be, expert in good food and drink, he took care of Fun in the family while Mama Birmingham took care of Faith. It was he who thought up the things to do on Sunday afternoon and who made each outing an experience. Typically funny is the account of Papa's handling of the family car like a horse on wheels. Never flabby in his thinking, he divided all women into two classes—those who are always smelling something burning and those who go through life hearing burglars.

Mr. Birmingham's reminiscences will have special appeal for those who knew Harlem when it really was the "Happy Valley," and who remember specific names and places and such things as the Hudson River Day Line and the Fort Lee Ferry. But there is nostalgia also for the reader whose boyhood anywhere coincided with silent movies, cobblestone streets, horse-drawn fire engines, and open trolley cars in the summer, as this reviewer's did in Washington. And for the general reader, with or without nostalgia, here is a warm and affectionate account of family life in simpler and less hectic days.

from Stuff Nobody Cares About: The action takes place from approximately 1915–1925, when Birmingham was between the ages of 4 and 14.

Many of the stories revolve around “papa” John F. Birmingham. John Birmingham was a Masonic president and an operator and eventual proprietor of a Baltimore Dairy Lunch Restaurant at 107 West 125th Street from the early 1900s until retiring just before his death at age 79 in 1950.

The Baltimore Dairy Lunch restaurants, which I had never heard of, were predecessors of fast food service during the first wave of mass consumerism. A customer would get their food at the counter and carry it to an uncomfortable one-arm lunch chair, similar to a modern high school or college seat. The idea was to purchase your inexpensive, but tasty food, eat, and leave as quickly as possible. At one time Baltimore Dairy Lunch outnumbered Child's Restaurants, another national restaurant chain.

However none of the book’s tales are about John Birmingham's restaurant, but tell of swimming in the Hudson River, family life, religion, neighbors, automobile trips, parks, movies, neighborhood shopping and school days.

Convention at the Church of Christ, Harlem, 1928.