The Night Club Era by Stanley Walker, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1933, dust jacket illustrator unknown
Stanley Walker (1898-1962) was the city editor of The New York Herald Tribune from 1928-1935. Walker was a mentor to many newspapermen who learned from him the art of composing sharp sentences with pointed words. He was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the most talented editors and writers of all-time. His three books about New York all written in the 1930s hold up very well today.
I find in general that the old newspaper writers bring forth the most entertaining books about New York. In The Night Club Era, Walker tells the rollicking story of Prohibition New York where “mayors got down on hotel floors and shot dice and everywhere was debauchery, bad taste, profligacy and cruelty.”
Celebrities of stage and screen, millionaires and professors mix with gangsters, murderers and other shady characters. It’s all true and makes for great reading
Walker unfortunately died prematurely at age 64, shooting himself with a shotgun, fearing he would not survive going under the knife for a throat cancer operation.
Photo & text: Stuff Nobody Cares About
