The Telephone Booth IndianA classic work on Broadway sharpers, grifters, and con men by the late, great New Yorker journalist A. J. Liebling. Often referred to as “Liebling lowlife pieces,” the essays in The Telephone Booth Indian boisterously celebrate raffishness. A. J. Liebling appreciated a good scam and knew how to cultivate the scammers. Telephone Booth Indians (entrepreneurs so impecunious that they conduct business from telephone booths in the lobbies of New York City office buildings) and a host of other petty nomads of Broadway—with names like Marty the Clutch and Count de Pennies—are the protagonists in this incomparable Liebling work. In The Telephone Booth Indian, Liebling proves just why he was the go-to man on New York lowlife and con culture; this is the master at the top of his form, uncovering scam after scam and writing about them with the wit and charisma that established him as one of the greatest journalists of his generation and one of New York’s finest cultural chroniclers. |
Contents
Sparring Partner | 25 |
Mrs Braunes Prize Fighters | 79 |
Your Hat Sir? | 102 |
No Suave Inflections | 152 |
The Boy in the Pistachio Shirt | 166 |
Pull His Whiskers | 229 |
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Common terms and phrases
A. J. Liebling Abe Erlanger actors agent American asked Barney betting bookmakers bout boxing boys Braune Braune's Broadway brothers Broun called cent Chicago club columnist concession concessionaire Count couple customers dollars a week Dufour & Rogers E. W. Scripps Company editor Erlanger Fair fellow fight floor girl Goldman hat-check Hawkins heel Hellz a Poppin Howard Jack Jollity Building Klaw & Erlanger Lee Shubert Lee's Lew and Joe look Luc Sante manager Mara Mighty Magyar Morty Ormont Morty says named never newspaper Olsen and Johnson once paper Pegler Pfefer play prize fighters profit promoter publisher Pulitzer rent Roosevelt Scripps-Howard sell Shubert sometimes sparring partner Street Student Prince Susskind Syndicate Telegram Telephone Booth Telephone Booth Indians theater theatrical thousand dollars ticket tips twenty-five United Press vaudeville Willkie World World-Telegram wrestler wrestling York