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STATE
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
New York
FORMA
Circumstances of Interview
WM OF MINER FRANK BYRD
ADDRESS 224 West 135th. St. NYC
DATE October 4, 1938
SUBJECT HARLEM HOUSE -RENT PARTIES: (#3)BERNICE
1. Date and time of interview
2. Place of interview
October 2, 1938
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
Informant lives in an apartment on 141st St. near
Lenox Avenue (Harlem)
3. Name and address of informant Bernice
Informant gave the interview on
condition that her present address
and last name be omitted from story
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
e. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
NOTE: The following is a statement made to the writer by in-
formant --a West Indian Negress who came to this country when
she was a girl of high-school age. Her story tells of her
marriage to an American Negro who deserted her two years after
their marriage in 1928. From that time on she earned her
living, first as a part-time domestic worker, later as a pro-
moter of "rent parties" and owner of a "buffet flat" (pleasure
house).
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
guaE New York
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
_
FRANK BYRD
224 West 135th. St. NYC
October 4, 1938
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
SUBJECT HARLEM HOUSE -RENT PARTIES:(#3)BERNICE
Informant: Bernice
141st. St. near Lenox Ave.
When I first came to New York from Bermuda, I thought rent
parties were disgraceful. I couldn't understand how any self-respecting
person could bear them, but when my husband, who was a Pullman porter,
ran off and left me with a sixty -dollar -a -month apartment on my hands
and no job, I soon learned, like everyone else, to rent my rooms out
an' throw thses Saturday get-togethers.
I had two roomers, a colored boy and white girl named Leroy
and Hazel, whcb first gave me the idea. They offered to run the parties
for me if we'd split fifty-fifty. I had nothing to lose, so that's how
we started.
We bought corn liquor by the gallon and sold it for fifty cents
a small (cream) pitcher. Leroy also ran a poker and black -jack game in
the little bedroom off ttte kitchen. Ant on these two games alone, I've
seen him take in as much as twenty-eight dollars in one night. Well,
you can see why I didn't want to give it up, once we had started. Es-
pecially since I could only make six or seven dollars at the most as
weekly part-time worker (domestic).
The games paid us both so well, in fact, that we soon made
gambling our specialty. Everybody liked it, and our profit was more
that way so our place soon became the hangout of all thcbse party -goers
who liked to mix a little gambling with their drinking and dancing.
An' with all these young studs out to find a little mischief,
with plenty of cash in their *gankirkINT pockets, we soon learned not to
leave things to chance. Instead, Hazel and I would go out an' get
acquainted with good-looking young fellows that we'd see sitting alone
in the back of gin -mills looking as if they had nobody to take them out,
but that they also would like a good time. We'd give them our cards
and tell them to drop around to the house. Well, wherever there are
pretty women you'll soon have a pack of men.
And so, we taught the girls how to wheedle free drinks and
food out of the men --and if they got them to spend more than usual,
we'd give them a little percentage or a nice little present like a
pair of stockings or vanity case or something. Most of the time,
though, we didn't have to give them a thing. They were all out looking
for a little fun, and when they came to our house they could have it
for nothing instead of going to the gin -mills where they'd have to pay
for their own drinks.
And we rented rooms, sometimes overnight and sometimes for
just a little while during the party. I have to admit that, at first,
I was a little shocked at the utter boldness of it, but Leroy and
Hazel seemed to think nothing of it, so I let it go. Besides, it
meant extra money --and extra money was what I needed.
I soon took another hint from Hazel and made even more. I used
to notice that Leroy would bring some of his friends home with him and,
after they'd have a few drinks, leave them alone tn the room with Hazel.
I wasn't quite sure that what I was thinking was so until Hazel told me
herself. It happened one day when an extra man came along there was
no one to take care of him. Hazel buzzed to me and asked me if I would
do it. I thought about it for awhile, then made up my mind to do it.
Well, that was the last of days -work (domestic work) for me.
I figgred that I was a fool to go out and break my back scrubbing
floors, washing, ironing, and cooking, when I could earn three day's
pay, or more, in fifteen minutes. When I began to understand how Hazel
got all those fine dresses and good-looking furs.
From then on, it was strictly a business with me. I decided
that if it was as easy as that, it was the life for me.
The landlord's agent had been making sweet speeches to me for
a long time and I began to figure out
the rent. Well, I got around it, but
rent parties. Everything I made then
for little Bernice. I evet broke off
how I could get around paying
that didn't stop me from giving
was gravy; clean, clear profit
with Leroy and Hazel. She began
to get jealous and catty, and I think he was holding out on profits,
from the game. Anyway, we split up and pat I got an "old man" (sweet-
heart) of my own to help me run the house. An' when he took things
over he even stopped the girls from going into the roans with the men,
unless they were working for us. That is, unless we were getting half
of what they made. Still, the men had to pay for the roans. And I've
seen some of those girls who made enough on Saturday night to buy
themselves an entirely new outfit for Sunday, including fur coat. They'd
catch some sucker, like a Pullman porter or longshoreman who had been
lucky in a game, and have him jim-clean (completely broke) before the
night was over. Naturally, I got my cut.
It was a good racket while it lasted, but it's shot to pieces
now.