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Forms to be Filled out for Eacn Interview
FORM I
Circumstances of Interview
STATE Jew York
NAME OF WORKER Berman Partnow
ADDRESS 530 Parkeide Avenue
DATE February 17, 1939
SUBJECT Elevator Strike
1. Date and time c" interview February 44, 1[19
2. Place of interview
Garment area, fur 'motion
27th to 39th Street, Sixth
to Eighth Avenue,
3. Name and address of informant Anonymous
4. Name and address of person, if any, wno put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Too well known for description,
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
(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.)
STATE
N.\N,E OF wonuP
ADWAESS
DAIE
SUJECT
FORvi C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
'WV York
herman Partnow
530 Parkside Avenue
February 17, 1939
Elevator Strike
BUILDING STRIKE TIES UP GARMENT, T12 AREAS
(Banner headlines February 2)
IN A LOBBY
900 A.M.
FOLKLOBF
NE" YORK
--4foopee-ee-eel
---.Looka
vottre yuh oelebratin?
---Dis strike. It ain't lox an bagels. It doan happen all de time.
dere's yur boss.
---Wot, he ain't walkin neigher? 0 boyl
---You gonna walk if he walks?
---De twenny eight floor? Yeah, if he carries me up dere.
---Hey, take my pitcha somebody, will yuh? Harry, take my pitch*.
a
UNDER THESE CONDITIONS EVERYBODY IS LIBERAL
(A Fur Boss Speaks His Mind)
Who is the boss anyway? He's elevated from the working class ain't
he? Maybe bne boss got another herring to eat, that's all. Under
these oondit'ons everybody is liberal. How bad it shouldn't be in
our line, their line is worse. All day standin and shovin doors in
a draft. It ain't skilled labor maye but it's plenty hard, don't
worry. Today it is better recognized people gotta live, their live-
lihood gotta be protected. These boys, if they make thirty they
spend thirty. Are they grabbin somethin, they're destroyin property,
they're oommittin violence, maybe? Foolishness! They're plain
married people whatever they're askin they're entitled to it.
Them real estate crooks suck goddamn good rent outa us. They can
afford another dollar to their help. A dirty record already they
got in the industry, a fire on them, every time they're jackin up
the rent. MCI move from here to there, it's the same thing the
leases protect them, not me. Strike, shmike, that don't effect
the building. The tenant is holding the building, not the building
holding the tenant. I got a say in it, too, after all, and what I
say is they should settle right away.
WE HUN THE BUILDING
(Says a union gamma worker)
At the hearing with the Mayor we got two thousand people to mob
the twentieth floor. It took us twenty minutes to round them up,
we tent people into the market and pulled them out. That hall was
packed, I'm telling yOu and it had a very salutary effeot on the
conference. That's the kind of cooperation the elevator men get
from us. Last strike we pulled the scabs right out of the cars.
I remember they hired fifteen Mexican boys, poor kids. Five 01
clock the day of the strike we figured on walking down from work.
Instead we went out in the ahll and rung for the elevators all
at the same tie. lthen they dame up, we rushed in, looked the
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doors, took them down and marched the kids out through the cellar
into the street. You should have se,n the scabs marching in front
of us. This strike they're scared of us. They don't dare hire
scabs. After all, we just run the building. In fact, we won the
strike last time and we're going to win this one also for 3213.
TWO PICKETS IN THE RAIN
--Looks like a good hand, die here strike. A double marriaie.
Kings an queens.
crappin an hike.
---De garment guys backin us and de fur workers. I'll lay your
fanny on it, we win.
---Big words, punk, How much a hunderd?
---Kings an queens. Loyl do guys wid weak hearts start
gown up den stairs. Dey'll drop dead and den dey'll know.
---If it ain't ovuh by next week I gotta join de br6adline.
---Wait'll dey start drorpin. Yuh gotta have sacrifice inna strike.
IN A LOBBY
12,30 P.M.
---Didja walk up?
--Hones', I did.
--Haw is it?
---Ynh walk up and yuh go down, yuh walk up and yuh go down. It's
sumthin terrible.
---Gwan down is easier, ain't it?
yuh body is Add yuh. I'm sweatin too much. I'm liable
tuh catcha cold.
---If it's gonna be prolonged, I'm Awn tuh duh movies.
---Is it still rainin?
---SOIVICE ELEVATORS RUNNIN IN DE REAR, GENTS.
--Huh? Net's dat? Not wuz he dayin7
---Nuthin. It's a joke.
---Hey, Joey, oamon, dere's a good bill at de Paramount.
--O.K. I'm mid yuh.
---Cumon home, everyody, go on. Gwan home, wotore yuh hangin
aroun fur?
---De girl said she'd brini7, down de checks, didn't she? So where
are dey?
---Search me.
---Ash, lea go home, dere's ho money in it.
LOCKA NE, I'M DAB,LIN IN POLITICS
("Le gir1,11 a atonal IolikA at the situation)
Are you :oinL to quote me dircoL, handsome? Well, I got nothing
against the elevator boys they always take me up hoe, hee
without lumps or bumps. In my opinion, it's skyscrapers and ele-
vaors that arc the evils of civilization. Now if we lived in
the stone age, for instance hm with them cave men there
wouldn't be no elevators, wc'e all live in huts, see?
If the owners were wise they'd build ecalators, for these em-
ergencies. Looks mu, I'm daLblin in politics. Truthfully, it
don't rake any difierence to me. I wish I was ridda these skunks
and weaves and foxe. Pictures, radio, fame, lights that's my
dream.
-5
"SACRIFICE INKA STRIKE"
(A typist falls down the stairs, an ambulance is called)
---.1bt'd de crowd fuh? aot's de mattuh? 'iibt happened?
---Somobody, some lady wu welkin down de steps end ahe fell down
a flicht uh stairs.
---A whole flight?
---Yeah, huh leg looks bee. Black an blue.
—Leek out. here comes de cops.
wot's she sayin'?
---Sez she went up twennj fli hts, hr bhi,a made her.
---Jeez, she sure is a martyr to de cause, ain't she?
---Wot's de doctor doin, huh?
tellin huh she's gotta o to de hoppital, dey're gonna.
splint it up and k -ray it dere.
---Tink she'll collect?
---An howl
---Strike keeps up, I tink I'll take a fall myself.
--DOA N WORRY, MADAM, IT'S NUTHIN SERIOUS.. .HET', YOUSE, GET LACK
P RE, WILEYUR. GIVE DE LAZY SUM AIR. CIMON, GET RACK...
SETTLE STRIKE EN TWENTY FOUR HOURS, MAYOR DEMANDS
(Headline in evening papers)
NIGHT PICKET
(An elevator man who shatld
be at night law school keeps
on picketing a dark building.
I'm a student at N.T.U. I'm working my way through night law
school and I'm married, besides. But I'd stay out and starve
and lose my education rather than not strike for what I think
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is right. Mayor or no Mayor. Why, we used to be fired on the spot
if we answered back. You can imagine a man answering back, espec ally
if he was married, he must have been goaded beyond endurance. The
Mayor, perhaps, thinks of us the way the others do. That is, we're
unskilled labor and, rather than strike for a decent life, we should
keep the peace. But haw account for all the accidents in the last
strike when the desperate owners were hiring inexperienced scabs
and thugs? I myself recall how one of tiase scabs was °rushed be-
tween the elevator and the shaft. Anybody can step into our jobs,
that 's what they say. It's not ture. These are our jobs and we
won't let any ody else step into them. We'll strike, and we'll go
on striking until we get some decent treatment. If it takes twenty
four hours, all the better, but if it '7,akes longer, that's their
hard luck, the Mayor to the contrary notwithstanding.
11111111•11410. 4110 6•11D
NEXT MORNING
IN A LOKY
9:30 A.M.
---W4z anybody up yestidday/
---Yeah, Danny, de screwball.
---I walked up, yeah. My knees wuz saegin. Never again. Not me.
---YUh sure?
---It ain't worth it. YUh struggle tuh get up dere an wen yuh get
up yUh freeze tuh Yilh be surprised haw cold it's up dere
on de twentieth floor.
--my boss took a soot in de Hotel Pennsylvania. Fur de buyers,
you know. He sent everybody else hone already until tomorrer.
--my boss tol' us tat come back 12130.
---Hey, look. Somebody's ringin fur de elevator.
-7-
---Wat for? WOt's de idea?
wot's de ringin faw?
---It's a joke, Just for a little joke.
---Still retain outside, hut?
01•411.0
FERE I AM STUCK
buyer oomplains)
There's enough trouble making a living and this comes along. It's
injurious all around, If you're striking against Ford, all right
rip his guts out, I say, hang him, lynch him, he deserves it. But
around here? What's the picking around here? The building's bank-
rupt. Thank God the company I'm with don't need laws or strikes or
anything in the nature of force to give us a decent wage. I cot
raises in one year and I didn't have to ask for it even. If
I had to strike like this I'd rather I don't know what co out
and bum on the open road or something. It's not worth all the
trouble.
10-4esem• O&M.
ME AIN'T INVOLVED IN IT
Ch fur worker revises his opinion)
It's only o,p to deir trade union conscience, no more. De union
didnIL give no order. If you wanna walk up, O.K., an if not, it's
also O.K. It's on his own responsibility to freeze de pleasure
is all deirs. We ain't involved in it. Only thini_ we don't get
no pay, dat's ail. It's not physical vurk as a carpenter you
can warm -p maybe. Here you cotta use your head more. De main
tir4, is de heat. Ism an operator, I vurk on Persian furs, I sew
dem togedder. As far as vurking conditions, it's nioe, clean an
loSsa of air varkinL conditions is O.K. To tell de hones' troot,
I'm ah union man, yes, bott I don't like ah strike. It's not alto-
no 0.•••
gadder I don't like ah strike, de principle of it, you understand,
hut vet I don't like is nodding to disturb de peace, dat's all.
Vet NU I, afer all, Ah Bon Gold? Dot man, even ah bullet wouldn't
take him, like dey say in Youdish. Wotever should happen to him,
he comes out widdah =lie. How many tiLes dey tried to kill him
win ah chair, win guns, even win knives, nodding helps even his
enemies (ley -wouldn't say nuthin abou'c; hi, he's an hokes' an
smart nan. But, I sk you, how many is dere in existence like
Ben Gold? I'm not one andem. I likc it when I'm hot involved.
De y said I should come back twelve thirty, so I'm here in
de lobby -rutin. Vot can vun person do? In dis instance de nones
have it....
ON THE PICKET LINE
(1n tho rain)
Gam kead, try an tell mot de odds are. Suddenely de Mayor wants
de strike to be ovah. Like dis favorite. Mmace uh War. I play
im back eight tuh one an he beats me by tree legs. Opens up two,
roes up tuh eight, pays a hundere an fifty an comes from nowhere.
Gaw head, it ficcer it out. Dat's why I sqy who expected de Mayor
tuh butt in all or a sudden? I know dis much dis here is de ace
in de hole, dis garment section. We beat it here, an we beat it
uptown. I may be wrong but de way it looks tuh me yet? Mayor
or no Mayor, we gonna give am ah shave an a haircut, shampoo-00%
IN A LOBBY
2:00 P.M.
---It's a holdout.
---De pipes gonwa freeze, -,1.-ont dey?
---Yeah.
---Mybe somebody's .4Lonna oatch pneumonia.
---Hey, Moishe Goldberg, yull look upset epiz. i4otlre yu, woried?
--Wet for, huh?
--An elevator, wise guy.
---Accordin to de papeh, dey're tonna settle.
---Yeah? Vich side?
dunno.
---It's still rainin?
--Sum wedder far ah strike.
---LiEten, wot's de good uh talkin? We're stuck an you know it.
Sympathy, shmim ath:y-, if de factories wuz on de first floor ah
million an a half elevator boys wouldn't be able to keep us out.
---All right, all right. Calm down. I like to gargle ah word,
does it hurt you?
---hey, boys, I telephoned de boss. He sei we kin CO home.
---Another day wasted'
COP
(Cop guarding the door outside)
I dunno why dey all trowin dirty looks at me furl I ain't done
nuthin.
I LIXE TO SCHNUOZE
(It is late afternoon an old fur worker
sits on a cold radiator in an empty
lobby confesses)
6um vimin or men dey co in far as, day go in far dat it's his
vice. 11e like tc schmooze. ah schmoL.zer, I dan't help
it, it's in me. 14ay e it'z frahm de in,luitry, it's so evaporated,
may e it's on account I'm gettin ulc. I Cunt know. Bot dis strike
i like. Vat's going on, I'll tell :you de tract. I dunt kno- ',Jut
it's no yellin or crazy bizniss like last time. Dey shot off de
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electric, dey cot dee vireo vile peepil vuz in de elevators, vot
didn't day carry on, all kinds craziness, it vuz terrible. Die
time it's jst like my indistry nice an qviet... I remember how
long ahgo you used to cluz de doors at night, dere vuz monse in
de safe, A vurker used to sit don by his bench Febverry he voodint
get opp ontil Crissmis. Today it's handled by pee1:11 dot ain't got
much. ,coneeption of bizniss. Dey're showin sh skin fah fifty shill-
ings tuhday, next day by sumbody else it's forty five awreddy. fore
dun exist ah standid price like by clucks. In fact, de vay it used
to be und de vay it ice, it's no industry at all, hardly, it's only
hard pluaing, fah an uld man espeoially.
AIM AEI 01•14111041101
NIGHT PICKET
Jeez, vot're we askin for aroun here? A jackpot or sumthin? A
lousy buck a week an tree, four hou s. Wet's all de fuss about?
De world's goin unduh? Damastards, dey'll hold out until de
public loses faith in us. Just fuh de hell of it, dey'll hold
out as long as dey can, de dirty bastards.
THIRD DAY
STRIKERS VOTING MACE
(Banner headline)
AT STRIKE HEADQUARTERS
YOUSE IN DE PLURAL
(The union elevator men wait
for polling returns)
--Ale ain't licked yet, for Chrissake, yuh dam,o de vote.
---I don't?
---Listen here, you muz licked de minute yuh started in tuh vote.
---Our hands vouz tied because-dat1 (POINTS TO BALLOT BOX ON PLATFORM)
Aah,
nuts1
---Hey, fellers, ain't de box suppose tuh have a lock on it?
--Yeah, sure.
dis one didn't.
--Which one?
---De one I voted.
tellin yuh.
--No joke?
--Dere yuh are, mot did I say: YUh can' tell wet dey're tryin tuh
put evuh on us.
Wet I say we shoulda went to LaGuardia tree monts ago. Den, if he
sez arbitrate, we kin strike if we manna. Die way, aftuh de strike, he
sez arbitrate, well, it doan make sense, det's all.
--Well, whose fault is it?
--Whose, vise guy?
---Youse.
--Who? MO? YUh crazy bastard, yuh, take dat back.
---I mean youse in de plural.
0111,410
THE AFTERNOON DRAGS ON'. A UNION MAN TELLS HIS TROUBLES NHILE WAITING.
LOOK TEE BACK OF MY NECK'S CAVED IN.
I look like a husty guy, don't I, but I can't even lift fifty pounds.
I'm weak in the knees. Them high spped cars they affeot your kidneys
and your heart. After five years you're licked. Stands to reason.
you ain't got your natural health no more. Outside of that, they're
useless to humanity. There's Rudy over on twelfty street, complaining
about pains in the stomach and piles. He got it from the high speed.
Feller on Broad Street, you know him, Pete, he quit a year ago, he
-12
says to me once, "Boy, I'm glad I'm out of that poison sas." That's
just what it is. :oison ran. here, look at the back of my neck,
you see that? All caved in there? Look at the way I'm tanding.
That's what you ball a occupational disease. Maye I look like an
athlete but don't trust looks. Honestly, I couldn't lift up a baby.
QUIET, EVERYBODY
(The vote is an-
nounced from the
platform 8:00 PM.
Quiet, fellers, de results are in.
WE KNOW WOT'S COMIN.
Quiet, please...Accordin to de ha lots here, you boys voted for pro-
positions one an two an against propostion tree. That means
WE KNOW.
back to work, boys.
WE AIN'T COIN BACK.
WHO VOTED DAT WAY?
(The boys of the rank and file
have their say.)
---Die union is finished.
---bne dollar doos, from today on.
---No. No (loos at all.
---We gonna find a new union.
o boy, die is de den uh de fawty thieves, no foolin.
---Shoulda carried little ropes in our pockets an strung am up.
---WL BEEN SOLD OUT.
--We been sold dawn de river.
---Looka dem. Dey're sittin dere laffin.
---Yuh ought& be ashamed uh yuhself.
—Rah much yuh get fuh it, yuh lousy bum?
11.1;11•111
---Sumbody oughta rive yuh a check fuh die.
—Don' worry, Hitler's Lerma sen in an iron cross.
---We cot a grant soremin all right.
---An wid our pants on.
DE VOTE TOINS OUT UNANIMOUS.
(An elevator operator sums
it up.)
Dey v.odin except uh hunderd pissent vote from de floor. Dey gotta
de7en on dese stuffed boxes. Bambrick's Demicratio prossedjah. "Frum
de bottom uh my heart." Bull. Tree tousun' votes ant dey -et ten tousan
Iallots. Two tirty dey begin and tree tirty de vote's all ovuh. De
whole day day spendin oountin. Gum mijishuns. I Eddie, howdja vote,
:ddie? He sez thums down. I ask Mike, hawdja vote? Mike? Thums down,
he sez. Jerry an Jack an who knows who else de same tinc. An de vote
tome out una-nimus in den Chahley Miogarty ballot boxesish deirs.
Enuff tuh make yuh manna jump on de CIO. Dey may be uh bunchah rad-
io2ls but dey and do no woise. Am I cawn back timorrer? Yeah, tuh
duh piokit line. Die ain't ovuh yet. 47 an 1. '4here duh dey cum off
wid dat stuff? So insteduh twenny minits maybe we get toity minits
relief. Duh original idde wuz tuh make maw jobs so's de udder guys
widout joLs coulda junced intuh duh j,.)1,s. Ohm a lock -out man an
know de way dose poor suoi;ors feel. I lawst plenty 13-.; stiokin up fuh
de union. I wuk, lookei out on accountuh de goddamn union. Den too
I broke my leg an I otf:iscourr,.!ed much tuh my sorrow. Ten or fif-
teen years brek yuh try an tell me dtt I'm Farina be an indoor aviator
It el ah laffed at yuh. Nuttin hut duh creeks an furriaUhs wuz in duh
racket. I remembah de ol' Woild, her it use tuh run de Help Wtnteds.
De whole pae, Elevatuh Man Wanted, Elevntuh Man Wanted. Nickel uh
Aah, wotts duh use talkin?... I hate like hell tuh face de
tenants timorrer. Dey'll give us de ht..wse laff right an left. 47
1. An all duh 7apuhs'll e sayin, "HAMBRICK CLAIM: EAWRUL VIC*
TORY FUH UNION. Maybe dis ain't dah elace tuh say it, but nobody
in stop me frum tinkin. Honestly, ohm disgustid. I dunno, maybe
I'll go hone an brood, maybe I'll get stewed, I gotta do somthin.
Da NXT anr
(Newppaper headline)
STRUT SETTLED, ELEVATORS RUNNING
LEMME ALOE
(Elevator operator by his post)
Aah, Immo alone, vrillyuli. Stop bodderin me. Dat's ainshint
17istory artreddy....Gown up?