Document text
Fringe
__Thank-God for Columbus- Partnow.
-Self.portrait of yin sewer worker with a voice
and yearnings. Delightful humor of unconscious
B.A. B. 11/16/39
STATE
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
New York
OF WORKER Baraell Plrtn"
ADDRESS
DI,TE
SUBJECT
557 W. 144th Street
June 5, 1939
Fringe Folklore THANK GOD FOR COLUMBUS
1. Dote end time of interview Nay 25, 1939
2. Place of interview
Foot of Canal Street bridge.
am
3. Name and address of informant S Rosen
4. Name and address of i,ersen,
touch wth informant.
any, who you in
5. Name and address ci 11-..rsen, if any, ,..COE") you
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
6. IDscriotion o r en, house, surr,,undin„.,s, et,2.
A wide waste area at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge where
the unemployed are sunn1ng. Third Avenue Lip second-hand
clothes shops, heavy traffic.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for anY of the forms,
each bearing the oropur heading and the number to which the material
refers.)
STATE
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FORM C
TEXT OF INTERVIEW (UNEDITED)
New York
Herman Partnow
657 W. 144th Street
June 5, 1939
Mugs Folklore THANK GOD FOR COLUMBUS
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
Yes, itts a wonderful voice. And it ain't no expense
neither. A little eggnogg, some Heide's pastilles and it comes
out clear like a canary. That's sly nickname in the sewer Sam,
the Canary. Rough Laborers, they ain't a istio and senzitivo
like girls, but they call me the canary, they gotta, an aocount
of my voice. I don't mean my voice. I hate to say I, my. It's
a born voice, that's all. It happens by aoAdent it's mine. It's
a pleasure, It's an inspiration, it gives me a good appetite, it
makes me happy. Except at night I eat two cups of coffee and
supper, I feel so heavy it gets screechy. I'm too tired, it
ffeate tho voice, you understand. The slightest thing makes it
screechy. I didn't know till three, four years ago I even had it.
Nobody told me. My wife never told me. She tried to kill it, even.
She maw a nervous moman, irritable a born naggard. She put ma on
a pedestal and made at an idol out of me, then she knooked me off.
I got annulled.
I went to it in the soars for In. It vas an accident
one day Iwas shovelling and I
for an (moor*. Ives surprised.
life into them. Awe that time
junior, because I's an &mature.
body tells you, nobody is decent
much waste. A name, Bing.
My uncle had a baby he named him Dennis. So what? The kids
on the block call h Ziggy4, Toolitibeeee* My name is Zen Rolm.
plain, I don't care bo asks. June 6th Ita singing in A Low's
Theater Anature Hour, shall I go and change sy name. ltm a oityb.
vide Pasture. 501 WIdison Avenue, thr,.tes IIIEW there, dommistairs
is a oonfectionery„ they gave me an audition, they give mo aud-
itions all over, I sing in one roam* they listen in another roan
o or the microphone., the roc:elvers the amplifier, whatevcr you oall it.
Then when I'm through, I hk:er them sayz "Thank you. It's an inspira-
tion, the way they zay it. "Thank you! Most of the time they ask
for an *moors too. It's an exhiliration, you Eet a better ap3ertite„
you don't feel like an appandavd. Today it's so buey b, slack every.
body is demoralized. They do.."t knoarwhere to look:. If t person
looks up at the sky and somebody whispers he's akeesiah„ they follow
Lim. They donft know no betters they're lookiere for an inspiration.
Like on Forty :oozed Stett, let one person only look up, everybody
is looking.
v:f inspiration, I nod to serenade a girl. When I hear the
cell of nature, to satisfy my c avincs, followmy sex nature, I need
a scte. But I cen4t locate her. I got a good nature, /*la mist,
not like other laborers, but sines Its annulled I can't lambs iff
ideal. I'm going to a matrimondal bureau. A friend of nine,
began to sine. The boys hollered
It was an inspiration, it put
everybody calls we Bing Crosby,
Your Waal* life you go around, no.
enough, now I'm Bing Junior. bow
know him a long time, he's opening a new office now on 42nd Street,
he's sending no a post card, he expects to get the American type,
educated. I'm looking for a lady with a brother or a father they're
in business and they'll allow me to work for them. I'm not satis-
fied with the girls he got now. They're fat or they're widows or
they got children. Only one girl, she was taint, with a good skin,
three inches taller than sio, we clicked right away. But when we
got through talking in the office there, I asked her telephone
number, she said: "Get a steady job, I'll keep co pony." That
ain't my ideal. Go get a steady job. At what? Fixing fountain
pens?
The only thing I got to depend on is the vol.**. The sewer
work is flly ten eleven days a month so the rest of the time
go to school. I take up French, acting, I learn dancing, olassioal
danoing, even fencing. For poise, you understand. Like a real opera
singer, only it don't cost me a penny. It's mpl culture courses.
It's a pleasure, an inspiration. Thank God for Columbus.