Document text
9.
1610.1J (ID
TLArL GOD ioa COLVI;:thLS
.rest
flophouse,
whorehouse,
r113.1.1
ores faith to the
workhouse, warehouse,
bughouse life of
A shy little man wearing a droopy
black suit, the sleeves and trouser
legs of Which are too long for the
little arms and legs. The black eyes
are round and clear, although the
faintest reflection of pain brings
out the veins, aftrodowlem===a1
shudders at even the sur-r,estion of
cruelty and violence, yet he radiates
a quiet faith in himself and a nat-
ural pride and courtesy. He was caught
serendding the cAshier behind the caf-
eteria counter with a rendition of the
song: 1,5, Love It Like An Evening prayer.
His voice is big and resonant.
1
FOrITO to be Filled out for Each Interview FOLKLORE
FORM A NEW YORK
Circumstances of Interview
STATE
NAME OF WORKER Herman Partnow
ADDRESS 557 West 144 Street
DATE June 5, 1939
SUBJECT inge p1k1ore
1. Date and time of interview
Miyx1114x1212x
May 25, 1939
2. Place of interview
Foot isms of Canal 4;treet bridge
3. Name and address of informant
Sam Rosen
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
6. Description of roam, house, surroundings, etc.
A wide waste area at the foot of the
Manhattan Bridge wbere the unemployed zit are sunning.
Third Avenue L, second-hand clothes shops, heavy traffic.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms,
each bearing the proper headinL and the number to which the material
refers.)
ML
STATE
NOT OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FORM C
Text of Intorview (Unedited),
Herman Partnow
557 West 144 Street
June 5, 1939
THANK GOD FOR COLUMBUS
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
THANK GOD FOR COLUMBUS
And
Yes, it's a wonderful voice./it ain't no
044011a*
expense neither. A little eggnogg7 Heide's
pastilles and it comes out clear like a canary. That's
my nickname in the sewer Sam, the Canary. Illa
laborers,
"Gr
ougbAllft they ain't artistic and sensitive like girls,
Ithey gottan
but theyablincall me the canary/On acc6unt of my voice.
I don't mean voice. I hate to say I, my. It's a andlisr
,mIMIIIIIIM°po born voice, that's all. It happens by
accident it's mine. Oftsisomma,I's a pleasure. It's an
inspiration, it gives me a good appetite, it makes me
Except
happy. 400 at nightAI eat two cups of coffee and supper,
I feel so heavy it gets screechy. I'm too tiredrgigl
effects the voice, you understand. The slightest thing Afta141.0
agitaiitall= I didn't know till three, four years
ago I lien d it. Nobody told me. My wife 101111..never told
:11
me. ShWil 4WitI even. She was a nervous woman, irritable
a born naggard. She put me on a pedestal and made an
idol out of me, then she knocked me off. I got annulled.
11111111I went to work in the sewers for WPA. It
one day
was accident -/I was shovelling.** and I began to
ilhark
sing. The boys for an encore. I was surprised. It
was an inspirationilmill, it put ife into them.
IVlit") I
Since everybody calls me Bing Crosby, J ior, because
I'm an amatureiallpir *Your whole life you go around, nobody
tells you, nobody is decent enough, nowailillalpin,
Bing Junior. Aiim
2
named
My uncle had a baby he 440ftorhim Dennis. So what? The
kids on the block call him Ziggy. Foolishness. My name is
Sam Rosen, plain, I don't care who asks, June 6th I'm
singing in A Low's Theater Amature Hour,
If5a city-wide amature.
change m# name 41501 Madison Avenue, that's WNEW there,
downstairs is a confectionery, they pave me an audition,
they five me auditions all over, 411111111110.1.911111fteminipme
I sing in one room, they listen in another roomailli'
114014011MMOMMOWNOMMOOMOMMINUMMO44. over the microphone,
the receiver, the amplifier, whatever you call it. Then
when I'm through, I hear them say: "Thank you." It's an
ins-)IrationyiAllow the way they say itI2Thank you." Most
40
of the time they AOMMLask/for an encoreilIt's an exhiliration,
you get a better appetite, you don't feel like an append-
age. Today it's so busy by slack everylody is demoral-
ized. They don't know where to look. If a person looks up
at t he sky and somebody whispers he's a Messiah, they
follow him. They don't know no better, they're looking for
an inspirationp Like on Forty Second Street, let one person
only look 1110, everybody is looking.
My inspiration, I need to serenade a girl.
When I hear the call of nature, to satisfy my cravings,
follow my sex nature, I need a mate. But I can't locate
her. I got a good nature, I'm quiet, not like other lab-
orers, but since
lady with a brother or a father they're in business an
I'm annulled I can't locate g my ideal.
they'll allow me to work for the, ijm going to a
matrim-
onlal bureau. A friend of mine, I know him a long time.
He's opening a new office now on 42nd Street, he's sending
me a post card, he expects to get the American type, educated,
3
-00011001% I'm not satisfied with the girls he got now.
They're fat or they're widows
or they got children.10.10.4.--
ne girl, she was slim, with a good
skin, three inches ller than me, we clicked right away.
But when we got through talking in the office there, I
asked her40 telephone number, she said: "Get a steady
job, I'll keep company." That aln't my ideal. Go get a steady
job. At what? Fixing fountain pens?
The only thing I got to depend on is the
voice. The sewer work is only ten eleven days a month so
the rest of the time I got to school. I take up French,'
acting, I learn dancing, classical dancing, even fencing.
opera
For poise, you understand. Like a real/singer, only it
culture
don't cost me a nenny. It's AM! WPA/Courses. It's a pleasure,
an inspiration. Thank God for Columbus.