Document text
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM /1
Circumstances of Interview
KATE New York
NAME OF vORFEll Dorothy West
ADURFSS 131 W. 110th St. liew York City
DATE Jan. 10, 1939
SUBJECT COCKTAIL PARTY: PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
1. Date and time c" interview
Jan. 1, 1939
Place of interview
3. Name and address of informant By staff -writer
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.
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 New York
NE OF WORKER
FORM C
Text of Interview
Dorothy West
ADDRESS 131 W. 110th St. New York City
DATE Jan. 10, 1939
SUBJECT COCKTAIL PARTY: PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
(Unedited)
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
j_
HARLEM HOSTESS. C t v1-1 d 6
The party was on the fifth floor, but even as we entered the
lower hall, we could hear the shouts and laughter. It was a successful party then,
for, judging by the volume of voices, the four -room flat was packed. That meant
that all invitations had been accepted.
The elevator bore us 11D and let us out. Our smiling hostess stood in
her open door. Behind her was a surge of van -colored faces, the warm white
of fair Negroes, the pale white of whites, through yellows and browns to
rusty black.
We brushed cheeks with our hostess, and our mutual coos of endearment
fell on the already false air. We entered the smoke -thickened room, brushed
cheeks with a few more people, shook hands with some Others, and followed oltr
hostess into the bedroom.
A visiting Fisk professor, already bored with the party, had got his
length somehow into a boudoir chair and sat pulling on his pipe. He could
not leave because he had cone with his wife, who would not leave until all the
important people had come. Gloomily he uncoiled himself when we entered and,
after greetings, assured his hostess in sepulchral tones that he was perfectly happy.
We laid our coats as carefully as we could on the pile of wraps on
the bed. Our hostess fingered a soft brown fur. "Mink," she sighed. "Real Mink."
She blew on it for our inspection, then rubbed a fold of it over her rump. "The
closest I'll ever get to it, I guess."
She was on the city payroll, had graduated from a first-class Negro
College, belonged to a good sorority, had married respectably, and was now
entrenching herself in New York Negro Society. There had been one or two flamboyant
indiscretions in her past, and so every once in awhile, to assure herself and her
home town that she had lived them down, she entertained at a lavish party. She was
not yet sufficiently secure to give a small affair. And of all the people lapping
up her liquor, hardly one would have come to an intimate dinner. As yet it was
necessary for her to give large, publicized affairs, so that everyone felt bound
to come out of fear that it might be thought he was not invited.
As we returned to the main room, a woman in cap and apron shuffled up,
inexpertly balancing a tray of cocktails. We had not known that our hostess had
a maid. Yet the woman's harassed dark face was familiar. We remembered that once
before, while we visited with our hostess, there had been a ring at the doorm a voice
had called that it was the janitor's wife with a package, and presently this woman's
face had appeared.
Our hostess found places for us on the already populated divan. We sat
among acquaintances, balancing our drinks. To our left were a public school teacher,
e/
two Department of Welfare investigators, two writers, one lft and one right, a
/1
worker, a white first-string movie critic, a white artist and his wife. To our
right were two Negro government officials, two librarians, a judge's daughter, a
student -red -cap, a Communist organizer, an artist, an actress. There were otherss,
In this room and in the inner room were crowded fully sixty in -coming and out -going
people. With the exception of the Communist organizer, all of the Negroes were
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members of Harlem society. Some of their backgrounds began with their marriages
or their professions. One or two were the unimportant offspring of earnest men
who had carved small niches in the hall of fame. Two or three were as celebrated
as -their fathers. Some of them were well-to-do, most particularly where both
bushband and wife held well paid jobs. Others had fallen on lean times, but
family connections and Homo Relief kept them in circulation.
The women in general were light-colored, one of the phenomena of
Negro society. Their dress was smart, their make-up skillful. The men were
varying colors and soberly dressed. Our hostess had no reputation as a conversation
list, and our host, of better reputation where social talk was concerned, was
already in his cups. There was no attempt by either to marshal their guests
into interasting groups.
The crowd was too unwieldly, and our hostess had only
probed beneath the surface of a half -dozen men who thought her pretty. She could
only dump a nel-comer into whatever space was available, and introduce him to the
nearest of the sitters. Whereupon the ensuing conversation was either polite or
flirtatious, depending upon sex and preference. When a friend found a friend's
face in the crowd, navigation was too difficult, and the greetins was confined
to a shouted, "How are you?"
We listened to the conversation around us. A tall unattractive
girl on our right had assumed an affected pose. She languished on the divan
and blew puffs of smoke through a cigarette holder. Her large foot pivoted on
its ankle. She surveyed it dreamily. Her father was a man of importance, and
although she had neither beauty nor charm, she had constituted herself the year's
number one Negro debutante.
The young leftist writer was talking to her around our backs. He
had brought her to the party. Generally one of the artist group squired her.
They were indifferent to her lack of prettiness and liked her father's liquor.
She boasted of her escorts to her sorors who expressed no envy. They were quite
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content with their younger beaux who were marrying men.
The writer said, "Will you serve as a sponsor for the dinner then?
Your name will look good on the stationery. I can come up tomorrow and go over
a guest list with you."
She smiled at the toe that protruded through the space in her
shoe for its protuberance.
"I've two other dinne.s that week, you know. Three will give Me
such a crowded calendar. But for you and your guest of honor is quite
celebrated, isn't he?"
"Very," he said enthusiastically. "He's been in the papers and
a lot. The critics rave about him. I'm going to read his book as soon as
he gives me the copy he promised me."0
"I'll expect you tomorrow night," she said. "Como at dinner time.
Father will want you to sample his latest concoction. Keep the rest of the
evening free, will you? My sorority is eh- having a dance at the Renaissance.
There's no tax, Maybe you'd like to look in."
"I'd love to," he exclaimed," but I can't! I've a meeting at
nine, important. Anyway," he added helpfully, "I haven't got a tux."
Her eyes returned to her toe, but this time they were sorrowful.
Cocktails, little sausages on toothpicks, black and green olives,
cheeses with crisp little crackers, two-inch sandwiches, went in continuous file
around the room. Our hostess had a fine array of liquor with impressive labels
on the improvised bar. Once she had recommended her bootlegger to us, but we had
stopped his visits when we found his labels were often not yet dry and no two like
bottles had similar tasts. Since most of the people were connoisseurs no more than
we were, they ea erly drank the badly cut liquor and got high.
The actress, from a chair -backed hassock, surveyed the room with
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disdain, She was playing in a downtown hitt Her hair went up and her nose turned
up, and even her lips was slightly curled. She mas light -skinned and lovely and
remote as a queen among her subjects. Ten years ago she had been a gamin and her
accent had been Harlem. Now offstage she mas indistinguishable from a throaty
En-lishman.
We bent to flick our ashes in the tray she was holding in a graceful
hand, our mouths open for a pretty compliment. She withdrew her hand in horror and
we let our ashes fall on the floor. Her eyes asked us elegantly, "Have we met?"
The white movie critic started toward her, the white artist's wife
on his arm. The actress smiled and smiled.
The woman said, "My husband and I saw your show last night. We
thought you were marvelous."
"How kinds" said the actress.
"My paper gave you quite a plug," said the movie critic proudly.
The actress smiled and smiled again. All of them beamed at each
other.
"I'm so -o -o sorry," the actress murmured, "that we haven't been
introduced. May I have the pleasure of your acquaintance?"
The movie critic told her his name and introduced the artist's
wife. In a moment they were as chatty as old friends.
We had come at a late hour, and when it was an hour past the
scheduled time for the party's end, the crowd gradually began to thin, Our hostess's
hair -up had drifted down and her trailing gown had been trampled on. She struck
a graceful pose at the door, and her meticulous phrases sped each departing guest.
We had not seen our hostess in several months. She urged us to
stay for a little chat. When the last guest had gone, she dispatched her husband
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and the janitor's wife with borrowed chairs and hassocks and end tables and ashtrays
to various flats in the house.
She sat down, shook her shoes off, and pulled the rest of her hair
dawn. he lifted her arms and wrinkled her nose.
"I put four on the card, 'cause I know colored folks, and I knew
they'd start coming around six. I didn't even plan to take my bath until five.
I start sweating so quick. And then at four sharp here comd two white folks. I
forgot they don't keep c. p. time. Well, I jumped into this, and did my hair
and face, and I know they thought my party was a flop, because nobody else came
unt'l around five, and they left before six."
We said it was the best attended partyweld been to in a long
time.
She fanned herself under the arms.
"It was kinda nice, wasn't it?" she agreed. Then she chuckled
softly. "You notice how Doctor Brown's wife kept looking at me? She knows he
likes me. She only came to keep her eye on him. She'd have to go some to keep
her eye on me! You notice that good-looking chap with his wife, cne wore the
sleazy green dress?" She smiled meaningfully. "Well, she's just up for the
holidays, but he's here for the winter."
The janitor's wife came back. She was frankly dragging now.
Her cap was at a comic angle, tut she did not look funny.
She stood respectfully
before our hstess. I could see that one of her shoe -laces was black and the
other was white, ink -stained black.
"I'll see you saturda," said our hostess to her cheerfully, though
this was Sunday. "That all right? I won't have a penny until then. Pouring
liquor down all these darkies cost a lot. They'll talk about you if your drinks
are scarce. Saturday noon, I'll see you, Flora."
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The woman covered her embarrassment with a painful smile. "That's
all right," she said.
She turned to go. When she reached the door, our hostess jumped
up suddenly, called to her to wait, rummage: in her bathroom, returned and thrust
some silk pieces in the woman's hands,
"Mill you do these for me, Flora? I'll pick them up Saturday when
I pay you."
When the door shut behind Flora, our hostess came back and said
triumphantly, "I'll give her a few cents extra, and I'll save a dollar's washing.
We're going to two affairs this week, and that dollar'll mean taxi fare. I hate
to come home lat at nirht in a subway with a lot of funny looking derelicts."
We said we hadn't been anywhere in weeks and hoped that she'd
have a good time.
Our hostess said we ought to get out more, and she tried to interest
us in the affairs she was planning to attend. Cnevas for Spain, the other for
China, both causes worth supporting. She spoke with feeling of the pogroms in
German)" It was obvious that she kept abreast of the international situation.
We asked her what he thought of the Gaines decisir,n.
She said she hadn't seen any reference to it in her paper, and she
read the paper daily.
We said it had been given front page space in the Negro weeklies
for the past two weeks.
She laughed and answered that she only read the society pages of
the Negro papers because of their poor journalism. The society reporters were no
better, but at least you kept up with what the darkies were doing. As an after-
thought she asked us what the Gaines decision was.
We explained that it was a Supreme Court Lecision whereby a southern
state must either admit a Negro student to its university or build a university of
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equal standards for him.
She laughed and said she hoped they'd build one. She was tired
of her present job and she was a qualified teacher. She'd like to go South
a teach a group of good-looking male students.
Her husband returned. It was obvious that he had had another drink
or two in somebody's flat. It had made him hungry.
"Any food, female?" he addressed his wife. "None of these scraps."
He surveyed with distaste the dainty sandwiches. "Got any greens left?"
"Greens and spare ribs, have some with us?" she asked.
We thanked her bur, said we really should go.
lier husband looked at us a little belligerently. He was born in
the South, and he said that he yearned for it, but he never got any farther than
his government job in Washington even on holidays.
"You don't like colored folks cooking?" he asked.
We said that we loved greens and .spare ribs and named all the other
southern dishes and said that we loved them, too.
He smailed at us paternally and said that he wished we were all down
South, celebrating the New Year right, with black-eyed peas and hoghead.
"My mother," he reminisced happily, "would turn her house inside out
for my friends. You folks up North got a lot to learn about hospitality. You all
buy a quart of gin, a box of crackers, and a bottle of olives, and throw a couple
of white folks in, and call it a cocktail party."
Our hostess stood in her stocking feet and drew herself up grandly.
"You're drunk," she said coldly. "Go and eat."
Gravely he bade us goodnight and walked away with unsteady dignity.
Our hostess went to the door with us in her stocking feet. Again
we thanked her for a lovely party.
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She surveyed her tumbled rooms complacently.
"I'll clean up and take a bath and turn on the radio and do my
paper. I'm speaking Wednesday at the Young atrons, meeting. I'm going to talk
on the evil of anti-Semitism. There is some anti-Semitism in Harlem which should
be scorched at the start. How you like that for a bubject?
We told her we didn't think there was any anti-Semitism in Harlem as
There was only the poor man's resentment of exploitation by the rich.. It
such.
was incidental that in this particular instance that one was black and one was
Jewish. black workers and Jewish workers did not hate each other.
"May -Le," she said brightly. "But I still think it's a good topic
for a paper. Last month some dumb cluck read a paper on child care. Who can
afford to have a child now anyway? I want to give 'em a paper on something
current."
We urged her to go and put her shoes on before *he caught cold. We
brushed cheeks all around.
back
When we gott,hame, we wondered as usual why we had gone to a cocktail
party.
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