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Romany Marie

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Marie Marchand
Marie Marchandc.early 1930s
Born(1885-05-17)17 May 1885
Băbeni,Vâlcea County,Romania
Died20 February 1961(1961-02-20)(aged 75)

Marie Marchand(May 17, 1885,Băbeni,Vâlcea County— February 20, 1961,Greenwich Village,New York), known asRomany Marie,was aGreenwich Villagerestaurateurwho played a key role inbohemianismfrom the early 1900s through the late 1950s inManhattan.

Romany Marie's cafés

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Her cafés, which encompassed the functions ofbistroandsalonfor the bohemianintelligentsia,[1]were popular restaurants which attracted the core of the Greenwich Village cultural scene,[2]"hot spots for creative types,"[3]which she considered centers for her "circle of thinking people,"[4]: [p.39] the circle which she had sought since 1901 when she arrived in theUnited StatesfromRomanianMoldaviaat the age of sixteen.

Romany Marie's cafés were among the most interesting in New York's Bohemia[5]and had an extensive following.[6]Moresalonsthantaverns,they were places for the interchange and pollination of ideas,[7]places of polarity and warmth,[4]: [p.61] successful enterprises which were popular with artists.[8]Many regulars such asinventorBuckminster Fuller[9]andsculptorsIsamu Noguchi[10]andDavid Smith[11]compared them to thecafésofParis.

Romany Marie herself, who has been described as attractive and unusual, lively and generous, and a Village legend,[2]was a dynamic character[1]who provided free meals to those who needed them[2][12][13][14]and was well known and beloved.[12]She was a former anarchist[1][8]who had attendedEmma Goldmanmeetings before 1910, while she was still learning English.[4]: [pp.40–41] Although she later distanced herself from anarchism,[1]she was described as prominent in anarchy and socialism byThe New York Timesas late as 1915.[15]

She became a leader in Greenwich Village, and not only among the habitués of her own establishments. For example, in June 1921, when there were publicprotestsafter theWashington SquareAssociation brought charges against "the tea rooms and dancing places of the village" for immorality,The Timescredited a local pastor's letter of approval to 'Dear Romany Marie' as the turning point in the crisis.[16]

Habitués

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PainterJohn French Sloanwas a regular from 1912 until 1935 when he returned toChelsea.[17]His vivid portrait of Romany Marie,[1]painted in 1920, is now in theWhitney Museum of American Art.There are still a number of prints in existence of his 1922 etching,Romany Marye in Christopher Street.[18][19]

PoetEdna St. Vincent Millaywrote the famous quatrain that beginsMy candle burns at both ends,[20]which at the time she called "My Candle" and later re-titled "First Fig,"[21]at Romany Marie's in 1915 or 1916 during a visit withCharles Edison,his fiancée Carolyn Hawkins, and others.

PlaywrightEugene O'Neillwas one of many needy artists whom Romany Marie fed when they could not pay for meals.[22]: [p.130] She was said to have kept O'Neill alive during 1916 and 1917 by feeding him regularly in her kitchen when he was an alcoholic.[2]

When visionary architectBuckminster Fullerfirst visited in the late 1910s with his wife and his father-in-law, thearchitectandmuralistJames Monroe Hewlett,the only people present in the restaurant when they arrived were Romany Marie andO'Neill:"The entire evening was devoted to conversation with those two unique individuals."[23]: [p.74] 

SculptorIsamu Noguchifirst visited in October 1929.[24]He had been in Paris on aGuggenheim Fellowshipand had been working for several months withConstantin Brâncuși,[3][7]who recommended that he visit Romany Marie's when he returned to the United States.[25]Brâncuși—like Marie, of Romanian heritage—was an old friend of hers in Paris and New York;[4]: [p.109] he also visited Romany Marie's withHenri Matisse.

Fuller was living in Greenwich Village by then and was a regular at Marie's. By informal arrangement[7]he delivered lectures in a style he called "thinking out loud" several times per week, which "were well received by a fascinated clientele."[23]: [pp.119–142] He also took on Marie's interior decoration, with shiny aluminum paint and aluminum furniture,[3][10]in exchange for meals.[25]Models of theDymaxion housewere exhibited at Romany Marie's, and Fuller and Noguchi were soon collaborating on theDymaxion car.[24]

ArcticexplorerVilhjalmur Stefansson,a regular for many years,[2]also brought fellowExplorers Clubmembers such asPeter Freuchen,Lowell Thomas,and SirGeorge Hubert Wilkins.[4]: [p.110] NovelistFannie Hurstwas also a regular,[1]particularly during the years when she and Stefansson were having a long affair.[2]: [p.195] [26]

Stefansson hiredRuth Gruberas a translator of German documents, which he needed for his study of theArctic countriesfor theWar Department,having met Gruber at Romany Marie's in 1931 or 1932[27]after her return from theUniversity of Cologneat age 20 with herdoctorate.Years later, in 1941, Stefansson met his future wife Evelyn Schwartz Baird at Romany Marie's.[2]: [pp.251–252] 

PaleontologistWalter Granger,anotherExplorers Clubmember, was said to have been equally at home in the "elite chambers" of theAmerican Museum of Natural Historyas when camped in a field hunting forfossilsor hanging out with the bohemians at Romany Marie's.[28]

Museum of Modern ArtcuratorDorothy Canning Millerwas a regular,[29]as was her husbandHolger Cahill,[30]whose selection of paintings fromMark Tobey's 1929 solo exhibition at Romany Marie's was a turning point in Tobey's career.[31]

Lionel Abel,who came to the Village in 1929, was one of those who depended on Romany Marie's generosity.[13]Theodore Dreiserwas an occasional visitor; he preferredLüchow'son14th Street.[22]: [p.299] Arshile Gorkymet with friends and colleagues at Romany Marie's two or three nights a week.[14]David Smithhung out at Romany Marie's and other establishments with Gorky,Joseph Stella,John D. Graham,Willem de Kooning,Stuart Davisand others who briefly formed anabstract expressionistgroup[11]which preceded what became known as "The Club."[22]: [p.546] 

One of the features of Romany Marie's establishments was the "Poets' Table" where "The Tramp Poet"Harry Kemp[32]held forth with poets and non-poets alike includingPaul Robeson,Edgard Varèse,andMarsden Hartley.[22]: [p.366] Nearly half a century after Kemp's first visit in 1912, Romany Marie's was the first stop on the 1960 pilgrimage his friends undertook according to histape recordedlast wishes, "I want half my ashes to be scattered over the dunes inProvincetownand the other half in Greenwich Village. "[32]

The thing is, in the fantastically mixed atmosphere we had, even the misfits and the lonely could get direction because there was nothing mushy or poshy about the atmosphere. Can you imagine in the same night, among the guests,DreiserandDurantandJohn Cowper Powys,not like celebrities but being themselves? My long-time friend,Vilhjalmur Stefansson,compared it to theColumbia University Library.There, he said, people added volumes to their knowledge; at my place they added friends.

— Romany Marie,[4]: [p.93] 

Locations

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The first location, rented in 1914 near Sheridan Square at 133 Washington Place[1][4]: [pp.16–17, p. 63ff] [20][33]on the third floor of a four-story building, was reached by climbing one outside staircase and two inside staircases.

From 1915 through 1923, Romany Marie's was in a tiny house at 20Christopher Street,[4]: [pp.17–18, p. 68ff] and, from 1923 through the late 1920s, at 1701⁄2Waverly Place.[1]: [p.46] 

The eleven locations over the years— "The caravan has moved"[4]: [p.68] was the sign on the door each time with the new address—also included:

Biography

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Romany Marie Marchand was of Jewish descent, born inNichitoaia,Romaniain 1885.[37]Her father was Lupu Yuster and her mother, Esther Rosen, was a Jew.

Marie, her sister Rose (who marriedLeonard Dalton Abbottin 1915), their brother David (the youngest), and their mother Esther (known as Mother Yuster, her portrait was painted byRobert Henri), were all active in theModern Schools(FerrerSchools) in New York City and inStelton,Piscataway Township, New Jersey.[38]Her sister Rebecca, who followed Marie to the United States, died in her 20's in New York City.

Romany Marie's "centers" for her "circle of thinking people" began in 1912 in their three-room apartment onSt. Mark's Placein theEast Village,[4]: [p.42] and later in their rented house inThe Bronx,[4]: [p.50] before opening in Greenwich Village in 1914.[4]: [p.59] 

Her husband Arnold Damon Marchand, also known as A. D. or AD Marchand, was an unlicensed but apparently effectiveosteopath.He once treatedMabel Dodge Luhan's husband Tony Luhan for aslipped disc,in the winter of 1940, when Luhan and authorFrank Waterswere visiting New York fromTaos, New Mexico.[39]

AuthorBen Reitmanincluded Romany Marie among the characters in his fictional autobiographySister of the Road(1937),[40]whichMartin Scorseseadapted for the 1972 filmBoxcar Bertha.In the mysteriesFree LoveandMurder Me Now(2001), which are set in the Village in the early 1920s duringProhibition,authorAnnette Meyersincluded both Romany Marie and her husband A. D. Marchand, called Damon, among the characters.[41]

JournalistRobert Schulman,a co-founder of theLouisville Eccentric Observer,[42]was Romany Marie Marchand's nephew.[43]During his youth in New York City he visited her frequently in Greenwich Village. In adulthood, whenever he was in the city, he recordedoral historyinterviews with her and with many of her devotees. Schulman, whose biography ofJohn Sherman Cooperwas published in 1976, published his biography of "that bohemian aunt... with little regard for profit but with central regard for giving unconventional and creative people a place at little cost to talk, think, perform and ponder"[44]in 2006. He died at the age of 91 on January 6, 2008.

References

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  1. ^abcdefghJan Whitaker.Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn: A Social History of the Tea Room Craze in America(pp. 42–43 except where otherwise noted). New York:St. Martin's Press,2002.ISBN0-312-29064-0.
  2. ^abcdefgGísli Pálsson.Travelling Passions: The Hidden Life OfVilhjalmur Stefansson(p. 187 except where otherwise noted).Lebanon, New Hampshire:University Press of New England,2005.ISBN1-58465-510-0.
  3. ^abcGrace Glueck(May 19, 2006)."The Architect and the Sculptor: A Friendship of Ideas".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on January 16, 2018.RetrievedFebruary 12,2017.
  4. ^abcdefghijklmRobert Schulman.Romany Marie: The Queen of Greenwich Village.Louisville:Butler Books, 2006.ISBN1-884532-74-8.
  5. ^Irving Henry Brown.Gypsy Fires in America: A Narrative of Life Among the Romanies of the United States and Canada(p. 131). New York:Harper & Brothers,1924. Later editions includeGale Research(1974)ISBN0-8103-3942-0,andKessinger Publishing(2007)ISBN0-548-11110-3."Most interesting of all is Romany Marie herself... Sitting one evening in the dim café, enjoying a tastyRumanian dishand listening to a record ofgypsy music,we discussed artists andRomanies.'After all,' she remarked, 'they are very much alike.' "
  6. ^abcRian James.Dining in New York(pp. 194–196). First edition, New York:John Day Company,1930. 2007 reprint edition, New York: K.S. Giniger,ISBN1-4067-8347-1."Here, you'll find well-known villagers, artists, and locally well-known scribes; long-haired gentlemen who will argue with you as to the existence of God, and cheerfully take either side; and short-haired ladies who can explain whatHumanismmeans, and will, if you let them. "
  7. ^abcJohn Haskell."Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi".Kraine Gallery Bar Lit, Fall 2007.Archived fromthe originalon 2008-05-13.Retrieved2008-02-14.
  8. ^abEmily Kies Folpe.It Happened on Washington Square(p. 266).Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press,2002.ISBN0-8018-7088-7.
  9. ^"Bucky Fuller Biographical Info".MIQEL.Archivedfrom the original on 2015-11-26.Retrieved2008-02-14.[Fuller]: It was probably the last of the really great Bohemian cafés I know of in the world — very much like the Paris of the [19]20s. The Village was loaded then with great artists and great intellectuals, and Marie had by far the best place in town. That's where I carried on and developed my ideas.
  10. ^abConducted by Paul Cummings at Noguchi's studio inLong Island City, Queens(November 7, 1973)."Interview with Isamu Noguchi".SmithsonianArchives of American Art.Archivedfrom the original on July 15, 2018.RetrievedFebruary 14,2008.[Noguchi]:... one met a lot of people down there. It was sort of a transfer of the Paris café life to New York in Romany Marie's. She had a real function.
  11. ^abDavid Smith(c. 1952)."Atmosphere of the Early Thirties".Archived fromthe originalon 2008-01-01.Retrieved2008-02-14.Her place came closer to being a Continental café with its varied types of professionals than any other place I knew.
  12. ^ab"Lot 325: Julian Levi (1900-82)".Appraisers Association of America ArtFact Auction Database, 1998.Archivedfrom the original on 2011-07-19.Retrieved2008-02-14.Her cafe, which bore her name, was a frequent haunt for struggling writers, poets, artists and scientists, who were assured a good meal whether they were able to pay for it or not.
  13. ^abJoseph Dorman.Arguing the World: The New York Intellectuals in Their Own WordsArchived2008-03-25 at theWayback Machine(based on Dorman'sPBSdocumentary filmonIrving Howe,Irving Kristol,Daniel Bell,andNathan Glazer).Free Press,2000.ISBN0-684-86279-4.University of Chicago Presspaperback edition, 2001ISBN0-226-15814-4.
    Lionel Abel(p. 79): "Now, when I was hungry, Romany Marie would serve me dinner. A wonderful dinner! On the house! There was no other place in the city like that. Certainly not uptown. She felt that she had some obligation to people who visited her tavern. So the Village was like avillage.It combined the intimacy of village life with sophistication. "
  14. ^abMatthew Spender.From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky(p. 83). Berkeley:University of California Press,2000.ISBN0-520-22548-1."You could run up a bill at Romany Marie's and pay when you sold a painting."
  15. ^"Disorder in Court as Sanger is Fined: Justices Order Room Cleared When Socialists and Anarchists Hoot Verdict"(PDF).The New York Times.September 11, 1915.Archived(PDF)from the original on May 7, 2024.RetrievedJune 13,2018.The Timesnoted Romany Marie among "many men and women prominent in anarchy and Socialism" who were present in the crowded courtroom — "filled and a hundred more struggled to get in" — when architect William Sanger,Margaret Sanger's husband, was sentenced for a violation of theComstock laws:he had given someone a pamphlet of information aboutcontraception.
  16. ^"All's Quiet in the Village: Letter of Approval by Pastor Helps Rout Detractors"(PDF).The New York Times.June 10, 1921.Archived(PDF)from the original on August 7, 2023.RetrievedJune 13,2018.
  17. ^"Walking Tours".John Sloan's New York.Delaware Art Museum.Archivedfrom the original on 2008-01-17.Retrieved2008-02-14.IncludesRomany Marie's TavernArchived2011-07-26 at theWayback Machinepodcastlink.
  18. ^Delaware Art Museum(October 20, 2007 – January 20, 2008)."Seeing the City: Sloan's New York (exhibit)".Romany Marye in Christopher Street, 1922, 1936.Archivedfrom the original on October 11, 2008.RetrievedFebruary 14,2008.Though signs for her restaurant read 'Romany Marie's Tavern,' Sloan always spelled her name 'Marye.'
  19. ^John French Sloan(1922)."Romany Marye in Christopher Street"(etching).Archivedfrom the original on 2008-03-24.Retrieved2008-02-14.Sloan wrote of this print: "All Greenwich Villagers know Romany Marye, who has acted the part of hostess, philosopher, and friend in her series of quiet little restaurants for the past thirty-five years. The etching shows her chatting [center foreground] in her deep comfortable voice to Dolly and myself." Sloan is depicted at the lower right, with the pipe; his wife Dolly is at the lower left.
  20. ^abMichael Browning (August 18, 1996)."The Eternal Flame".The Miami Herald.Archived fromthe originalon December 17, 2010.
  21. ^Cited inAn Annotated Bibliography of WorksArchived2007-10-09 at theWayback MachineaboutEdna St. Vincent Millay:Kisch, Arnold I.The Romantic Ghost of Greenwich Village:Guido Brunoin his Garret.Frankfurt:Peter Lang,1976.ISBN3-261-01727-9.
  22. ^abcdeRoss Wetzsteon.Republic of Dreams: Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia, 1910–1960.New York:Simon & Schuster,2003.ISBN0-684-86996-9.( "... the essence ofthe Villagewas to create a miniature society where personal idiosyncrasy could flourish through communal solidarity. Even Americans who have remained hostile to the Village have been fascinated by it because it has been a kind oflaboratoryin which a nation at once dedicated to militantindividualismand to middle-class conformity could witness attempts to overcome thatparadox."p. 548)
  23. ^abLloyd Steven Sieden.Buckminster Fuller's Universe: His Life and Work.New York:Perseus Books Group,2000.ISBN0-7382-0379-3."AlthoughO'Neillsoon became well known as a major American playwright, it was Romany Marie who would significantly influence Bucky, becoming his close friend and confidante during the most difficult years of his life. "[p. 74]
  24. ^abMichael John Gorman (March 12, 2002)."Passenger Files: Isamo Noguchi, 1904–1988".Towards a cultural history of Buckminster Fuller'sDymaxion Car.StanfordHumanities Lab. Archived fromthe originalon September 16, 2007.Includes images.
  25. ^abJohn Haber."Before Buckyballs".Haber Arts.Archivedfrom the original on 2008-01-21.Retrieved2008-02-14.Review of theNoguchi Museum's 2006Best of Friendsexhibition
  26. ^Fannie Hurst.Anatomy of Me: A Wonderer in Search of Herself(p. 219). New York:Doubleday,1958.ISBN0-405-12843-6.
  27. ^Ruth Gruber.Virginia Woolf: The Will to Create as a Woman(p. 22). New York:Carroll & Graf Publishers,2005.ISBN0-7867-1534-0.
  28. ^Vincent L. Morgan and Spencer G. Lucas."Walter Granger, 1872–1941, Paleontologist"(PDF).Albuquerque:New Mexico Museum of Natural History and ScienceBulletin 19, 2002. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2008-05-13.Retrieved2008-02-14.
  29. ^Lindsay Pollock(November 3, 2003)."Mama MoMA".New York Magazine.Archivedfrom the original on October 3, 2011.RetrievedFebruary 14,2008.Her favorite hangout in the thirties was Romany Marie's Cafe, on 8th Street, which served cheap Romanian food and beer and had, at the time, the best salon. There she met Buckminster Fuller, and hung out with Isamu Noguchi and even Vilhjálmur Stefánsson, the Arctic explorer. "At Marie's, people didn't have enough money to get drunk. People just talked and talked and talked," she said. "It was very amusing."
  30. ^Jeffers, Wendy (1991). "Holger Cahill and American Art".Archives of American Art Journal.31(4): 2–11.doi:10.1086/aaa.31.4.1557706.JSTOR1557706.S2CID192808203.
  31. ^Deloris Tarzan Ament (February 16, 2003)."Tobey, Mark (1890–1976): The Old Master of the Young American Painting".HistoryLink.Archivedfrom the original on October 28, 2007.RetrievedFebruary 14,2008.
  32. ^abAlan Bodian."Harry Hibbard Kemp".Cape CodHistory and Genealogy ofWellfleet.Archivedfrom the original on 2011-06-23.Retrieved2008-02-14.
  33. ^abMarilyn Weigner Associates."The South Village".Archived fromthe originalon 2004-04-05.Retrieved2008-02-14.Includes map of theWest Village.
  34. ^Old And Sold (1959)."Greenwich Village".Archivedfrom the original on 2008-02-18.Retrieved2008-02-14.(photos of the Paine buildingArchived2008-04-23 at theWayback Machine)
  35. ^Jim Naureckas."8th Street/St. Marks Place".New York Songlines.Archivedfrom the original on 2003-04-28.Retrieved2009-06-07.
  36. ^Christine Stansell(June 2, 2000)."When the Village Broke Free".The New York Times.
  37. ^Constantin Antonovici.Brancusi - Maestrul(p. 57).Bucharest, Romania:Semne, 2002.ISBN973-624-018-5.
  38. ^Modern Schoolof Stelton (May 1940)."25th Anniversary Committee".IncludesFerrertribute byLeonard Dalton Abbott.Archivedfrom the original on 2008-10-10.Retrieved2008-02-14.
  39. ^Frank Waters.Of Time and Change(pp. 53–54).San Francisco:MacAdam/Cage, 1998.ISBN1-878448-86-2.
  40. ^Ben Lewis Reitman.Sister of the Road: The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha(p. 102). Fictional autobiography. New York: The Macaulay Company, 1937. 1975 reprint edition,Harper & Row.2002AK PressNabat series reprint edition,ISBN1-902593-03-0.
  41. ^Annette Meyers.New York:Warner Books,2001.Free Love,ISBN0-446-60921-8;Murder Me Now,ISBN0-446-67891-0.
  42. ^Bill Wolfe (January 7, 2008)."Media critic Schulman dies at 91: 'conscience of local journalism'".The Courier-Journal.
  43. ^Butler Books Authors."Bob Schulman".Archivedfrom the original on 2008-05-24.Retrieved2008-02-14.
  44. ^Cary Stemle (January 2008)."Hail, and farewell: One man's opinion is that there will never be another Bob Schulman".Louisville Eccentric Observer.Archivedfrom the original on 2024-05-07.Retrieved2008-02-14.

Further reading

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