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In 1965 I hosted From the Bitter End, a local New York TV show, shot in a studio, that featured many of the performers made famous at the club.
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Excerpt From Chapter 4 - Bleecker Street The Birth of The Bitter End As Tom and I pondered how many coats of paint it would be take to brighten up the club’s grimy walls and mask the acrid stink of cigarette smoke that had permeated the place over the years, he noticed a sliver of sunlight falling on a section of chipped plaster. Picking away at the crumbling plaster with his thumbnail to assess the damage, Tom inadvertently unloosed a fair-sized chunk, revealing a rough, rust-colored surface behind. Intrigued, we pulled away a little more plaster and discovered the under-surface was solid brick in apparently fine condition. The more we chipped away at the plaster, the more brick in glorious shades of red emerged, and the more excited we became. We couldn’t stop ourselves. We clawed, chipped, hammered, scraped, chiseled, and peeled the night away. Finally, as the sun came up over the Village, we stepped back and took in what we had achieved. Rising out of the dust and debris at our feet stood a beautiful brick wall, as solid and perfect as when it was first constructed almost a century and a half before. We couldn’t have imagined it at the time, but this humble edifice would come to be viewed as an enduring, iconic symbol. Maybe it wouldn’t have the same social and historical impact as the Wailing Wall, the Great Wall of China, or the Berlin Wall, but as much as any simple brick and mortar structure could, it staked its own claim in history. |
“I wept, laughed, and felt privileged to hear the voice of this lasting legend in his own time—an engaging, riveting book ... You won't be able to put it down!” |
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