The Telephone Booth Indian (Library of Larceny) [Paperback]

A.J. Liebling (Author)

Book Description

Series: Library of Larceny | Publication Date: July 13, 2004

A classic work on Broadway sharpers, grifters, and con men by the late, great New Yorker journalist A. J. Liebling.

Often referred to as “Liebling lowlife pieces,” the essays in The Telephone Booth Indian boisterously celebrate raffishness. A. J. Liebling appreciated a good scam and knew how to cultivate the scammers. Telephone Booth Indians (entrepreneurs so impecunious that they conduct business from telephone booths in the lobbies of New York City office buildings) and a host of other petty nomads of Broadway—with names like Marty the Clutch and Count de Pennies—are the protagonists in this incomparable Liebling work. In The Telephone Booth Indian, Liebling proves just why he was the go-to man on New York lowlife and con culture; this is the master at the top of his form, uncovering scam after scam and writing about them with the wit and charisma that established him as one of the greatest journalists of his generation and one of New York’s finest cultural chroniclers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In its homage to America’s most rakish hucksters, Broadway’s "Library of Larceny" series reissues this collection of irreverent "low-life" pieces penned by Liebling, a mid-century fixture at the New Yorker renowned for his intimacy with con culture. Originally published in 1942, this sinewy compendium opens the door to the gritty underworld of grifters, showmen and hustlers from a bygone era of deadpan humor, decadent bonhomie and vigorous one-upmanship. With affectionate aplomb, Liebling introduces us to the colorful if unscrupulous denizens of Broadway’s Jollity Building, whose names alone are reminiscent of Garbage Pail Kids: Paddy the Booster, Acid Test Ike, Lotsandlots, Judge Horumph, Count de Pennies and Marty the Clutch (so named for his "custom of mangling people’s fingers when he shakes hands with them"). The "telephone booth Indians" moniker refers to promoters so pressed for cash that they must conduct their wheeling and dealing from one of the lobby’s eight coin-box phone booths. While it’s riveting to learn about the humble, hardscrabble beginnings of the Shubert (yes, as in theater) brothers, what’s most memorable about this masterpiece is the nostalgia Liebling evokes in his reader for larger-than-life characters such as the sartorial peacock Roy Wilson Howard, a newsman whose self-control on the telephone Liebling irresistibly likens to that "of a fat woman waving away a tray of chocolate eclairs." With a foreword by critic and Low Life author Luc Sante.
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Review

“Liebling remains the nonpareil.” —Anthony Lewis

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (July 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767917367
• ISBN-13: 978-0767917360
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #715,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Liebling Puts the Lumpen Back in Lumpenproletariot, September 1, 2000

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Telephone Booth Indian (Paperback)

This collection of stories, written mostly in the late 30's for "The New Yorker," describes a motley group of a certain type, what Liebling calls (with his usual dry, inventive humor) "a capitalist...in a state of pre-primary acquisition." Call them what you will-- lowlifes, riff-raff, or con men--Liebling describes them with both humor and humanity. The "Telephone Booth Indian," for example is a man or woman so poor as to not have an office; so poor, in fact, as to not have a "nickel with which to make a telephone call, and so must wait in the booths until another fellow calls him."

Among Leibling's most successful entrepreneurs are the two men who put on shows at Fairs and Exhibitions. They drop an intended religious display because, "Rogers says, without any intended disrespect, `the nuns would not play ball with us.'" Liebling is attuned to social forces at work in these late depression years; for example, the minority group boxing amateurs fighting for $15 watches, and still having an easier time making a living than the professionals. And, in great detail, Leibling describes the occupants of the composite "Jollity Building," including the telephone booth Indians (those without offices), heels (those who rent offices for $10 to $12.50 a month) and tenants (those who lease offices, but who often rotate back to "Indians" within a short time). "Heels are often, paradoxically, more affluent than the official lessees of larger offices" who often share desk time and name on the office door time, since the manager allows only one official lessee. They get around this by having their names painted and taped to the door during their scheduled time. "One two-desk office ... may serve as headquarters for four theatrical agents, a band leader, a music arranger, a manager of prize fighters, and a dealer in pawn tickets."

Liebling provides a wonderfully rich lexicography here as well, such as the two show producers who explain that they do not provide "hokum" to the masses, but "gonk." "Gonk is hokum with raisins in it...gonk is what we do." Liebling writes with detail, vigor, and affection. This talent, along with his socioeconomic insight, gives dignity to these people and to Liebling's dry wit: These are people doing what they can do in difficult times. I was reminded a bit of Woody Allen's "Broadway Danny Rose" which similarly chronicles those on the fringe. At first, I pitied those people, but Allen, like Liebling, shows that they do not pity themselves (not that there isn't an underlying injustice and inequality portrayed here). Liebling's humorous book shows great insight into their struggles, and an appreciation of how they creatively (and, sometimes, illegally) negotiate their needs both because of, and, in spite of, the American entrepreneurial dream. Definitely worth looking for!