New York -
Memories abound here at the Algonquin Hotel, especially jazz sets at the old Oak Room. I obviously have no memories of the fabled Algonquin Round Table, however, since those lunches of creative luminaries occurred here in the 1920s. Too bad. Imagine being the proverbial fly on the wall for that drunken ribaldry?
The Algonquin opened in 1902 and quickly became a hang-out for the literary and theatrical sets. Drawn from that crowd, Round Table members spoke, argued, smoked, and drank to excess. Dorothy Parker, a Round Table regular, vividly underscored the liquid nature of their lunches with her quip, “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.” One of our great wordsmiths, Parker could out-drink and out-think most of the boys.
And what a Round Table roster it was. They met almost daily for lunch and actually referred to themselves as the Vicious Circle. Parker was joined by Robert Benchley, Heywood Broun, Edna Ferber, Jane Grant, George Kaufman, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Harpo Marx, and Harold Ross. Ross and Grant founded The New Yorker in 1925 during the Round Table years.
Many places in this great city speak to such rich history. The Algonquin Hotel is one them. Color me old-fashioned, but I believe it’s our responsibility to know the history. It certainly makes life interesting.