If you think elections are corrupt these days, listen to what Adolph “Harpo” Marx remembers about Election Day in turn of the 20th century New York City.
It was “the one supreme holiday held every two years,” recalled Harpo in his autobiography Harpo Speaks . . . About New York. (Until 1906, mayors were elected to two-year terms.)
“The great holiday used to last a full thirty hours,” wrote Harpo. “On election eve, Tammany forces marched up and down the avenues by torchlight, with bugles blaring and drums booming. There was free beer for the men, and free firecrackers and punk for the kids, and nobody slept that night.”
Schools and business closed for the day. “Around noon a hansom cab, courtesy of Tammany Hall, would pull up in front of our house.
Frenchie (Harpo’s tailor father) and Grandpa, dressed in their best suits (which they otherwise wore only to weddings, bar mitzvahs, or funerals), would get in the cab and go clip-clop, in tip-top style, off to the polls.”
After the cab brought them back to the Marx family tenement on East 93rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues, Harpo’s father and grandfather (who wasn’t even a U.S. citizen) would wait . . . until the hansom cab came back to take them to the polls a second time.
“About a half-hour later, the hansom cab would reappear, and Frenchie and Grandpa would go off and vote again. If it was a tough year, with a Reform movement threatening the city, they’d be taken to vote a third time.”
Festivities began on election night.
“The streets were cleared of horses, buggies, and wagons. All crosstown traffic stopped. At seven o’clock fireworks began to go off, the signal that the polls were closed.
Whooping and hollering, a whole generation of kids came tumbling down out of the tenements and got their bonfires going. By a quarter after seven, the East Side was ablaze.
“Grandpa enjoyed the sight as much as I did. . . .He pulled his chair closer to the window and lit the butt of his Tammany stoogie.
“‘Ah, we are lucky to be in America,’ he said in German, taking a deep drag on the cigar he got for voting illegally and lifting his head to watch the shooting flames. ‘Ah yes! This is a true democracy.'”
[Middle illustration: “Election Night Bonfire,” Glenn O. Coleman, date unknown]
Tags: Election Day 1900, Election Day in New York City, Election Night Bonfire NYC, Harpo Marx autobiography, Marx Brothers East 93rd Street, Tammany Hall Corrupt Elections, Voter Fraud in New York City Elections
Ephemeral New York 
November 3, 2014 at 2:24 pm |
Harpo’s memoir is a marvelous book.
November 3, 2014 at 11:55 pm |
I agree, I’ve read it over and over again. He takes you right there with him, a gift not every writer has.
January 26, 2015 at 4:09 am |
I recently read “Harpo Speaks”. A well-written book with heart that tells you what it was like to be a Marx brother and what his wonderful family life was like.
December 9, 2019 at 2:35 pm |
[…] transactional relationship: In big machines like New York’s Tammany Hall, local politicians provided food and beer, and constituents provided votes. New York City Election Day was a huge, wild party, complete with […]
December 9, 2019 at 6:14 pm |
[…] more transactional relationship: In big machines like New York’s Tammany Hall, local politicians provided food and beer, and constituents provided votes. New York City Election Day was a huge, wild party, complete with […]
December 10, 2019 at 12:21 pm |
[…] more transactional relationship: In big machines like New York’s Tammany Hall, local politicians provided food and beer, and constituents provided votes. New York City Election Day was a huge, wild party, complete with […]
December 10, 2019 at 1:48 pm |
[…] more transactional relationship: In big machines like New York’s Tammany Hall, local politicians provided food and beer, and constituents provided votes. New York City Election Day was a huge, wild party, complete with […]