Newspaper articles going back to the 1850s describe (and deride) them: Poor Italian immigrants who eked out a leaving cranking a hand organ on the street.
The organ grinder’s partner: a regally outfitted capuchin monkey who charmed crowds of onlookers, especially children, while tethered to a string soliciting coins.
“It is very poor music,” wrote Children’s Aid Society founder Charles Loring Brace in a sympathetic 1853 New York Times article about the “colony of Italians” living in Five Points at the time, “but it is the only music some of our neighbors can ever afford to hear.”
By 1880, with Italian immigration to Manhattan surging, nearly one in 20 Italian men in Five Points were organ grinders, wrote Tyler Anbinder in his book Five Points.
“An aspiring grinder could rent a hand organ for four dollars per month on Baxter Street, or buy one direct from the manufacturer a block away in Chatham Square,” stated Anbinder.
As for the monkeys, they were apparently purchased on Baxter Street as well.
The organ grinder-monkey team playing carnival-like music in warm weather was a popular street entertainment act for decades.
But in 1936, they were outlawed. What happened? Blame the city’s recently elected Italian-American mayor, Fiorello La Guardia.
“He refused to renew the grinders’ licenses in 1936, saying that the radio and outdoor concerts had made them superfluous and that the city should discourage street begging,” wrote the New York Times‘ Michael Pollack in a 2006.
“By mayoral fiat he declared them public nuisances, ordered the police to roust them on sight and refused to relent, despite pleas from citizens.”
La Guardia may have had another reason for being so rankled by organ grinders: they became an Italian immigrant stereotype, which he personally resented.
“As an Army brat living near Prescott, Ariz., Fiorello suffered when an Italian organ grinder and his red-hatted monkey came to town,” explained Pollack. “‘Where’s your monkey?’ the children yelled, along with anti-Italian slurs, La Guardia recalled years later.”
[Top image: NYPL Digital Gallery, 1873; second image: LOC, 1910; third image: NYPL Digital Gallery, 1901; fifth image: one of New York’s last organ grinders, by Samuel Gottschow, 1935]
Tags: Fiorella La Guardia mayor, Five Points Italian Immigrants, Italian immigrants in New York City, monkeys in New York City, Organ Grinders Monkeys Old New York, Organ Grinders New York City, What happened to organ grinders
Ephemeral New York 
January 5, 2015 at 7:20 am |
that is so sad! The monkeys were well-taken care of; the Italians were kind; and there was some music in the neighborhood!
Dreadful that they were outlawed! I can only hope they were kept as pets…..for their lifetimes.
what horrific things “bias and racism” spread!!
Shame on him!!
ps monkeys are very smart animals….they wouldn’t perform without being treated kindly and given treats!
(just my opinion!)
August 6, 2020 at 3:14 pm |
Surrounded with crime, prostitution, all horror of city life, and that idiot goes after monkeys….🙈🙉🙊
January 5, 2015 at 9:25 am |
[…] Startup article found at: https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/the-sudden-demise-of-new-yorks-organ-grinders/ […]
January 5, 2015 at 1:15 pm |
Just discovered your blog! Great historical notes, thanks for sharing.
January 5, 2015 at 3:53 pm |
thank you!
January 5, 2015 at 1:26 pm |
Let the “Little Flower” rid the city of slot machines. But Organ Grinders were the flavor of NYC. Just as the Hot Dog pushcarts are a symbol of our city.at the present. Notwiithstanding the hansome cabs of Central Park.
January 5, 2015 at 3:23 pm |
Robert L. Chapman in the New Dictionary of American Slang records that Bimbo was often the name of the monkey holding out the hat for organ grinders. http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/28/magazine/on-language.html Wasn’t Betty Boop’s little monkey friend called “Bimbo”?
January 5, 2015 at 3:53 pm |
Bimbo, I’d never heard that. Interesting!
January 5, 2015 at 4:58 pm |
The occasional appearance of an organ grinder always came to us children as a treat, never mind anyone’s ethnicity. And not to forget other street musicians, photographers with ponies in tow and, always nifty, the delivery of a piano thru the upper floor window of an apartment house. Cutlery sharpened, anyone? There’s much to savor in our history & I’m happy that ephemeral NY recalls it.
January 5, 2015 at 5:31 pm |
Sean,
Betty Boops”s Bimbo was a dog-like creature. Do yourself a favor and Youtube “Bimbo’s Initiation”. One of the craziest cartoons ever made.
January 5, 2015 at 9:13 pm |
The Organ Grinder s\Statute had a severely chilling effect in the lat50s/early 60s as it was used to crack down on folkies strumming in the streets and parks. Eventually this led to the Washington Square “Beatnik” riot in 1961 http://www.npr.org/2011/04/09/135240040/how-the-beatnik-riot-helped-kick-off-the-60s
September 20, 2017 at 2:57 am |
Despite the ban, I remember an organ grinder who performed with his capuchin, either nearby to Rockaway Parkway and Rutland Road in the East New York section of Brooklyn, or inside the park a little bit further north which is bounded by East New York Avenue and Eastern Parkway, where the northern end of Rockaway Parkway is.
This would be about 1955-1960.
September 20, 2017 at 5:35 am |
I love the origin of the word “bimbo”! How fitting! Actually, The human “bimbos” are far inferior to their monkey counterparts!
September 20, 2017 at 3:14 am |
cont’d. At that time, I can remember food-shopping with my grandmother on Rutland Road in stores catering to the local kosher population of the time. The two stores that have always remained in my memory are the butcher who had un-plucked chickens hanging in the window, and the fishmonger who had live carp swimming in a large pool-like tank.
December 9, 2021 at 10:26 am |
“Bimbo” is an Italian word for a young male child. So the organ grinder is calling the little monkey who is dressed in trousers and a shirt, “kid.” Bimba is the feminine. Bimbi the plural. Baby wipes in Italy are bimbi wipes. Nothing vulgar.
August 3, 2023 at 5:22 pm |
Immigrant customs and traditions, especially the ones coming into 19th and early 20th century Ellis Island, quite interesting and heart-warming. These mostly European, poor people banded together in positive ways to entertain and bring joy to their communities (despite cultural differences and even biases amongst themselves, i.e. Italians with Jews, Irish, German, Polish and of course Africans, you name it as the melting pot that built America). As was stated in a previous comment (me being an animal rights person of precious fur babies): monkeys are extremely intelligent and non-conforming creatures. The Capuchin type of monkey (anyone remember Ross’s monkey “Marcel” from Friends tv show?) would not have allowed the organ grinder to willingly mistreat it…which leads me to believe most organ grinders had tremendous love for their exotic friends and knew how to take care of them so the monkeys would not feel threatened or harmed. This article, especially pertaining to New York City, makes me think of the movie which I still wish to see with Daniel Day-Lewis and Leo DiCaprio called “Gangs of New York.” The association is not the “street gang” aspect at all; it’s more so the lyrics of the U2 song on the soundtrack. The song is called “The Hands that Built America.” A very beautiful, though melancholy, homage to the impoverished, yet enduring people who literally built this nation. Much like the Native Americans, Irish, Chinese and African peoples who were killed and exploited to complete the trans-continental railroad. The lessons of past racism and homophobia by certain ones with the power must never be forgotten…if future America is to know the humanitarian type of “love thy neighbor” road that God’s love means for us to take. May the savior of humanity bless this country and its diverse inhabitants!
November 30, 2023 at 8:24 pm |
Fiorello La Guardia was Jewish and I’m not so sure he was an immigrant.
December 3, 2023 at 3:37 am |
He wasn’t an immigrant.