October 1, 1990
The title of this 1942 collection of Liebling's early New Yorker pieces refers to those lowlife entrepreneurs whose offices were the telephone booths of New York City, where they waited for associates to call them since they didn't even have a nickel to phone on their own. The 10 essays, profiling a variety of scamsters and promoters, showcase Liebling's dry wit, his sharp commentary on the mores of the time and his knack for eliciting hilarious quotes (a carnival operator explains that a so-called Hawaiian dancer ``was not a Hawaiian but she had once eaten some Hawaiian pineapple''; a ``pillar'' of the hat-check industry observes, ``Better a kid who takes ten in tips and knocks a buck, than a dummy who gets half the tips and turns in all she gets. But please don't use my name, because on such a question I hate to quote myself''). Not all of the businessmen in the book are as low on the totem pole as telephone booth Indians. Liebling takes on, and shows no mercy to, such luminaries as the ``head man'' of the Scripps-Howard newspapers and the Shubert brothers theater moguls. For example, he quotes J. J. Shubert as shouting during a rehearsal, ``There is only one captain on this ship, the director and me!''
Starred review from May 1, 2004
The latest volume in Broadway Books' "Library of Larceny" line, Liebling's 1942 collection offers portraits of assorted New York City grifters, hustlers, and scam artists who are always on the make for a quick buck often ill gotten off poor suckers. An essential piece of Americana.
Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 12, 2004
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.