# NY Historians: Mayor Gaynor's Cabaret Laws/Curfew? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 22, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396 "2004-07-22T19:40:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/1 "2004-07-22T19:40:52Z")
Does anyone here know anything of the anti-ragtime, anti-cabaret regulations passed by [Mayor Gaynor](http://www.nyc.gov/html/nyc100/html/classroom/hist_info/mayors.html#gaynor)? I think in 1913, the same year he died? The only reference I have found is in the song “New York, What’s the Matter With You?” which has such lines as, “_Since the Mayor got the bug/For to cut the Bunny Hug_.” From what I can gather, some kind of law was passed in response to the rapid spread of nightclubs and cabarets in the early 1910s. Anyone got one of the two bios of Gaynor—do they have any good references to this? ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/2 "2004-07-22T22:53:48Z")
You may want to check with **OxyMoron** or **stuyguy**. One of them (I think Oxy) said he had some unnaturally detailed knowledge of the NYC cabaret laws. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/3 "2004-07-22T23:59:34Z")
Ooooh, thanks, I will alert them. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/4 "2004-07-23T01:27:48Z")
I think it’s **Stuyguy**. I can, however, refer you to a resource: [Gigs: Jazz and the Cabaret Laws of New York City](http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?qwork=2609827&ptit=Gigs%3A%20Jazz%20and%20the%20Cabaret%20Laws%20in%20New%20York%20City&pauth=Chevigny%2C%20Paul&pisbn=0415904013&pqty=8&pqtynew=0&pbest=9%2E95&matches=8&qsort=r), which my criminal law professor wrote. Pathetically, I have not read it, but should - I’d be curious to hear **Stuy** ’s opinion of it. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/5 "2004-07-23T01:31:13Z")
Thanks for the quick reply–can you e me **StuyGuy** ’s e-mail address, to my office e-dress? I Googled that _Gig_ book, but it seems to detail only post-1920s cabaret laws. There are two bios of Gaynor; maybe **Stuy** has one. Hell, maybe he _wrote_ one! ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/6 "2004-07-23T01:46:01Z")
A quick search of my NYTimes access, cites this(in my words. Can’t cut and paste from PDF). 2 May 1912. Folies Begere Restaurant files for bankruptcy. Strict enforcement of 1 o’clock closing cut their receipts by a lot. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/7 "2004-07-23T02:11:21Z")
And a cite from 2 April 1913(Williamsport Gazette). New York’s “LID” on at 1 A. M. “Lobster Palaces” shut up by police on Gaynor’s Orders. Promptly at 1 o’clock this morning the police entered the all-night restaurants in Upper Broadway and forced them to close. This was the result of the recent order by Mayor Gaynor suspending all-night liquor licenses and instructing the police to see that all the “lobster palaces,” where cabaret shows were held, shut down on the stroke of 1. Most of the restaurants had closed on time. In several, however, the proprietors declined to request their patrons to leave and a few arrests of diners, who refused to heed the commands of the police, were made. First time I’ve encountered the term “lobster palaces.” Damn. I had things to do. This looks like a two hour sidetrack. Damn you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/8 "2004-07-23T02:32:52Z")
Ooooh, thanks–next week at lunchtime I will get myself to the microfilm room at the library and look up several NYC newspapers in the beginning of 1912! That’s a bit earlier than I’d thought . . . ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/9 "2004-07-23T02:34:34Z")
Hmmm, just read your second post–did you get the years right, 1912 _and_ 1913? Maybe he issued a ruling in 1912 and really clamped down the following year? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/10 "2004-07-23T02:35:51Z")
Next an April 14 cite where the Courts reversed Gaynor and said that restaurants could serve food AND have Cabaret shows after 1, but not liquor. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/11 "2004-07-23T02:39:09Z")
Eve. You’re correct and I’m wrong. It was 1913. I typing in the dark here. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/12 "2004-07-23T02:59:53Z")
Eve. This was apparently not an isolated thing. There were similar efforts in Chicago at the time. I haven’t researched it, but it might be that Chicago came first. A September news article about Chicago says that “Tango Teas” are no longer attrractive. They closed down “peppery” Cabaret shows. > [@](#): > > Tango teas became a thing of the past in Chicago on September 1, and with the closing of cafes cabaret shows will be seen here no more. An ordinance so regulating performances that cafe managers say they will no longer be attractive was put into effect then. The ordinance forbids singers or dancers from mingling with the audience or performing on the floors of the cafes, forbids the wearing of tights and puts other restrictions on the clothing worn by entertainers. * * * They came for people in tights, but I didn’t wear tights, so I said nothing…etc. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/13 "2004-07-23T04:05:23Z")
Sorry guys, but Gaynor’s not one of my specialties, nor do I have any of his bios. But I do know one thing. There’s a [monument](http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=12525) to the guy, complete with a bust of his likeness, in a Downtown Brooklyn park near the Brooklyn Bridge. **Eve** , if you get all worked up about his prudish edicts you can go there and spit on him. Don’t try shooting him though; that’s already been done. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-historians-mayor-gaynors-cabaret-laws-curfew/256396/14 "2004-07-23T12:59:39Z")
Thanks, **samclem** (but boo on you, **Stuyguy** , for not being a Gaynor expert—not even Janet?). 1913 makes much more sense, and fits in nicely with my next project—it seems 1912–13 were the months where ragtime, tango teas, cabarets, nightclubs, etc., really ran roughshod over cities. People turkey-trotting, bunny-hugging and grizzly-bearing with total strangers, unchapaoned! And not just the Lower Classes, but “nice people!” I shall have to hit the NYPL and look at papers for all the major cities for the end of 1912 and beginning of 1913. And I guess cough up some mazoola for those Gaynor bios, too.