buffet flat

[Sam Clements]

George,

Using NewspaperArchive, there is a story about these in the Port Arthur(TX.)
News, 9 Jan. 1927.

I'm not gonna copy and post it now, but I will later, if no one else does.

Highlight from the story:  NY police estimate 10,000 such joints in NY.

Sam Clements
----- Original Message -----
From: "George Thompson" <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 11:06 AM
Subject: buffet flat


> A few nights ago I was listening to a CD of Bessie Smith's recordings when
I noticed a line in "Soft Pedal Blues" referring to a "buffet flat".  This
word is not in HDAS, OED or Dictionary of Americanisms.  Last night I was
looking over "Jazz Reviewed", a compilation made with incredible diligence
by Franz Hoffmann of references to jazz and black vaudeville from the
"Negropress of New England, 1910-1949" -- the passages are copied from the
NY Age, NY Amsterdam News, Baltimore Afro-American & Pittsburgh Courier.
(It has not escaped my notice that none of these are published in New
England, but I was raised in Connecticut and Herr Hoffmann wasn't.)   In any
event, I found the following passage:
>
> This number [of 500 "colored cabarets"] is topped by statistics on the
apartment speakeasies.  Called "buffet flats," there is an average of two
such joints for every apartment building.
>
> Hoffmann copied this from the Pittsburgh Courier of "3.8.29", or in
American style, August 3, 1929.  From Jazz Reviewed: Working Book to Jazz
Advertised in the Negropress of New England, 1910-1949, researched and
compiled by Franz Hoffmann.  Volume 1, p. 155.  Berlin: F. Hoffmann, 1995.
> The Bessie Smith song was recorded on May 14, 1925.  I heard it on
Complete Recordings, Frog label, vol. 4.  I will copy the line upon request.
>
> A companion to this book is  Jazz Advertised, 1910-1967: A Documentation,
by Franz Hoffmann.  Berlin: F. Hoffmann, 1980-1989, in 7 volumes and an
index volume, covering the same New England Negro press and the Chicago
Defender.  Gerry Cohen mentioned Hoffmann's books in a message this past
January.  They are very interesting and not widely available in the U. S. --
though at better libraries, for instance, Bobst at NYU.  They are available
from Norbert Ruecker; each volume is 37 Euros, except one which is 42 Euros.
http://www.jazzrecords.com/jazzbooks/history3.htm  Some of you ought to
encourage your library to buy a set.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.
>