The Bowery Boys Algonquin Roundtable Group

I just listened to the podcast, the Bowery Boys. This week’s episode was on the Algonquin Roundtable that met at the Algonquin Hotel. (www.boweryboyshistory.com) The podcast was about this group of legendary writers, playwrights, art critics, and performers that won awards and found commercial success. The prime time of this group was 1919 to 1929. Many modern-day authors and playwrights fantasize of being part of such a group. These authors will travel to Manhattan just to see the painting of celebrity writers at the still-open Algonquin Hotel. 

When listening to the podcast, I came to realize the famous names and artists were at it's purest, a writers’ group just like any other. These disparate people who worked in the same fields, would cross paths, have lunch, complain about their editors, look for column ideas, or talk sources. The group got bigger, the talk got louder, the day to day stayed the same. They ordered sandwiches and coffee because it was quick and cheap. They had deadlines to meet and writers don’t make much money. In 1919, Ruth Hale talks with Robert Sherwood who asks about a source with Robert Benchley who asks about a deadline with Alexander Woollcott and you’ve got your world-famous Algonquin Roundtable. 

They met around lunchtime or early evening, between deadlines. 

Basically this group of legends didn’t come together like the Avengers; brought together by some outside force. They met and it evolved into a regular meeting. The group grew and shrunk depending on outside circumstances until it shrunk and shrunk and by 1929 the group was a mere shell. People got jobs in other areas, others found success and moved into a different circle and some floated in and out. There wasn’t a big fight or finale, it just faded. 

Why do so many artists look back on this group as so special. 

In the Bruce Springsteen book, Born to Run and other books that I’ve read about Springsteen, it sounds like some of the most fun he had as a musician were the times he played afterhours at the Upstage in Asbury. All the local musicians hung out, talked tunes, taught each other chords and went home. It was a musician roundtable or group. 

If there is any truth to the play Million Dollar Quartet, four musicians hung around Sun Studios, talked music, dreamed of the future, taught each other songs and went home. This one time meeting of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins is treated with the same reverence as the Roundtable. 

I had a lot of fun in the writer’s groups I joined over the years. Some groups started small and grew. Members found other callings or went to other circles or couldn’t make the groups anymore. Reading and listening to this podcast about the Algonquin Roundtable made me feel better about some of these groups that are no more. I miss a lot of the groups and times. I’m not inferring that I’m in the leagues of the aforementioned Algonquin Roundtable. Those nights of talking art, learning new techniques while having a coffee were a lot of fun. 

I get why we and other big artists wish they had a Roundtable.

Thank you Bowery Boys for the podcast.