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where for a quarter you were given an opportunity to eat chicken and rice and maybe a drink of "Jumpsteady." Harlem was also the place where Phil Black used to stage those Faggot balls and breakfast dances at the Rockland Palace on Saturday night. And, where in the middle of the week one could see amateur boxing bouts or go rollerskating. Later when Father Divine took over the Rockland Palace, it was good to go in and say "Peace," thank you Father and then sit down to a heavy "searf."

The Harlem of my youth, as I grew older, and allowed to stay out later, was hanging out in "Jock's" where the fare was 10¢ beer with all the cheese and pretzels you could eat or the next day in the famed "Red Rooster" where the fabulous George Wood held sway.

The Harlem of my youth later presented such geniuses as Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Yardbird Parker, Sid Catlett, Arnell Shaw, Trummy Young, Edmund Hall and Jay C. Higginbotheam in Minton Playhouse.

The Harlem of my youth also spawned outstanding writers like James Weldon Johnson, W.E.B. Dubois; Organizational leaders like Walter White, Lester Granger, Eugene Kinkle Jones, and Whitney Young, the singer, Roland Hayes, the philosopher, Alain Locke and musicians like Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, Flournoy Miller, Florence Mills, Adelaide Hall, Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Roy Eldridge, Benny Golson, Art Blakey, Red Allen, Tyree Glen, Jo Jo Jones and Jimmy Rushing.

NEW YORK IS . . .
The GAYLORD's
ANNUAL
CHRISTMAS DANCE

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