WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.720 Welcome to today's Deep Dive. We're doing something 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:05.120 really special today, heading straight into Washington, 00:00:05.320 --> 00:00:09.400 D .C. The year is 1919, and we are looking at 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:11.779 this incredible collision of art, rebellion, 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:15.000 and survival. Taking place in an underground 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.679 speakeasy mere blocks from the White House, no 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:19.989 less. Right. We've gathered this fascinating 00:00:19.989 --> 00:00:22.449 stack of sources, you know, historical accounts, 00:00:22.750 --> 00:00:25.489 personal diaries, contemporary newspaper clippings. 00:00:25.550 --> 00:00:28.910 And we're extracting the absolute best nuggets 00:00:28.910 --> 00:00:31.649 of history about a place called the Crazy Cat 00:00:31.649 --> 00:00:34.210 Club. Our mission today is to really explore 00:00:34.210 --> 00:00:37.130 how a specific group of marginalized individuals 00:00:37.130 --> 00:00:40.350 built a sanctuary right in the shadows of the 00:00:40.350 --> 00:00:42.229 nation's capital. Yeah. And if you are interested 00:00:42.229 --> 00:00:45.890 in prohibition, speakeasy history or 1920s bohemian 00:00:45.890 --> 00:00:48.030 culture, this is exactly the deep dive for you. 00:00:48.140 --> 00:00:50.219 It's a remarkable piece of history. I mean, we 00:00:50.219 --> 00:00:52.119 all know the general narrative that Prohibition 00:00:52.119 --> 00:00:54.619 pushed drinking underground. Sure, the classic 00:00:54.619 --> 00:00:57.579 Roaring Twenties story. Exactly. But the timeline 00:00:57.579 --> 00:01:00.119 and the intensity in Washington, D .C. were completely 00:01:00.119 --> 00:01:02.200 unique. The district didn't actually wait for 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:05.200 the 1920s. They were hit early. Very early and 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:08.909 incredibly hard. By the 1917 Shepard Bone Dry 00:01:08.909 --> 00:01:11.310 Act. Which is a crucial piece of context for 00:01:11.310 --> 00:01:13.109 anyone trying to understand the atmosphere of 00:01:13.109 --> 00:01:15.909 the city at that time. Because overnight, that 00:01:15.909 --> 00:01:20.370 act mandated the closure of 267 bar rooms. And 00:01:20.370 --> 00:01:23.200 nearly 90 wholesale establishments. Right. It 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:25.640 threw over 2000 people out of work and instantly 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:28.000 erased half a million dollars a year in district 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:30.340 tax revenue. We aren't just talking about a gradual 00:01:30.340 --> 00:01:32.819 shift in social habits here. No, this was an 00:01:32.819 --> 00:01:35.819 immediate draconian eradication of the capital's 00:01:35.819 --> 00:01:38.209 official drinking culture. And when you create 00:01:38.209 --> 00:01:40.349 a sudden vacuum like that. Especially in a city 00:01:40.349 --> 00:01:42.829 so densely populated by government workers, military 00:01:42.829 --> 00:01:46.010 personnel and artists. The resulting underground 00:01:46.010 --> 00:01:48.769 scene doesn't just, you know, replicate the old 00:01:48.769 --> 00:01:51.310 bars. It mutates into something entirely different. 00:01:51.510 --> 00:01:54.030 The clandestine spaces that flourished weren't 00:01:54.030 --> 00:01:56.349 just about sneaking a drink. For the bohemian 00:01:56.349 --> 00:01:59.430 and LGBTQ communities in D .C., these spaces 00:01:59.430 --> 00:02:02.329 became a necessary fortrel. OK, let's unpack 00:02:02.329 --> 00:02:04.450 this origin story because it starts with two 00:02:04.450 --> 00:02:07.340 individuals who perfectly embody that. post -war 00:02:07.340 --> 00:02:10.860 displacement. Right, January 1919. Exactly. We 00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:14.580 have two broke, essentially homeless World War 00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:17.620 I veterans crossing paths. John LaDrew Stifler, 00:02:17.780 --> 00:02:20.500 who was a classically trained Russian ballet 00:02:20.500 --> 00:02:23.520 dancer. Which is just an amazing detail on its 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:26.020 own. It really is. And he had served in the engineering 00:02:26.020 --> 00:02:30.099 corps. He meets John Don Allen. And Allen was 00:02:30.099 --> 00:02:32.680 a former hula dancer who had served in the Lafayette 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:35.400 Artillery Company. Which, for context, the Lafayette 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:38.039 Artillery was part of the broader tradition of 00:02:38.039 --> 00:02:40.849 American volunteers. who went over to fight for 00:02:40.849 --> 00:02:43.129 France before the United States officially entered 00:02:43.129 --> 00:02:45.449 the First World War. So both of these men have 00:02:45.449 --> 00:02:47.629 seen the world. They have. They've endured the 00:02:47.629 --> 00:02:50.110 devastation of a global conflict. And they return 00:02:50.110 --> 00:02:52.409 to a capital city that has completely outlawed 00:02:52.409 --> 00:02:54.770 their social spaces. And they're artists by trade. 00:02:54.909 --> 00:02:57.270 They have absolutely no money. But they decide 00:02:57.270 --> 00:02:59.610 to take this massive leap of faith and open a 00:02:59.610 --> 00:03:02.030 coffee house and art club. And the location they 00:03:02.030 --> 00:03:05.139 choose is brilliantly grim. It really is. They 00:03:05.139 --> 00:03:07.780 find an address at 3 Green Court, and this is 00:03:07.780 --> 00:03:10.620 situated in an economically depressed, dangerous 00:03:10.620 --> 00:03:13.580 area colloquially known as the Latin Quarter. 00:03:13.860 --> 00:03:16.580 It wasn't exactly a glamorous storefront. No, 00:03:16.620 --> 00:03:19.159 not at all. It was an old livestock stable that 00:03:19.159 --> 00:03:21.539 had briefly been converted into a very early 00:03:21.539 --> 00:03:24.319 car garage. So if you were a patron trying to 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:26.719 find this place, you'd be walking down a narrow 00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:29.340 red brick alleyway in the dark. Just looking 00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:32.419 for this inconspicuous iron bar door. And what's 00:03:32.419 --> 00:03:35.259 fascinating here is how the entrance alone set 00:03:35.259 --> 00:03:38.099 the tone for the entire experience. They painted 00:03:38.099 --> 00:03:40.919 a sign on that door featuring the cartoon character 00:03:40.919 --> 00:03:43.919 Crazy Cat getting hit by a brick. And above it, 00:03:43.979 --> 00:03:46.280 written in chalk, was this play on the famous 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:48.840 warning from Dante's Inferno. Right. Instead 00:03:48.840 --> 00:03:51.319 of, all hope abandon ye who enter here, they 00:03:51.319 --> 00:03:54.060 wrote, all soap abandon ye who enter here. And 00:03:54.060 --> 00:03:56.180 they actually misspelled the word soap. Which 00:03:56.180 --> 00:03:58.599 just adds to it. It was this deliberate rejection 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:02.479 of... pristine high society norms right at the 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:04.639 threshold. I really want to focus on the sensory 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:06.580 experience of walking through that door because 00:04:06.580 --> 00:04:09.680 it sounds intense for anyone visiting. Oh, absolutely. 00:04:09.939 --> 00:04:12.719 The sources describe patrons having to navigate 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:15.120 through a ground floor littered with old lumber. 00:04:15.219 --> 00:04:17.120 Just tripping over wood in the dark. Yeah, and 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:19.360 then climbing a rickety winding staircase just 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:21.709 to reach the main room. And because it used to 00:04:21.709 --> 00:04:24.189 be a garage, the lingering smell of gasoline 00:04:24.189 --> 00:04:27.050 was apparently overwhelming. To combat that chemical 00:04:27.050 --> 00:04:30.689 stench, Stifler and Allen burned heavy, thick 00:04:30.689 --> 00:04:33.629 incense constantly. So picture yourself arriving 00:04:33.629 --> 00:04:36.329 in this space. You're surrounded by smoke. The 00:04:36.329 --> 00:04:38.930 air is thick with incense and gasoline. And the 00:04:38.930 --> 00:04:41.730 room is covered in cobwebs. The only lighting 00:04:41.730 --> 00:04:43.930 came from candles that were stuffed into old, 00:04:43.990 --> 00:04:47.269 rusted tin cans. But illuminating the walls were 00:04:47.269 --> 00:04:50.879 these gaudy, wild paintings done by futurist 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:53.529 and impressionist artists. It sounds like an 00:04:53.529 --> 00:04:56.649 absolute sensory overload. But the contrast between 00:04:56.649 --> 00:04:58.990 that physical grime and the emotional atmosphere 00:04:58.990 --> 00:05:02.009 inside is striking. It was a place of joyous, 00:05:02.009 --> 00:05:05.050 uninhibited freedom. Contemporary accounts say 00:05:05.050 --> 00:05:07.850 people went there with no one to see and no one 00:05:07.850 --> 00:05:09.970 to care who saw. But, you know, a sanctuary of 00:05:09.970 --> 00:05:11.750 that scale still needs someone to physically 00:05:11.750 --> 00:05:14.189 build out the vision. Shortly after opening, 00:05:14.329 --> 00:05:16.589 they brought in a third co -proprietor to help 00:05:16.589 --> 00:05:18.829 manage the aesthetic range. They did. By February 00:05:18.829 --> 00:05:21.889 1919, a 21 -year -old engineering student named 00:05:22.060 --> 00:05:25.079 Cleon Throckmorton joins the team. Throck to 00:05:25.079 --> 00:05:27.720 his friends. He was taking classes at Howard 00:05:27.720 --> 00:05:30.540 University and had a deep passion for theatrical 00:05:30.540 --> 00:05:33.240 scenic design. And he's the one who took this 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:35.920 grimy stable and elevated it into a bohemian 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:39.079 wonderland. He really did. He added an outdoor 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:41.360 courtyard and strung it up with paper lanterns. 00:05:41.379 --> 00:05:45.120 He even built a literal treehouse cafe out of 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:47.439 wooden planks in the courtyard, which patrons 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:50.579 had to access by climbing a ladder. Having waiters 00:05:50.579 --> 00:05:53.000 run around, serving illicit liquor and coffee, 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:54.660 climbing up and down a ladder. While wearing 00:05:54.660 --> 00:05:57.319 shirts painted with a bright magenta and orange 00:05:57.319 --> 00:06:00.360 crazy cat. It begs a strategic question, though. 00:06:00.459 --> 00:06:03.399 With the police actively cracking down on illicit 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:06.610 venues, wasn't it a massive risk to build a literal 00:06:06.610 --> 00:06:08.790 treehouse and wear brightly painted uniforms? 00:06:09.149 --> 00:06:12.790 That doesn't exactly scream inconspicuous speakeasy. 00:06:12.930 --> 00:06:14.990 It was a massive risk, but that was precisely 00:06:14.990 --> 00:06:17.769 the point. The flamboyance was the appeal. A 00:06:17.769 --> 00:06:19.889 rejection of the idea that they had to cower 00:06:19.889 --> 00:06:22.250 in the dark. Exactly. But the risk wasn't just 00:06:22.250 --> 00:06:24.209 from law enforcement. What's fascinating here 00:06:24.209 --> 00:06:26.189 is the psychological resilience of the patrons 00:06:26.189 --> 00:06:28.290 when you consider the physical danger surrounding 00:06:28.290 --> 00:06:30.930 the club. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:06:31.250 --> 00:06:33.829 Mere weeks after they opened. A serial attacker. 00:06:34.149 --> 00:06:37.949 Dubbed by newspaper headlines as a maniac assailant. 00:06:38.110 --> 00:06:40.829 Began violently strangling women in the dark 00:06:40.829 --> 00:06:43.500 alleyways around Green Court. The media frenzy 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:46.379 at the time was intense. The police were throwing 00:06:46.379 --> 00:06:48.899 out citywide dragnets, the public was terrified, 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:52.100 and the assailant was completely eluding capture. 00:06:52.500 --> 00:06:54.879 Yet the sources explicitly note that patrons 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:57.579 continued to crowd into the Crazy Cat Club. The 00:06:57.579 --> 00:06:59.560 desire for community and cultural connection 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:01.959 in that treehouse was apparently stronger than 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:04.339 the fear of a literal strangler in the alley 00:07:04.339 --> 00:07:07.079 outside. It speaks volumes about the isolation 00:07:07.079 --> 00:07:09.579 these people felt in their daily lives. They 00:07:09.579 --> 00:07:11.800 were willing to risk violence just to be in a 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:13.379 room. room where they could be themselves. And 00:07:13.379 --> 00:07:15.500 honestly, the inside of the club wasn't exactly 00:07:15.500 --> 00:07:18.000 a tranquil safe haven either. No, not at all. 00:07:18.060 --> 00:07:20.519 The environment was notoriously chaotic. The 00:07:20.519 --> 00:07:23.420 crazy cat was famous for its riotous hot jazz 00:07:23.420 --> 00:07:26.579 performances, which a 1920 crime reporter rather 00:07:26.579 --> 00:07:30.800 colorfully described as rude, un -Bohemian cacophonations. 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:33.220 I love that phrase. And the anecdotes from the 00:07:33.220 --> 00:07:35.660 floor of the club are bizarre. There are reports 00:07:35.660 --> 00:07:38.579 of dead cats being left on the floor as pranks 00:07:38.579 --> 00:07:41.240 for drunk patrons to trip over in the dark. Just. 00:07:41.629 --> 00:07:44.990 Wild. And at one point, a distraught Frenchman 00:07:44.990 --> 00:07:47.329 walked into the bar, sat down in the middle of 00:07:47.329 --> 00:07:50.170 the chaos, and began intensely sketching the 00:07:50.170 --> 00:07:52.889 face of his recently slain wife on a rough piece 00:07:52.889 --> 00:07:56.050 of burlap. While people just watched. Yeah. And 00:07:56.050 --> 00:07:58.170 then, of course, there were the brawls. The brawls 00:07:58.170 --> 00:08:01.110 were frequent. And they inevitably drew the attention 00:08:01.110 --> 00:08:03.949 of the authorities who legally branded the venue 00:08:03.949 --> 00:08:08.129 a disorderly house. Naturally. The police raided 00:08:08.129 --> 00:08:10.629 the establishment multiple times. During one 00:08:10.629 --> 00:08:13.550 particularly severe raid, a gunshot actually 00:08:13.550 --> 00:08:16.540 went off inside the club. triggering a massive 00:08:16.540 --> 00:08:18.519 free -for -all. And the police swooped in and 00:08:18.519 --> 00:08:22.480 arrested 25 people, 22 men and three women. Looking 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:24.660 at the demographics of the people arrested in 00:08:24.660 --> 00:08:26.860 that raid provides a really interesting cross 00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:29.500 -section of D .C. society. You had your self 00:08:29.500 --> 00:08:32.019 -styled bohemian artists and poets, but you also 00:08:32.019 --> 00:08:34.279 had straight -laced federal bureaucrats. Try 00:08:34.279 --> 00:08:36.080 to put yourself in their shoes for a second. 00:08:36.279 --> 00:08:38.620 You were a federal worker under the Woodrow Wilson 00:08:38.620 --> 00:08:41.620 administration. You spend your day pushing paper 00:08:41.620 --> 00:08:45.220 in a highly rigid conservative government office. 00:08:45.500 --> 00:08:48.299 And then by night, you are dodging police raids 00:08:48.299 --> 00:08:52.019 in a candlelit, gasoline -scented stable while 00:08:52.019 --> 00:08:54.620 a jazz band plays and someone fires a revolver. 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:57.860 The psychological toll of maintaining that double 00:08:57.860 --> 00:09:00.139 life must have been immense. It was immense. 00:09:00.500 --> 00:09:03.320 And it highlights why they needed the Crazy Cat 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:05.820 Club to begin with. The club wasn't just a place 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:08.419 to blow off steam. For many, it was the only 00:09:08.419 --> 00:09:10.799 place they could express their true identities. 00:09:11.419 --> 00:09:14.200 Which brings us to the very name of the establishment. 00:09:14.460 --> 00:09:16.679 Right, the crazy cat. The branding wasn't just 00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:19.200 a quirky aesthetic choice. It was a highly specific 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:22.200 coded signal. Exactly. I want to dig into that. 00:09:22.460 --> 00:09:26.059 Why base an entire underground speakeasy on a 00:09:26.059 --> 00:09:28.940 syndicated newspaper comic strip? What was it 00:09:28.940 --> 00:09:31.259 about George Harriman's Crazy Cat that resonated 00:09:31.259 --> 00:09:34.340 so deeply with this particular crowd? Well, if 00:09:34.340 --> 00:09:36.120 we connect this to the bigger picture of early 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:39.240 20th century media, comic strips held significant 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:42.019 cultural weight. They were massive. And Crazy 00:09:42.019 --> 00:09:44.820 Cat was particularly avant -garde. The narrative 00:09:44.820 --> 00:09:47.240 centered on a surreal love triangle between a 00:09:47.240 --> 00:09:50.279 male dog, a male mouse, and Crazy Cat. But the 00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:53.259 crucial element here is that Crazy Cat was famously 00:09:53.259 --> 00:09:56.919 androgynous. Yes. George Harriman... The creator 00:09:56.919 --> 00:09:59.879 explicitly stated that the cat wasn't a he or 00:09:59.879 --> 00:10:04.120 a she, but rather a spirit or a pixie free to 00:10:04.120 --> 00:10:06.639 exist outside the binary. So by naming the club 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:09.240 after a gender fluid icon and painting that character 00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:12.480 on the waiter's shirts, Stifler, Allen and Throckmorton 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:16.159 were sending a neon bright beacon to the LGBTQ 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:18.980 community. They absolutely were. The founders 00:10:18.980 --> 00:10:22.039 actively promoted a philosophy they called unperverted 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:24.799 impulse. Which was essentially their era's terminology 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:27.759 for. free love, and radical acceptance. It quickly 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:30.679 became a vital underground nexus for homosexual 00:10:30.679 --> 00:10:33.200 and polysexual individuals. This was a monumental 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:35.460 shift. It really was. I mean, the gay community 00:10:35.460 --> 00:10:37.740 in Washington, D .C. certainly had earlier gathering 00:10:37.740 --> 00:10:40.440 spaces. Like the underground rag balls hosted 00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:43.679 by former enslaved man William Dorsey Swan in 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:46.200 the late 19th century. Right. But the Crazy Cat 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:49.159 Club offered an integrated, highly visible, yet 00:10:49.159 --> 00:10:51.500 protective bubble during the heightened suppression 00:10:51.500 --> 00:10:54.470 of the Jazz Age. It was an intellectual and social 00:10:54.470 --> 00:10:56.690 haven where marginalized people could meet and 00:10:56.690 --> 00:10:59.490 organize without immediate fear of public exposure. 00:10:59.909 --> 00:11:02.909 The sources contain a deeply humanizing anecdote 00:11:02.909 --> 00:11:06.230 that perfectly illustrates how this network operated. 00:11:06.509 --> 00:11:08.830 Yeah, from the diary of a man named Jeb Alexander. 00:11:09.330 --> 00:11:12.190 Who was a gay D .C. resident and a federal bureaucrat. 00:11:12.350 --> 00:11:15.610 In August of 1921, Jeb described sitting on a 00:11:15.610 --> 00:11:17.809 bench at night in Lafayette Square, which is 00:11:17.809 --> 00:11:19.950 right behind the White House. He's cruising for 00:11:19.950 --> 00:11:22.559 companionship in the humid summer air. Two youths 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:24.860 walk by, and one of them sings a line from the 00:11:24.860 --> 00:11:27.960 popular song, All By Myself. Jeb smiles at them, 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:30.220 they strike up a conversation, and they ask him 00:11:30.220 --> 00:11:31.720 if he knows a place where they can find some 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:34.320 excitement. And Jeb doesn't hesitate. He gives 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:36.879 them detailed directions to navigate the alleyways 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:39.580 and find the crazy cat club. He points them toward 00:11:39.580 --> 00:11:42.659 the sanctuary. But the heartbreaking nuance in 00:11:42.659 --> 00:11:45.789 Jeb's diary is... his own relationship with the 00:11:45.789 --> 00:11:48.250 club. Yeah, he notes that his partner loved attending, 00:11:48.490 --> 00:11:51.070 but Jeb himself rarely went. Because the Crazy 00:11:51.070 --> 00:11:54.169 Cat wasn't just a queer space. It was a highly 00:11:54.169 --> 00:11:57.490 intellectual bohemian space filled with professors, 00:11:57.750 --> 00:12:00.889 artists, and vocal atheists. Jeb actually wrote 00:12:00.889 --> 00:12:03.210 that he felt he lacked the culture to fit in, 00:12:03.309 --> 00:12:06.009 worrying he would make a fool of himself by his, 00:12:06.029 --> 00:12:09.149 quote, backwardness. It paints a picture of a 00:12:09.149 --> 00:12:12.950 space that was incredibly diverse, but also intellectually 00:12:12.950 --> 00:12:16.480 intimidating. You have hot jazz brawls, queer 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:19.100 youths finding themselves, government workers 00:12:19.100 --> 00:12:22.519 blowing off steam, and highbrow artistic debates 00:12:22.519 --> 00:12:25.139 all clashing together under a leaky stable roof. 00:12:25.379 --> 00:12:27.399 And moving through the center of all that chaotic 00:12:27.399 --> 00:12:30.360 energy were figures like Catherine Mullen. Catherine 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:33.059 Mullen is a fascinating case study of the type 00:12:33.059 --> 00:12:35.940 of artists the club incubated. She started frequenting 00:12:35.940 --> 00:12:38.600 the Cat when she was just 18 years old. She was 00:12:38.600 --> 00:12:41.139 an artist, a costume designer, and a stage performer 00:12:41.139 --> 00:12:44.269 who played the ukulele and sang. The local promoters 00:12:44.269 --> 00:12:46.549 billed her as the girl with the million dollar 00:12:46.549 --> 00:12:49.309 legs. But her talents went far beyond modeling 00:12:49.309 --> 00:12:51.570 or singing. She was actually a renowned expert 00:12:51.570 --> 00:12:54.049 in women's saber fencing. Putting on public exhibitions 00:12:54.049 --> 00:12:57.110 of the sword. She eventually becomes Cleon Throckmorton's 00:12:57.110 --> 00:13:01.129 muse. And they marry in January 1922. It seems 00:13:01.129 --> 00:13:04.610 like the club was a magnet for these incredibly 00:13:04.610 --> 00:13:09.200 dynamic, multi -talented women who were... Completely 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:11.940 defying the traditional gender roles of the era. 00:13:12.120 --> 00:13:14.440 Absolutely. She was the quintessential flapper. 00:13:14.580 --> 00:13:17.200 And her trajectory, along with Throckmorton's, 00:13:17.299 --> 00:13:20.799 connects the Crazy Cat Club to much larger artistic 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:22.919 movements. For many of the artists who gathered 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:25.320 in that D .C. stable were closely associated 00:13:25.320 --> 00:13:28.299 with Provincetown players. For context, the Provincetown 00:13:28.299 --> 00:13:30.440 players were an incredibly influential theater 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:32.600 collective based out of Massachusetts and New 00:13:32.600 --> 00:13:35.019 York. They essentially birthed modern American 00:13:35.019 --> 00:13:37.620 drama, launching the careers of playwrights like 00:13:37.620 --> 00:13:40.539 Eugene O 'Neill. And The Cat was the premier 00:13:40.539 --> 00:13:43.460 Southern outpost for that level of the cultural 00:13:43.460 --> 00:13:46.559 avant -garde. It was. So what does this all mean? 00:13:46.679 --> 00:13:49.279 We have an establishment that is wildly successful, 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:52.460 culturally significant, and serving as a vital 00:13:52.460 --> 00:13:55.080 sanctuary for multiple overlapping marginalized 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:57.259 communities. But the timeline shows it didn't 00:13:57.259 --> 00:14:00.600 last long at all. By June 1922, just over three 00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:03.639 years after they opened, the club shuts its doors. 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:06.460 Was it the police raids that finally brought 00:14:06.460 --> 00:14:09.620 it down or the economic strain? Surprisingly, 00:14:09.740 --> 00:14:12.980 it was neither. The closure of the club is remarkably 00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:16.220 mundane compared to its dramatic existence. Fizzled 00:14:16.220 --> 00:14:18.919 out. Despite its massive popularity, the three 00:14:18.919 --> 00:14:22.480 founders simply outgrew the space. Their artistic 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:26.139 ambitions outpaced what a D .C. alleyway could 00:14:26.139 --> 00:14:28.659 offer. And they began spending more time pursuing 00:14:28.659 --> 00:14:31.080 larger theatrical and artistic projects in other 00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:33.320 cities. The official end of the Crazy Cat Club 00:14:33.320 --> 00:14:36.220 is marked by a simple newspaper listing auctioning 00:14:36.220 --> 00:14:38.059 off the club's fixtures and kitchen equipment. 00:14:38.279 --> 00:14:40.299 I have to mention the specifics of that auction 00:14:40.299 --> 00:14:42.220 listing because it perfectly encapsulates the 00:14:42.220 --> 00:14:44.740 absurdity of the venue. It's a canoe. Among the 00:14:44.740 --> 00:14:46.460 pots and pans, they were officially selling off 00:14:46.460 --> 00:14:49.519 a square piano in a canoe. A canoe. sitting inside 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:51.840 a second -floor speakeasy accessed by a rickety 00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:55.299 staircase. It's unbelievable. By 1925, the old 00:14:55.299 --> 00:14:57.580 livestock stable was completely demolished and 00:14:57.580 --> 00:15:00.120 replaced by an industrial building. But the story 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:02.399 doesn't end with the demolition. No, the people 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:04.700 who built the cat took that energy with them. 00:15:05.080 --> 00:15:07.539 Let's track where these founders went, starting 00:15:07.539 --> 00:15:10.299 with John Lidry Stifler. Stifler's post -cat 00:15:10.299 --> 00:15:12.899 career is a testament to how these cultural seeds 00:15:12.899 --> 00:15:16.259 scattered. He left DC and opened a dance studio 00:15:16.259 --> 00:15:18.860 in Chicago. He eventually performed in a musical 00:15:18.860 --> 00:15:21.639 stage adaptation of Crazy Cat, which was actually 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:23.860 attended by the comics creator George Harriman. 00:15:23.940 --> 00:15:26.580 Talk about full circle! Stifler then moved to 00:15:26.580 --> 00:15:29.820 New York City to dance on Broadway. In 1924, 00:15:29.980 --> 00:15:33.019 he performed in the musical I'll Say She Is, 00:15:33.220 --> 00:15:35.500 which was the historic debut show for the Marx 00:15:35.500 --> 00:15:37.919 Brothers. He even spent time taking harp lessons 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:40.720 directly from Harpo Marx. That is an incredible 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:43.580 trajectory for a formerly broke veteran who was 00:15:43.580 --> 00:15:46.639 serving cider in an old stable. And John Don 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:49.059 Allen followed his own artistic path. moving 00:15:49.059 --> 00:15:51.600 up to Provincetown, Massachusetts. To formally 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:54.580 study painting and hone his craft alongside the 00:15:54.580 --> 00:15:56.600 theater collective we mentioned earlier. But 00:15:56.600 --> 00:15:58.980 Cleon Throckmorton's impact on American theater 00:15:58.980 --> 00:16:02.320 is arguably the most profound of the three. It 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:04.759 really is. Throckmorton moves to New York and 00:16:04.759 --> 00:16:06.899 becomes one of the most prolific scenic designers 00:16:06.899 --> 00:16:09.399 in Broadway's history. He and Catherine Mullen 00:16:09.399 --> 00:16:11.460 took many of his original sketches from the Crazy 00:16:11.460 --> 00:16:13.919 Cat Club, which ended up hanging in Greenwich 00:16:13.919 --> 00:16:16.840 Village restaurants for decades. Throckmorton's 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:18.840 Greenwich Village apartment morphed into this 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:21.779 massive after -hours salon. It hosted literary 00:16:21.779 --> 00:16:24.419 and theatrical legends like Eugene O 'Neill, 00:16:24.620 --> 00:16:27.519 Noel Coward, and E. Cummings. That same salon 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:29.840 even raised funds for the Republican faction 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:32.480 during the Spanish Civil War. He took the blueprint 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:35.399 of the Crazy Cat Club and scaled it up to influence 00:16:35.399 --> 00:16:37.929 the entire New York art scene. And we cannot 00:16:37.929 --> 00:16:40.669 gloss over Catherine Mullen's exit from that 00:16:40.669 --> 00:16:42.470 marriage because it was as fiercely independent 00:16:42.470 --> 00:16:46.450 as her fencing exhibitions. In 1926, she sued 00:16:46.450 --> 00:16:48.909 Throckmorton for divorce after catching him in 00:16:48.909 --> 00:16:50.990 an affair in their apartment. The woman involved 00:16:50.990 --> 00:16:54.289 was likely the silent film actress Juliet Brennan, 00:16:54.370 --> 00:16:56.210 who happened to be the niece of the director 00:16:56.210 --> 00:16:58.970 of the very first Great Gatsby movie. Mullen 00:16:58.970 --> 00:17:01.929 didn't drag out a bitter legal battle. She didn't 00:17:01.929 --> 00:17:04.509 contest the divorce, and she explicitly asked 00:17:04.509 --> 00:17:07.319 the courts for zero alimony. She simply washed 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:10.400 her hands of the situation, eventually reburied, 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:13.359 moved back to the Midwest and dedicated her later 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:15.799 years to working as a speech specialist for children. 00:17:16.059 --> 00:17:18.299 She lived a full life, passing away at the age 00:17:18.299 --> 00:17:23.400 of 91 in 1994. It is a profound legacy. You have 00:17:23.400 --> 00:17:27.460 this brief three year window in a filthy D .C. 00:17:27.500 --> 00:17:30.160 alleyway that acted as a pressure cooker. Incubating 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.920 artists and marginalized voices. who then scatter 00:17:32.920 --> 00:17:35.559 across the country to shape Broadway, modern 00:17:35.559 --> 00:17:38.500 art, and education. But there is an even more 00:17:38.500 --> 00:17:41.180 poetic legacy left behind in the physical footprint 00:17:41.180 --> 00:17:43.640 of the club. Yeah. Because you'd think the demolition 00:17:43.640 --> 00:17:46.220 of the stable in 1925 erased it from the map 00:17:46.220 --> 00:17:48.400 completely. The original stable was erased, yes. 00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:52.160 But if you walk down Green Court today, the surviving 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:54.980 building immediately adjacent to the exact site 00:17:54.980 --> 00:17:57.380 of the bygone speakeasy. is currently home to 00:17:57.380 --> 00:17:59.579 a venue called the Green Lantern. And the Green 00:17:59.579 --> 00:18:02.440 Lantern is a vibrant, operating gay bar. Precisely. 00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:05.000 Nearly a century after Stifler and Allen opened 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:08.680 their iron bar door, that exact same narrow alleyway 00:18:08.680 --> 00:18:11.400 remains a sanctuary and a dedicated space for 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:14.380 the LGBTQ community. The physical architecture 00:18:14.380 --> 00:18:17.099 of the Crazy Cat Club is completely gone, but 00:18:17.099 --> 00:18:19.799 the spirit of the space, the cultural energy 00:18:19.799 --> 00:18:22.619 it established in that specific geographic coordinate, 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:25.490 somehow survived the wrecking ball. That is a 00:18:25.490 --> 00:18:27.750 staggering realization. So when we look back 00:18:27.750 --> 00:18:30.869 at the source material, what do we have? A city 00:18:30.869 --> 00:18:33.269 reeling from the shock of early prohibition. 00:18:33.650 --> 00:18:36.529 Three veterans build a coffee house in a back 00:18:36.529 --> 00:18:39.869 alley stable reeking of gasoline. They survive 00:18:39.869 --> 00:18:42.829 constant police raids and the terrifying presence 00:18:42.829 --> 00:18:45.819 of a local strangler. To forge an unparalleled 00:18:45.819 --> 00:18:49.119 haven of radical acceptance, they utilize a gender 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:52.180 -fluid comic strip cat as a beacon, calling in 00:18:52.180 --> 00:18:54.259 artists, intellectuals, and queer individuals, 00:18:54.500 --> 00:18:56.859 and giving them a space to simply exist without 00:18:56.859 --> 00:18:59.680 fear. It was a flash in the pan. Just 30 -something 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:01.640 months. But the ripples of what happened there 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:04.019 shaped American culture for decades to come. 00:19:04.099 --> 00:19:05.920 This raises an important question for you listening 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:08.200 right now. We have a tendency to view history 00:19:08.200 --> 00:19:10.910 as something static. carved in marble and placed 00:19:10.910 --> 00:19:13.410 behind glass in grand museums but the crazy cat 00:19:13.410 --> 00:19:16.369 club was rickety dirty and entirely temporary 00:19:16.369 --> 00:19:19.410 buildings are temporary but the cultural energy 00:19:19.410 --> 00:19:22.359 they incubate is permanent So look at your own 00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:24.880 city today. Look past the monuments, the official 00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:27.400 plaques, and the main streets. Where are the 00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:31.240 dark alleyways, the rickety stairs, or the ignored 00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:33.799 basements that are currently incubating the cultural 00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:36.500 revolutions of tomorrow? The people who will 00:19:36.500 --> 00:19:39.480 shape the next century of art and society aren't 00:19:39.480 --> 00:19:41.569 in the boardrooms. They are probably crowded 00:19:41.569 --> 00:19:44.009 into a room right now, hiding from the world, 00:19:44.109 --> 00:19:46.829 just trying to find their people. That is a phenomenal 00:19:46.829 --> 00:19:49.470 perspective to leave on. Thank you so much for 00:19:49.470 --> 00:19:51.710 joining us on this deep dive into the Crazy Cat 00:19:51.710 --> 00:19:54.130 Club. We hope this exploration inspires you to 00:19:54.130 --> 00:19:56.609 keep your eyes open, look down those narrow alleyways, 00:19:56.690 --> 00:19:58.609 and keep seeking out the hidden histories all 00:19:58.609 --> 00:19:59.109 around you.