The Telephone Booth Indian

by A.J. Liebling

A classic work on Broadway sharpers, grifters, and con men by the late, great New Yorker journalist A. J. Liebling.

Often referred to as “Liebling lowlife pieces,” the essays in The Telephone Booth Indian boisterously celebrate raffishness. A. J. Liebling appreciated a good scam and knew how to cultivate the scammers. Telephone Booth Indians (entrepreneurs so impecunious that they conduct business from telephone booths in the lobbies of New York City office buildings) and a host of other petty nomads of Broadway—with names like Marty the Clutch and Count de Pennies—are the protagonists in this incomparable Liebling work. In The Telephone Booth Indian , Liebling proves just why he was the go-to man on New York lowlife and con culture; this is the master at the top of his form, uncovering scam after scam and writing about them with the wit and charisma that established him as one of the greatest journalists of his generation and one of New York’s finest cultural chroniclers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, History, Crime, Journalism, Humor, True Crime

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Abbott Joseph "A. J." Liebling was an American journalist who was closely associated with The New Yorker from 1935 until his death.

Reviews

[Vickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of sharp and smart essays written in the 1930's by an ace reporter about the hucksters and con men of the day. Mostly engaging and hilarious, except for "The Boy in the Pistachio Suit" about the history of a newspaper syndicate.

[Rufussenex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first introduction to Liebling. Incomparably dry and funny prose (the unexpected adjective followed by a left-hook simile, or a metaphor so grossly unnecessary in its erudition that it is thus perfectly right) renders a 30s New York of carnies and cons and businessmen and wrestlers and hatcheck clerks so vividly that it becomes your life, your memories, your people. I get that way with Liebling.

[Linet Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in bits and pieces sometimes over and over again. Like Joseph Mitchell's stories it reminds me of the New York my father told me about, the New York I remember very vaguely from early childhood with the pre-memory sense of familiarity which could have come from the stories your parents told you.

This is a fantastic book to read if you want to become a good writer, and if you like this book I suggest reading some Joseph Mitchell.

[Nog · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I picked "Liebling at Home" up at the central branch of the San Diego library, solely for the purpose of reading “The Telephone Booth Indian” and “The Honest Rainmaker”, which are long OOP.

TTBI contains 10 chapters, each a piece written for The New Yorker between 1937 and 1942. Other writings from this period are contained in “Back Where I Came From”, which also contains the remaining stories that are included in TJB. (By the way, there was no building called Jollity in NYC; it is either a composite of several buildings on Broadway, or primarily the Brill Building.) What this material has in common is Liebling’s fondness for writing about the unusual people living in New York City at the time. In fact, it’s hard to imagine these sorts of people surviving in today’s NYC; for one thing, the streets and buildings have been transformed over the decades into infrastructures that could not possibly support these curious livelihoods. The sorts of scams and cons he writes about have now moved into cyberspace.

But that’s what I find so charming about Joe’s books — he describes a world so different from ours, and does so with bemusement and just terrific turns of phrase. He often provides direct quotes from his subjects, so you can relish the 1930’s NY-speak and the subjective realities of some really colorful characters.

Having said that, some of the pieces in TTBI are not really compelling; I found the piece on the Schuberts and their success on Broadway rather stiff, which surprised me. The piece on the Scripps-Howard publishing empire is a lot better; so far, every bit of his writing about the press I’ve read has been interesting and revealing about publishers. Also, these early sports pieces were disappointing, full of details that I found pretty boring, actually. The piece on the rise of the “hat check” business in NYC was good, though. This one is probably more like three and a half stars, but I rounded it up to encourage new readers of Liebling.

The Scripps name is familiar to all of us San Diego residents. E.W. Scripps bought a ranch here in 1898 for health reasons and named it Miramar; his publishing empire was headquartered in Ohio. Early on he founded the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (1903). HIs ranch lands now make up the bedroom community of Scripps Ranch and the Miramar Naval Air Station.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coming out in 1942 and collecting pieces most of which had previously appeared in The New Yorker. Most of the pieces deal with business people in one way or another, business being a pretty broad term here. I didn’t find this as funny as I have some of his other books but there’s some classic Liebling here. His raffish side is in good form in “The Jollity Building”, part of which provides the title of the book and deals with small time operators and con men, some so low in the pecking order their office is actually a public phone booth which they hang around when expecting a call from a client, in this case usually a sucker. His acerbic humor and knowledge of the journalism business come through in “The Boy in the Pistachio Shirt”, about Roy Howard, a newspaper and news mogul of the era, clearly not highly respected by Liebling.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Low lifes, con men, tricksters and carnies strut through A.J. Liebling's book, all looking to make a buck off a sucker. If these men were alive today, they'd be running phone scams on old people or sending email offers of wealth from Nigerian Princes. The really smart ones would be hackers or traders on the Dark Web. Entertaining and iluminating.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent Liebling. Mostly straight journalism (not too much memoir or second-hand raconteurism) about boxing, bookmaking, the theater, and an account of the coat-check industry and American tipping habits circa 1941. Liebling was the master of a kind of baroque humor that many try to imitate, few successfully.

[Neddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been 4 stars but the “Pistachio shirt” piece was terrible. Petty and dull.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

And again, and again. I have the North Point ed., and it was reissued in this series, which I reviewed in 2003, and which, sad to say, seems to have ceased publication soon thereafter. Not because of me, I don't think.

So in several ways, they don't make 'em like this anymore. Some of that is probably a good thing; as this article by Jack Shafer points out, Liebling made stuff up. Which is sorta disappointing, but also not that surprising. I'm not sure anyone, not even the promoters and shysters and scammers Liebling profiles here, could be as consistently quotable as they are here. And I don't care much, even though Shafer's article makes a bunch of entirely convincing arguments that I should. I guess I think of this as just as much a collection of short stories about NYC roguery as a set of journalistic profiles of real people. They're still great pieces about life at the margins of respectability, in the whole NYC demimonde of the 30s. I always picture this era in black-and-white when I imagine living there, which is both understandable and dumb of me, with a swing soundtrack. And this furnishes the laugh track, and the street smarts, and all the ways I'd know to make a dollar, as they say.

Read it two or three times: once for the plot, again for the zesty language, and again for the sheer joy Liebling takes in constructing and living the pieces. Even if they're not, you know, totally true.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I no longer own this book. I was so fond of it that I had to give it away.

Liebling is incredible. Though he lacks the soft, nostalgic heart of Joseph Mitchell, he captures the rough edges of old New York's hustlers and promoters perfectly.

[Jonah · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was recommended by luc sante, who wrote the introduction - liebling's a new yorker writer from way back when, and this is a series of essay on broadway con men and riff raff in the 40s. it's excellent...

[Takipsilim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting vignettes of Depression-era life in New York. The day to day activities of small-time businessmen, crooks, athletes, and others are finely shown. Liebling's bias shows but this is worth the read in being a time capsule to a bygone age.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reprint of a look from 1945 of the way New York was before and during the depression. Filled with bookies, boxers, producers and hat girls. Fun read about New York in the early part of the 20th century. Chapters cover the Shuberts, boxers and the creating of coat checks.

[Steve Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

We don't have journalists like this anymore. Sad.