Krazy Kat Klub
Jazz Age speakeasy in Washington, D.C. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Krazy Kat Klub—also known as The Kat and later rebranded as Throck's Studio—was a Bohemian cafe, speakeasy, and nightclub in Washington, D.C. during the historical era known as the Jazz Age.[2] Founded in 1919 by 21-year-old portraitist and scenic designer Cleon "Throck" Throckmorton,[3] the back-alley establishment functioned as a speakeasy after the passage of the Sheppard Bone-Dry Act by the U.S. Congress in March 1917 that imposed a ban on alcoholic beverages in the District of Columbia.[4] Within a year of its founding, the speakeasy became notorious for its riotous performances of hot jazz music which often degenerated into mayhem.[5]
"The Kat" | |
Clientele arriving at The Krazy Kat speakeasy in July 1921: Cleon Throckmorton (right), Inez Hogan (middle), Kathryn Mullin (left) | |
 | |
| Address | 3 Green Court Washington, D.C. United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38.904°N 77.031°W |
| Owner | John Don Allen, John Stiffen & Cleon Throckmorton[1] |
| Opened | 1919 |
| Closed | Circa 1926? |
The speakeasy's name derived from the androgynous title character of a comic strip popular at the time,[6] and this namesake communicated that the venue catered to clientele of all sexual persuasions, including polysexual and homosexual patrons.[7] Due to this inclusivity, the secluded venue served as a clandestine rendezvous spot for Washington, D.C.'s gay community to meet without fear of exposure.[8] The speakeasy's clientele were known for their unapologetic embrace of free love ("unrestricted impulse").[9] By 1922, The Krazy Kat had become infamous, and municipal authorities publicly identified the venue as "a disorderly house," a euphemism for a brothel.[1]
Perhaps due to its infamous reputation, The Krazy Kat became one of the most vogue locations for Washington, D.C.'s artists, bohemians, flappers, and cultural elites to mingle.[10] Contemporary sources alleged that, during the second term of President Woodrow Wilson's administration (1916–1921), the establishment's habitués included federal government employees as well as possibly members of the U.S. Congress.[11]
After existing for over half-a-decade and surviving a number of police raids,[12] the speakeasy presumably closed by 1926 when Cleon Throckmorton and his first wife Kathryn "Kat" Mullin relocated to Greenwich Village in New York City.[13] Today, the speakeasy's neighborhood is the site of The Green Lantern, a D.C. gay bar.[14]
A 23-year-old Cleon "Throck" Throckmorton, 18-year-old Kathryn "Kat" Mullin,[lower-alpha 1] and a friend wearing a tricorne hat relax in the club's tree house cafe on July 15, 1921. No photograph of the club's indoor area—the speakeasy itself—is known to exist.
Situated at Number 3 Green Court (38.904°N 77.031°W) near Washington, D.C.'s Thomas Circle, The Krazy Kat speakeasy existed in an economically-depressed urban district colloquially known as the Latin Quarter.[15] Although the notorious speakeasy likely offered multiple entrances for its patrons,[10] at least one inconspicuous entrance opened into a narrow red-bricked alleyway leading to Massachusetts Avenue.[16]
The back-alley entrance door bore a rectangular hand-painted sign reading "Syne of Ye Krazy Kat" [sic] and depicted a black cat resembling Krazy Kat being hit by a brick.[17] A chalk-inscribed message adorned the top of the door with a warning: "All soap abandon ye who enter here".[18] The club advertised its hours as "9 p.m. to 12:30".[10]
Upon entering via the alleyway, speakeasy patrons crossed a lumber-littered room and ascended a narrow winding staircase to reach "a smoke-filled, dimly lighted room that was fairly well filled with laughing, noisy people, who seemed to be having just the best time in the world, with no one to see and no one to care who saw".[19]
The club's interior dining area occupied the second-floor of an old livestock stable.[19] Rife with cobwebs, the indoor dining area featured "futurist pictures on the walls, small wooden tables, rickety chairs, and candles for light".[20] No photograph of the interior is known to exist. The club's premises included both an indoor dance floor and an outdoor courtyard for al fresco dining and art exhibitions. The courtyard had a small rustic tree house cafe constructed from wooden planks and accessible via a wooden twelve-step ladder.[21]
Early years
On March 3, 1917, the controversial passage of the Sheppard Bone-Dry Act led to the closure of 267 barrooms and nearly 90 wholesale establishments in the District of Columbia.[24] Over 2,000 employees in D.C. barrooms and wholesale establishments were thrown out of work, and the district lost nearly half-a-million dollars per year in tax revenue.[24] In the wake of this draconian bill, underground speakeasies such as The Krazy Kat and others flourished.[25]
Circa 1919, 21-year-old artist Cleon Throckmorton (1897–1965) founded The Krazy Kat after he had completed his engineering studies at George Washington University.[26] By day, Throckmorton was an associate of the drama department at Howard University, a historically black college.[27] By night, he ran the raucous speakeasy in the Latin Quarter.[28] He shared ownership of the venue with co-proprietors John Don Allen and John Stiffen.[1] A pre-Raphaelite impressionist, Throckmorton believed that artists should pursue their vocation day and night by surrounding themselves with appropriate settings that inspired creativity, and the venue fulfilled that purpose.[10]
Due to its courtyard and tree house, the establishment became an idyllic haunt for artists, bohemians, flappers, and other free-wheeling "young moderns" of the Jazz Age.[9] One frequent habitué was Throckmorton's muse, 18-year-old Kathryn Marie "Kat" Mullin[lower-alpha 1] (1902–1994), whom he later married in January 1922.[31] A model, sketch artist and later costume designer, "Kat" Mullin was widely known for her radio and stage performances as a ukulele player and singer with the Crandall Saturday Nighters.[32] For her stage performances, she was billed as "The Girl With the Million Dollar Legs."[33] When not performing on stage or radio, she was a renowned expert in women's saber fencing and gave public exhibitions.[34]
Cultural peak
By 1920, the speakeasy was renowned for its riotous performances of hot jazz music which occasionally degenerated into violence and mayhem.[35] The Washington Post crime reporter described The Krazy Kat as being "something like a Greenwich Village coffee house", featuring gaudy pictures painted by futurists and impressionists.[36] According to the Washington City Paper, The Kat clandestinely functioned as an underground nexus for Washington, D.C.'s gay community.[14] Jeb Alexander, a gay Washington, D.C. resident, described the transgressive venue in his personal diary as a "bohemian joint in an old stable up near Thomas Circle... [a gathering place for] artists, musicians, atheists [and] professors".[37] Writer Victor Flambeau described the club in a February 1922 article for The Washington Times:
"A hidden haunt where one might find in comradeship those divine, congenial devils, art inspired and mad, no doubt, who have renounced the commercial world with its seductive wealth, to gain in solitude or blithe companionship another kind of wealth and fame in self-expression.... When the hours wane, and the candles burn low, and the big fire glows, and over the cigarettes and the cider, the coffee and sandwiches, what do they chat of, these men and women, boys and girls, the would-be writers, painters, poets of tomorrow?"[9]
Cleon Throckmorton (middle), Kathryn Mullin (far right), Inez Hogan (top left) and others in the tree house cafe. The flappers wear the rolled stockings and low heels typical of the era's fashion.[38]
Over time, The Krazy Kat speakeasy became one of the most vogue locations for Washington's intelligentsia and aesthetes to congregate.[10] According to Throckmorton, the avant-garde venue "proved not only a club for artists, but a source of supply for musicians and playwrights", and he claimed that several plays were written on its premises.[39] Flambeau noted that, by 1922, "in imitation of the Krazy Kat, other bohemian restaurants sprang up in Washington to supply the demand" such as the Silver Sea Horse and Carcassonne in Georgetown.[40]
During its tumultuous half-decade existence, municipal authorities repeatedly declared The Kat to be a "disorderly house" (a euphemism for a brothel), and the metropolitan police raided the establishment on several occasions during the Prohibition period.[12] One raid in February 1919 interrupted a violent brawl inside the club, during which a gunshot was fired.[1] The surprise raid resulted in the arrests of 25 krazy kats—22 men and only 3 women—described in a Washington Post report of February 22 as "self-styled artists, poets and actors".[12] The article noted that several arrested patrons "worked for the [federal] government by day and masqueraded as Bohemians by night".[12]
Closure
The Krazy Kat speakeasy presumably closed some time prior to 1926 when Throckmorton and his wife Kathryn "Kat" Mullin relocated to Greenwich Village in New York City.[13] During this same period, Mullin sued Throckmorton for divorce after four years of marriage on December 17, 1926, after catching him in an extramarital affair with an unidentified woman—possibly film actress Juliet Brenon—in their Greenwich Village apartment in Manhattan.[41] Mullin's friend, African-American stage actress Blanche Dunn, served as a supporting witness on her behalf in the divorce suit.[41] Throckmorton did not contest the divorce, and Mullin did not seek alimony.[42]
Immediately after his divorce from Mullin, Throckmorton married actress Juliet Brenon (1895–1979) on March 13, 1927.[43] She was the niece of Irish-American motion picture auteur Herbert Brenon who directed the first cinematic adaptation of The Great Gatsby in 1926.[44] Throckmorton became one of the most prolific scenic designers for Broadway plays in New York City, and his Greenwich Village apartment that he shared with Juliet Brenon became an after-hours salon for thespians, artists, and intellectuals such as Noël Coward, Norman Bel Geddes, Eugene O'Neill and E.E. Cummings.[45] Their politically leftward salon later raised funds for the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War.[46]
Cleon Throckmorton, Kathryn Mullin, Inez Hogan, and others arrive at the back-alley entrance of The Kat
Another angle of their arrival at the back-alley entrance of The Kat
Cleon Throckmorton paints Kathryn "Kat" Mullin, his future wife, as Inez Hogan cleans a paint brush
Cleon Throckmorton and Kathryn Mullin relax with a friend
Cleon, Kathryn, Inez, and others chat over coffee and cigarettes
A waiter ascends a ladder to serve patrons in the club's treehouse while Kathryn Mullin waits above.
Cleon's 1918 employee photograph for the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Close-up of Kathryn Mullin (1902–1994), an expert in women's saber fencing who gave public exhibitions.
The site of the Krazy Kat in 2023. The entrance seen in other photos is on the opposite side of the current building.
The Green Lantern gay bar. The building can be seen on the right in the first photo.
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