Morrill Cody

Jimmie the Barman was not a man of letters or philosophy. But he provided drinks, thoughtfulness, and friendship to many who were. His memories of his years as barman in several bars in Montparnasse are filled with many of the people we've come to know from other such memoirs, but these are from a different perspective, and not just because he was behind the bar.

For one thing, whether it is his intention or not, he talks as much about the social history of the time as he does about the people he knew, which makes this, in a way, a little more interesting than some of the other memoirs. For instance, near the beginning he talks about an American woman, new to Paris, who had sat down on the terrasse of the Rotonde, hatless and smoking a cigarette. In those days, women in Paris never went out hatless and never smoked in public. The manager came out to say that if she wanted to smoke, she would have to sit inside. Of course now it is exactly opposite. But on that day, the young lady wanted to enjoy the sun on the terrasse and did not care to move inside.

Jimmy explains, "Soon a crowd collected. The onlookers took sides. Several English and Americans loudly championed the girl. Finally the girl roe to her feet and said that if she could not smoke on the terrace she would leave. And leave she did, taking with her the entire Anglo-American colony!"

"But she didn't move far. Across the street was the Dôme, which up to that time had been a small bistro for working men, housing on the inside one of those rough green boxes which the French so flatteringly called a billiard table. Accompanied now by quite a crowd, the young lady asked the manager of the Dôme if she might sit on the terrace WITHOUT a hat and WITH a cigarette. He immediately consented, and from that time forth the Dôme grew to international fame and became the symbol for all Montparnasse life."

As Jimmy also says, "But into this book I can put what I have seen and remembered and leave it to the critics to add the theories."

And a fine job he has done of just that.
… (altro)