PAPER MAGAZINE 1920s Speakeasy Chic

ESSAY ABOUT PHOTO AND BRICKTOPS

by Jason El Norte

New York based Paper Magazine decided to dedicate their February issue to the sights, sounds, people and essence of the city of Los Angeles. I was included in their photo shoot of the various "tribes" of Los Angeles. I was part of the "tribe" that represented the regulars at a now defunct 1920s-style speakeasy themed club called "Bricktops" held at the Parlour Club and hosted by Vaginal Davis. Unfortunately, Ms. Davis was unable to appear in the photo shoot, due to a scheduled performance in Berlin with the Cheap Collective.

Davis' "Bricktops" was an homage to Ada Smith, a black vaudeville nightclub owner from the 1920s who held an international string of clubs that spanned Paris, Rome, Harlem, and Mexico City. Nightclub owner Barron Wilkins nicknamed Smith "Bricktops" because of her freckles and bright red hair. Smith later became known as "Bricktops" ( a name she gave to her nightclubs).

Cabaret performance became wildly popular in Europe following World War I, particularly in Germany, where the Weimar government essentially dissolved all forms of censorship. Berlin clubs in the 1930's boasted satirical routines, transvestitism, and general debauchery with a socio-political edge. Davis' "Bricktops" recreated an amalgamation of Weimar Berlin and Paris cafe culture as well as celebrating the experimental and cultural reverberations of the era of Dada and Surrealism. "Bricktop" presented Davis' multimedia monologue-scats and eclectic guest performances, which often paid tribute to esoteric personalities from the Jazz Age. Popular themes included salutes to Louise Brooks, Isadora Duncan, Bertolt Brecht, the Carter Family, Django Reinhardt, Jean Cocteau, plus installations featuring silent movie erotica (from my own collection), frenzied tap dancing flappers, and bath tub gin babies. One performance even included a man dressed as a doughboy setting up a typewriter by a tiny stage in order to tap out "Letters From an Unknown Soldier."

Davis' "Bricktops" was an answer to clubgoers who were sick of discordant rock music, and the stale electroclash scene as well as every other tired, overdone appropriation of 70s/80s postpunk pop hack rehashes. "Bricktops" was one of the few venues that featured a truly eclectic crowd - debutantes, young couples in Gatsby-era clothing and minor celebrities would bump elbows with homeless people or ex-convicts who would wander into the club. There was no VIP area - every attendee was on equal footing. It was a rare place for inter-class, race and gender socializing. But alas, all good things had to come to an end when the Parlour Club was bought and sold around August of last year. The Parlour Club owner, Lenny Young was made an offer he couldn't refuse from club and restaurant impresario Sean MacPherson of The Olive, Smalls K.O., Jones Hollywood, The Good Luck Bar, El Carmen Taqueria and Tequila Bar, Swingers, and Bar Marmont fame. At least the Paper Mag spread served as a nice memento over a bygone era.