Home To Harlem

All the old cabarets are still open, although one called Connor’s is fading. A new one, Goldgraben’s, has a Jewish owner who employs a well-liked black managerand attracts the “golden-browns that had any spendable dough” away from places like Connor’s. The Congo Rose, “a real throbbing Little Africa in New York” and a hangout for working class people (29), is also thriving.

The Congois “African in spirit and color” (30), bars whites, and doesnothing to market to light-skinned African Americans. The owner has no interest in having sex workers on site, although there is the occasional sweetman (male sex workers).Patrons who don’t want the gentility of Seventh Avenue and are overwhelmed by Goldfarben’s can go to the Congo and be their natural selves.

Jake starts his search for his girl at the Baltimorebut curses himself as a fool when he does not see her. All over the Baltimore, the sweetmen flirt with their potential customers while a girl with a deep voice sings. The cabaret singer sings a jazz song and dances provocatively in front of Jake after he gives her fifty cents, but he is unmoved by her. Although she eventually moves on, everyone else is caught up in her passionate singing and the sound of the saxophones.