Hobohemia is a low-rent district in a city where artistic bohemians and the down-and-outs or hobos mix. In Chicago from the turn of the century to circa 1940s this was Tower Town and the area often known as "The West Madison Stem" [1] (Madison Street west of downtown) which was known as "Skid road" and home to thousands of transient men and women, and Ben Reitman's Hobo College. [2] In New York City it was the neighborhood of the Bowery, and Greenwich Village. [3] It was the title of a short story by Sinclair Lewis originally published in The Saturday Evening Post , which Lewis subsequently reworked into a three-act comedy which was first performed at the Greenwich Village Theatre in 1919. [4]
Contents
A reference appears in the Rodgers and Hart song The Lady is a Tramp: "My Hobohemia is the place to be." [3]