Hobohemia

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A scene from Sinclair Lewis's 1919 play Hobohemia Scene from "Hobohemia", 1919.jpg
A scene from Sinclair Lewis's 1919 play Hobohemia

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 neighbourhood 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]

See also

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References

  1. "Hobohemia West Madison Street". University of Illinois Chicago.
  2. Gershon, Livia (May 16, 2019). "The Hobo College of Hobohemia". JSTOR Daily .
  3. 1 2 Irving Lewis Allen (1995-02-23). The City in Slang. ISBN   9780195357769.
  4. John Corbin (1919). "Drama". New York Times.

Further reading