6 - The Danube Blues: From American Mass Culture to Austrian Culture for the Masses

Summary

KITTY, THE “NEW-YORKER NACHTVOGEL” (night owl), is already dancing wildly to jazz music while others are still taking their five-o’clock tea. And she does not stop dancing until “Bürgermeister Walter es gebietet, das ist um 3 Uhr Früh” (Mayor Walter commands it, at three in the morning). Kitty serves as Ann Tizia Leitich's “Beraterin” (consultant) when it comes to finding the newest, freshest, most undiscovered attractions in New York's endless entertainment scene. When Leitich wants to go out on the town with the Columbia University student Flo and a couple of college boys visiting for the weekend from Yale, she turns to Kitty for advice. For a successful “Nacht in Harlem” (Night in Harlem), as the title of the article in the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger says, Kitty cautions Leitich to avoid the Cotton Club. “Dort ist es zu milde, zu zivilisiert, zu vergesellschäftlicht” (There it is too mild, too civilized, too tamed). Even though Leitich had once been too scared to go to a club called Small’s, Kitty informs her that it has also been discovered, “verwässert und platt gemacht” (watered down and flattened). But Kitty can be counted on to find the current hot spot: “Warten Sie, da fällt mir etwas Besseres ein, etwas, was noch ganz elementarer ist, aber Sie müssen mir Ihr Wort geben, daß Sie's niemandem verraten” (Wait, something better just occurred to me, a place that is still very elemental, but you have to give me your word that you won't let enyone else in on it). How can Leitich, Flo, and the boys possibly ignore such advice? They start out at the Cotton Club because it is only 11:00 p.m. “und wir wollen uns dort mal etwas akklimatisieren” (and we want to acclimate ourselves there). After some initial disappointment that Harlem looks much like the rest of New York, Flo begins to enjoy herself:

Flo ist begeistert von der Stimmung und voll Anerkennung für die Musik, die fünf Neger mit so viel virtuoser primitiver Wildheit spielen, wie dazu notwendig ist, und doch mit genügend Reserve, um einen musikalischen und nicht tanzwütigen Menschen die Sache nicht unleidlich zu machen.

[Flo is enthusiastic about the atmosphere and full of appreciation for the music. The music is being played by five Negroes with as much primitive, wild virtuosity as is necessary, but still with enough reserve so that a musical—not dance-crazed—person can still enjoy herself.]