There's a new book out called Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville, by David Freeland, The author also has a new website called Gotham Lost and Found The KV crew has fond memories of the automat we went to after bowling at City Hall Lanes. I put this together with images I discovered of automats and automat related items.
"Let's Have Another Cup O' Coffee" (1932) Phil Spitalny's Music
[Verse:]
Why worry when skies are gray
Why should we complain
Let's laugh at the cloudy day
Let's sing in the rain
Songwriters say the storm quickly passes
That's their philosophy
They see the world through rose-colored glasses
Why shouldn't we?
[Refrain:]
Just around the corner
There's a rainbow in the sky
So let's have another cup o' coffee
And let's have another piece o' pie!
Trouble's just a bubble
And the clouds will soon roll by
So let's have another cup o' coffee
And let's have another piece o' pie
Let a smile be your umbrella
For it's just an April show'r
Even John D. Rockefeller
Is looking for the silver lining
Mister Herbert Hoover
Says that now's the time to buy
So let's have another cup o' coffee
And let's have another piece o' pie!
[Alternate Lines:]
Things that really matter
Are the things that gold can't buy
from Joe Bruno:
In the Rosenberg book I just read, the Russian spy/handler Feklisov said he met Julius Rosenberg frequently at the Automat on 38th Street and Broadway. They'd walk in separate, sit at the same table facing each other, like strangers. Then Julius would leave an envelope on the table, and cover it with a newspaper, probably the Daily Worker, then get up and leave. No words were exchanged.
Feklisov would then stay awhile, then get up and leave, taking the newspaper and envelope with him.
The only automat I remember was on 42 St. around 2 or 3rd Avenue. What I remember about the automat was that the coffee really sucked.
Joe, I if they were good spies they wouldn't have hid it under the Daily Worker
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