Krazy Kat Klub

The Krazy Kat Klub (alternatively, Krazy Kat Club, Krazy Kat Klubb, etc.) was a Bohemian cafe, speakeasy and nightclub that operated at No. 3 Green Court near Washington, D.C.'s Thomas Circle during the early decades of the 20th century. The club was run by portraitist and theatrical scenic designer Cleon "Throck" Throckmorton[1] and its name was borrowed from the title character of a comic strip that was popular at the time.

The Krazy Kat Klub’s entrance was in an alley that led out to Massachusetts Avenue, and during 1921 the entrance door bore a small sign reading "The Krazy Kat" along with a chalk-written warning at the top of the door that read, “All soap abandon ye who enter here.” The club included both an indoor dance floor and an outdoor courtyard for al fresco dining and art exhibitions. The courtyard featured a small tree-house, accessed by a ladder. The Club was also the site of painting classes during the 1920s.

In 1919, a reporter for the Washington Post described the Krazy Kat Klub as being "something like a Greenwich Village coffee house", featuring "gaudy pictures created by futurists and impressionists". It was also mentioned in the published diary of Washington, DC resident Jeb Alexander, who wrote that the club was a "Bohemian joint in an old stable up near Thomas Circle . . . [a gathering place for] artists, musicians, atheists (and) professors."[2]

The Krazy Kat Klub was raided by the police several times during the Prohibition period. One raid in February 1919 was reported as having interrupted a brawl inside the club, during which a shot was fired. The raid resulted in the arrests of 22 men and three women, described in a Washington Post report of February 22 as "self-styled artists, poets and actors, and some who worked for the government by day and masqueraded as Bohemians by night".

References

  1. ↑ "The 1920s Speakeasy Club with a Treehouse in the Backyard", MessyNessy, July 4, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Scenes from the Past...Fun During Prohibition at Thomas Circle’s Krazy Kat Club & Speakeasy", The InTowner, June 14, 2009.

Further reading

External links

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