NIGHT LIFE OF TO-DAY

Evening Star, Issue 20666, 13 December 1930, Page 30

NIGHT LIFE OF TO-DAY

SCENES IN THREE CAPITALS LONDON'S DIGNITY Of the four great world capitals, it is London, not New York, which—as far as its night life is concex-ned—suf-fers most from Prohibition. London’s Prohibition is, of course, only partial, but it is severely enforced, and during the hours when it holds sway the public drinking places are closed as tightly as a French drug store on Sunday, writes Harold Callender, in the * New York Times.’ In Paris you may drink, if you want to, twenty-four hours every day in the week, though you might starve before you found a place where you could eat a meal between 3 o’clock and 7in the afternoon. In London, on the other hand, you may eat at any hour, but you cannot have a drink of alcoholic liquor before 11 a.m., between 3 and 5.30 p.ra., or after midnight. Prohibition has curious effects. In London, as in New York, it is only partial—partial in a different sense. But New York’s Prohibition is evidently far more stimulating to night life than London’s, for, where _ there are no officially sanctioned drinking hours there are no annoying police regulations,. such as those that curb the gaiety of the late hours in London. In New' York the night club really owes its origin to Prohibition, and in that metropolis of a legally “ dry ” nation it probably is as thriving as in any of the European capitals, where drinking is virtually unrestricted.

THOUGHT AN ASSET. In Berlin, where the rapid development of all manner of night resorts in the last ..few years is somewhat comparable to that in New York, night life is organised on a gigantic scale. It is carried on—all of it—quite openly; it is vaunted and advertised and officially encouraged as a municipal asset. It is regarded as symbolising the advance of Berlin as a cosmopolitan capital, as an industrial; commercial, and social centre, as the metropolis of Germany in a sense in which it never was in the days when the German kingdoms—each with its local court and capital—kept the nation decentralised. The profusion of dazzling lights that make the Unter. den Linden and the Friedrichstrasse gleam v from dusk to dawn, the jazz bands that reverberate from the Alexanderplatz to Charlottenburg, the champagne' that, sparkles on thousands of tables every night are suggestive also of a sort of perpetual fete in celebration of Germany’s quick recovery from" war revolution, and bankruptcy, of her economic prowess, of her energy and confidence. LATE HOURS. Dozens of cabarets and restaurants, scores of theatres, and hundreds of cafes—some accommodating thousands of customers under.one roof—are filled to overflowing by people who work hard and take their diversions in a generous and expansive manner. The only restraint, is that night restaurants and cabarets are required to close at 3 a.m. Up to that hour they may wear out as . many saxophones as they like, and’sell as much champagne as alert and persuasive waiters can cajole a docile clientele to accept. Paris has nothing like the elaborate paraphernalia for gaiety that has been built up in Berlin, engages in no such concerted quest of brightness and cheer, no such assiduous and business-like organisation of night life. > The French are stubbornly individualistic, even in their play,' and have no more _use- for the chain cafe than for the chain store or quantity production of other things. Unlike the Germans, they do not want heavy carpets or deep armchairs, or white napery or even music in their cafes. They want uncovered wooden or marble tables, long and* slightly, 'upholstered benches, newspapers, timetables, the Bottin, writuig materials, chess boards, playing cards, and lots of tranquillity. In their restaurants they care nothing for elaborate furnishings or for orchestras. NOT LARGE. They do not go there for the delectation of the eye or the ear. Some of

the best restaurants in France, often tiny places catering to a neighbourhood clientele—have sawdust on the floor and nothing more than plaster on the walls, but on the tables is a cuisine that every great hotel in tho world strives to duplicate. : '

The night resorts of Paris are not large and imposing, as many are in Berlin; they are small, but very numerous and varied. They may be found—if . one includes the cafes—in every corner of the city. They do not need to drum up trade—and probably would not if they did need te. There is no official propaganda on their behalf. It is taken for granted that _ everyone who is at all in contact with civilisation is fully aware that Paris is an agreeable place; if there is anyone who is not, so much the worse for him; , There is no such thing in Paris as an enforced closing hour or police regular tion of drinking. The more preten-. tious cabaret-dancing establishments usually shut down towards S a.m., but so far as the police are concerned they ’ might continue to 5 p.m. It is the purchasing power of the clients, hot the police, that determines the closing hour. It would be a very bold official who would undertake to tell the Parisian when he might and might not drink or dance. ANOTHER WORLD. As regards night amusements as in many other respects—London is a different world from Berlin and Paris. The more fashionable night life is centred in the large hotels and restaurants. and in a few night clubs. Each of the leading hotels has an excellent restaurant, where one may dine or sup and dance until 1 or 2 a.m. Some of the lesser hotels offer similar facilities at more popular places. If one ws-its something a bit less conventional (ms goes to the small night dubs, of which there are a score or so in the West End and Soho. Hero the company is not quite so select, the rooms are not so capacious, the music not so good, the E rices not so high as in the great , otels; but the surroundings are apparently regarded as somewhat more bohemian and exciting—if only because the police swoop down upon some of these,places now.and then and arrest the proprietors for selling drinks after the prescribed closing hour. . r - Nigbt life in London is neither soi unconcealed nor so elaborate as in Berlin, nor so spontaneous and nonchalant and unstaged and taken for granted as in Paris—that is. the French, not the foreign Paris. Excepting in the big hotels and the more conventional night clubs, where it is ultra-respectable, very pleasant and very unexciting, there is a certain furtive and dubious air about it. . Referring to the fact that-his; ea- / tablishmeht was in a basement, the head waiter of one night club recently explained: “ You know, you ' simply can’t get, ah Englishman to walk upstairs to buy a drink.” SOME' PRETENCE. * .* It is not that these places are necessarily of a low typo ; (some are, and, some are hot), but they are not precisely what they pretend to ho. In Berlin and Paris, however low, they, operate . -openly and without the slightest dissimulation, arid the police do not con-. cern themselves so long as reasonable order is maintained, in these cities the cabaret and dancing places are ex-' elusive only as far as their prices make . them so; But in London even sqme , otherwise unexceptionable night dubs sail under somewhat false colours, since they are called clubs and are officially so classified, although in. reality they are dancing places accessible to anyone who comes in evening dress and can pay’ the price. The practice does not represent merely the British predilection for exelusiveness, even though it be in name only, or what the French like to call Anglo-Saxon hypocrisy. It arises from a simple legal situation—from London’s, partial prohibition. ' MUST BE DONE. If you want to sell drinks after 11 o’clock, when, the. bars, close, you must sell food with them. , A restaurant license is.difficult to get, but it is easy . to form (nominally) a club with twentyfive members, and thus get for a fee of five shillings a permit to sell drinks until midnight. -Moreover, yonr premises, are private and the police cannot enter to see whether you are obeying i the rules, as they can. in the case of the restaurant. Consequently, if one of ■ your waiters happened to sell a drink after midnight it probably would pass unnoticed. Berlin’s _ gaiety is rather deliberate and business-hke; London suffers under the weight, of dignity and the ■ British conviction that strong enthusiasm of any sort verges upon impropriety; Paris is spontaneous, unaffected, and unrestrained by respect for anything—hence there is so much more of it. ' . "