Wikipedia

Costello's

Costello's (also known as Tim's) was an Irish bar and restaurant that operated at four locations at or near the intersection of East 44th Street and Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City from 1929–1992. Costello's was known as a drinking spot for journalists with the New York Daily News, writers with The New Yorker, novelists, and cartoonists, including the author Ernest Hemingway, the cartoonist James Thurber, the journalist John McNulty, the poet Brendan Behan, the short-story writer John O'Hara, and the writers Maeve Brennan and A. J. Liebling. The bar is also known for having been home to a wall where Thurber drew a cartoon depiction of the "Battle of the Sexes" between 1934–1935; the cartoon was destroyed, illustrated again, and then lost in the 1990s. A wall illustrated in 1976 by several cartoonists, including Bill Gallo, Stan Lee, Mort Walker, Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, and Dik Browne, is still on display at the bar's final location.

The bar was founded in 1929 as a speakeasy on Third Avenue by brothers Tim and Joe Costello, who had emigrated to the United States from the Republic of Ireland. Tim was known as an affable, intelligent proprietor with an interest in literature. In the early 1930s, the bar moved to the corner of East 44th Street and Third Avenue, before moving one door away on Third Avenue in 1949. The bar moved to its final location at 225 East 44th Street in 1974. Costello's closed in 1992; the Turtle Bay Café took over the space, operating until 2005. Since then, the location has been occupied by a sports bar called Overlook. The bar is remembered through the stories that have been told about it over the years. The writer John McNulty is credited with creating a mythology around Costello's—which he called "this place on Third Avenue"—in a series of short stories published in The New Yorker in the 1940s.

Early years (1929–1950s)

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Tim Costello (September 5, 1895–November 7, 1962)[1] and his brother Joe opened the eponymous Costello's (also known as Tim's)[2] in 1929 as a speakeasy on Third Avenue—under the Third Avenue El—near the intersection with East 44th Street, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.[3][a] Tim and Joe were born and raised in Ferbane, Ireland, to James and Teresa (née Flynn), who owned a drapery shop. As a young adult, Tim worked as a taxi driver in Dublin;[5] he was arrested in 1922 for dangerous driving, sentenced to three months in prison, and fined £10 (equivalent to $690 in 2023).[b] Tim immigrated to the United States in 1927; in transit, he met his future wife, Kathleen Gordon.[4] Tim was known as an affable, intellectual proprietor, who was knowledgeable about literature, opinionated about art, and well-dressed in a Brooks Brothers suit.[6]

After the 1933 repeal of the prohibition of alcohol in the United States, Costello's moved to 701 Third Avenue,[7] on the corner of Third Avenue and East 44th Street.[c] From the the repeal of the prohibition of alcohol in the United States through World War II, Costello's and its neighbor P.J. Clarke's "were the great egalitarian mixers of New York", according to a 1976 story in The New York Times, where "chauffeurs, ice-men, taxi drivers and hod carriers"[11] dined and drank with writers for The New Yorker, columnists and reporters for the New York Daily News, correspondents with the Associated Press and United Press International, and cartoonists for Yank Magazine, as well as with people working in Madison Avenue advertising industry.[12] Notable regulars included the author Ernest Hemingway, the cartoonist James Thurber, the journalist John McNulty, the poet Brendan Behan, the short-story writer John O'Hara, and the writers Maeve Brennan and A. J. Liebling.[13] In 1949, Costello's moved one door south to 699 Third Avenue.[9]

Later years (1960s-1992)

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When Tim died in 1962 at the age of 67,[8] his son Timothy Costello inherited and continued operating the business.[10] In the 1970s, Costello's began to change along with the neighborhood, which was being developed by larger businesses and facing increasing rents.[10] By 1972, Costello's was no longer a gathering place for authors and journalists; rather, according Timothy Costello, it catered to what he called "technicians", or people working in business.[11] The bartender John Gallagher said that many of the customers worked on Wall Street.[9] Through the 1970s, however, some Daily News journalists continued to frequent the bar.[11]

Costello's was evicted from 699 Third Avenue in 1973 because the building's owners intended to tear the building down; the Times reported that a spokesperson for the building's owner said "Yes, ... it's too bad about Costello's."[10] Despite claiming that he could not afford rent in the neighborhood, Timothy Costello reopened the following year at 225 East 44th Street.[14] Costello's closed in the morning of February 29, 1992, in part as a result of the early 1990s recession.[15] Later that year, a dive bar called The Turtle Bay Café moved into the location. The bar was frequented by diplomats, United Nations employees, and the cast and crew of the soap opera Guiding Light.[16] 225 East 44th Street has been occupied by a sports bar called Overlook since 2004.[17]

Cartoon walls

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Costello's was decorated with illustrations that were painted and drawn directly on the walls by several notable cartoonists, including James Thurber, Bill Gallo, Stan Lee, Mort Walker, Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, and Dik Browne.[18][19][20]. At some point from 1934–1935, when Costello's was located at 701 Third Avenue, James Thurber illustrated the walls, depicting the "Battle of the Sexes".[21] There are several conflicting accounts of when and how Thurber completed the cartoon. The New York Times journalist Murray Schumach wrote that he borrowed the keys to the bar and painted the cartoon in one day in the winter of 1935.[9] Susan Edmiston and Linda D. Cirino reported that, one night, he drew the cartoon in 90 minutes.[21] By contrast, the Times journalist Robert Tomasson stated that Thurber worked throughout 1934–1935; he would arrive to the bar late at night, working from booth to booth, and in the morning, the walls would be varnished to preserve the illustrations.[10] The cartoon was accidentally destroyed when painters hired by Tim Costello accidentally painted over them. Thurber then again illustrated the wall with a similar cartoon. In 1949, that section of the wall was removed and moved to the bar's new location at 699 Third Avenue.[22] On April 8, 1972, several cartoonists who had worked for Yank Magazine during World War II restored the illustrations.[9] The Thurber cartoons were brought to the bar's final location at 701, where they were only occasionally displayed.[8] The cartoons disappeared in the 1990s.[19]

In 1976, two years after Costello's moved to its final location, Timothy Costello enlisted the cartoonist Bill Gallo to illustrate one of the walls. Gallo initially declined because he "didn't want to compete with Thurber".[20] Eventually, he struck a deal with Costello to close the bar and provide free food and drink for the approximately 40 cartoonists who contributed to the wall, including Stan Lee, Mort Walker, Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, and Dik Browne.[23] The wall features characters such as Hagar the Horrible, Beetle Bailey, and Spider-Man.[24] When the Overlook took over the lease in 2004, there was fear that the cartoons would be removed.[25] The Overlook's owner preserved the cartoons—including old graffiti—under glass.[26] Gallo and two dozen other cartoonists returned in 2005 at the invitation of the Overlook's owner to illustrate a corner of the bar.[27] As of July 2024, the cartoons are still on display.[28]

Legacy

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Costello's is a part of the stories and mythologies of several writers. John McNulty wrote about the discussions and happenings at the bar in the 1940s in a series of short stories that he wrote for The New Yorker.[29] In those stories, McNulty recorded the bar's customers and staff, their doings, and their discussions.[30] The journalist Thomas Vinciguerra called McNulty's short stories "rambling yarns with titles as long and shaggy as the stories themselves".[31] According to the journalist George Frazier in Esquire, "there were those New Yorker writers who considered it unthinkable to hand in their manuscripts to the magazine before getting [Tim Costello's] approval".[32]

In one oft-repeated story—which was recorded in The Oxford Book of American Literary Anecdotes—in the spring of 1944, Ernest Hemingway broke a blackthorn cane over John O'Hara's head on a reported $50 (equivalent to $865 in 2023)[d] bet.[33] The cane was allegedly a gift from John Steinbeck, who was reportedly "disgusted by the incident and lost any personal admiration he had for Hemingway".[34] The two halves of the broken cane were displayed over the bar until Costello's closed.[15]

Notes

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  1. ^ Based on a review of census records, the genealogist Sharon DeBartolo Carmack wrote that she did not believe that Tim and Joe opened a bar until at least 1933.[4]
  2. ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  3. ^ Tim Costello's 1962 obituary in The New York Times stated that the bar was on the southeast corner.[8] In 1972, a Times reporter wrote that the bar was on the southwest corner,[9] but in 1973 a different Times reporter stated that it was on the northeast corner.[10]
  4. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.

References

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  1. ^ Carmack 2021; The New York Times 1962, p. 39.
  2. ^ Frazier 1968, p. 64.
  3. ^ Arden 2005; Severo 1976, p. 47; Tomasson 1973, p. 49.
  4. ^ a b Carmack 2021.
  5. ^ Batterberry & Batterberry 1999, pp. 274–275.
  6. ^ Frazier 1968, p. 68; Severo 1976, p. 47; Vinciguerra 2016, location 3718.
  7. ^ The New York Times 1940, p. 28.
  8. ^ a b c The New York Times 1962, p. 39.
  9. ^ a b c d e Schumach 1972, p. 70.
  10. ^ a b c d e Tomasson 1973, p. 49.
  11. ^ a b c Severo 1976, p. 47.
  12. ^ Batterberry & Batterberry 1999, p. 275; The New York Times 1962, p. 39; Via 2006, p. 251.
  13. ^ Deacy 1972, p. 64; Kates 2004; Kazin 1981, p. 3; Morgan 2011, p. 225.
  14. ^ Loh 1989; Tomasson 1973, p. 49.
  15. ^ a b Santangelo 1992, p. 44.
  16. ^ Oderwald & Gibson 2004; Vadukul 2018.
  17. ^ Overlook NYC; Vadukul 2018.
  18. ^ Arden 2005.
  19. ^ a b Vadukul 2018.
  20. ^ a b Kates 2004.
  21. ^ a b Edmiston & Cirino 1976, p. 206.
  22. ^ Tomasson 1973, p. 49; Vinciguerra 2016, location 3736.
  23. ^ Arden 2005; Kates 2004; Vadukul 2018.
  24. ^ Oderwald & Gibson 2004.
  25. ^ Arden 2005; Kates 2004.
  26. ^ Arden 2005; Oderwald & Gibson 2004.
  27. ^ Arden 2005; Lamb 2019.
  28. ^ Overlook NYC.
  29. ^ Morgan 2011, p. 225; Tomasson 1973, p. 49.
  30. ^ Batterberry & Batterberry 1999, p. 275; Frazier 1968, p. 68; Morgan 2011, p. 221.
  31. ^ Vinciguerra 2016, location 3736.
  32. ^ Frazier 1968, p. 68.
  33. ^ Batterberry & Batterberry 1999, p. 275; Bruccoli 1995, p. 172; Kazin 1981, p. 3; Loh 1989.
  34. ^ O'Connor 1970, p. 86–87.

Sources

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Books

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Newspaper and magazine articles

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Websites

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