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This is an ashtray from Julius Monk's cabaret - The Upstairs at The Downstairs
Julius Withers Monk was born Nov. 10, 1912, in Spencer, N.C. He arrived in New York in the early 1930's and played the piano at the bar at One Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village.
In the 1960's Julius Monk worked at a San Francisco club, where Murray Grand, a pianist, singer and songwriter, found him. When Mr.
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Grand was offered a position to manage a New York club, the Purple Onion, and asked Julius to help. Mr. Grand renamed the club the Downstairs because it was located in a cellar, at 51st Street and Sixth Avenue.
Mr. Grand put together a show called "Four Below" with skits and songs by Michael Brown, and the team of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (who later went on to create The Fantasticks).
On opening night, March 4, 1956, Mr. Grand found that the sign outside proclaimed Julius Monk's Downstairs Presents Four Below. Mr. Grand was not mentioned in the program, not even as the writer of his own songs. But Four Below,which Mr. Gavin identifies as the first legitimate cafe revue in New York City, became the hit of the season and started a series of Monk revues that set the tone for New York cabaret for a decade.
This ashtray came from the estate of George Curley, a stage manager and lighting technician at Julius Monk's. George also played Mortimer in the original cast of The Fantasticks. |
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