Annie Polland
Appearances
SNAFU with Ed Helms
S3E2: Ready, Willing, and Mabel
Reformers who wanted to improve society, that they had their ideas of how to improve it, tended to associate the evils of urbanization, the evils of industrialization with immigration, because all of those things come together.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
S3E2: Ready, Willing, and Mabel
There were 526 lager beer saloons in the neighborhood then known as Klein Deutschland. Now we think of the Lower East Side and the East Village. And so saloons were everywhere. And saloons were the like living rooms of the community. Take us inside, Annie. You would take a few steps down from the street into a lower level, opening an all wooden door.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
S3E2: Ready, Willing, and Mabel
It would probably be lit very well with beautiful lanterns and lamps, wooden tables filled with different foods, pretzels, hard-boiled eggs, cheeses, sauerkraut, different kinds of meats. You'd have musicians there because it was a place for musicians to gather.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
S3E2: Ready, Willing, and Mabel
It would be noisy, lots of the sounds of people singing or talking. Maybe there'd be newspapers out, maybe there'd be different games out. You'd probably see children coming downstairs with a growler to fill to bring back upstairs to the family.
SNAFU with Ed Helms
S3E2: Ready, Willing, and Mabel
Of course, the smell of beer, but also the smell of cooking and the smell of tobacco. You might also have people conducting business in a saloon. One of the things that the Germans and the German speaking immigrants did a lot was form associations, mutual aid associations, political associations, associations for singing, for dancing, for gymnastics, like you name it.