File:Krazy Kat LOC npcc.04658.tif

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Captions

Captions

Patrons await the opening of the Krazy Kat Klub, a speakeasy, in 1921.

Summary

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Description
English: Title: Krazy Kat (a reference to the Krazy Kat speakeasy in Washington, D.C.)
  • Description: 23-year-old artist and scenic designer Cleon "The Throck" Throckmorton (1897–1965) (far right), 18-year-old Chicago-born fencing champion and Throckmorton's future wife Kathryn Marie "Kat" Mullin (1902–1994) (far left), 26-year-old painter and illustrator Inez Hogan (1895–1973) (middle), and two unidentified friends photographed circa July 1921 at the back-alley entrance of Throckmorton's illegal speakeasy, The Krazy Kat. Known for its riotous performances of hot jazz music which often degenerated into mayhem, this Jazz Age speakeasy operated in the rough and tumble Latin Quarter of Washington, D.C. during the Prohibition era. Frequent habitués included many avant-garde artists and thespians associated with the Provincetown Players. The speakeasy's libertine clientèle became known for their public advocacy of free love ("unrestricted impulse").

    The speakeasy's name, The Krazy Kat, derived from the androgynous title character of the Krazy Kat comic strip popular at the time, and this namesake communicated that the venue catered to clientèle of all sexual orientations, including polysexual and homosexual patrons. Accordingly, the venue soon became a clandestine rendezvous spot for Washington, D.C.'s underground gay community to meet without fear of exposure. By 1922, local infamy surrounded the speakeasy, and D.C. residents reviled it. Municipal authorities publicly identified the venue as a "disorderly house" (a contemporary designation for a brothel), and police raided the establishment numerous times.

    Six months after this photograph, the speakeasy's proprietor Cleon Throckmorton and his muse Kathryn Mullin married in January 1922 in Manhattan, New York. A model, singer, sketch artist and costume designer, Mullin gained fame for her radio and stage performances as a ukulele player with Harry Crandall's Saturday Nighters. Promoters billed her stage performances as "The Girl With the Million Dollar Legs." When not performing on stage or radio, she excelled in women's saber fencing and gave public exhibitions.

    After four years of marriage, Mullin sued Throckmorton for divorce on December 17, 1926, after catching him in a sexual encounter with an unidentified woman—possibly film actress Juliet Brenon (1895–1979)—in their Greenwich Village apartment in Manhattan. Mullin's friend, African-American stage actress and Harlem Renaissance icon Blanche Dunn, testified on her behalf in the divorce suit. Throckmorton did not contest the divorce, and Mullin did not seek alimony. Immediately after his divorce from Mullin, Throckmorton's married Juliet Brenon on March 13, 1927. Throckmorton and Brenon later raised funds for the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War.
  • Abstract/medium: National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress)
  • Physical description: 1 negative :
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Library of Congress

Author National Photo Company Collection
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No known restrictions on publication. For more information, see National Photo Company Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division
under the digital ID npcc.04658.
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Licensing

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Public domain This work is from the National Photo Company collection at the Library of Congress. According to the library, there are no known copyright restrictions on the use of this work.
Public domain

This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.

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