The Great American Saloon Series / Fraunces' Tavern and the Spirits of '76

...Beyond the usual Revolutionary museum pieces—flintlocks, swords, and the like—it contains such objects of Americana as a lock of Washington's hair and a false wooden tooth said to be from his mouth, General Lafayette's badly-scarred writing desk (a testimonial, if there ever was one, that the pen is mightier than the sword), a wooden panel from Washington's presidential coach, half a bottle of Farquhar Madeira of 1789 vintage (auctioned for $3,000 in 1860), and, most interesting of all from the standpoint of military readiness, the camp chest of Baron Von Steuben, chief trainer of the Continental Army...

...The tavern itself occupies only the eldest of a four-building complex whose various dining and meeting halls are interconnected by more dark passageways and creaking staircases than the average half-boozed writer can possibly comprehend...

...they usually sit or stand at the long L-shaped bar, nibble at the free cheese and crackers and hors d'oeuvres placed atop it, and inspect the decor—the Lord Dunsmore paintings, the old swords, the scores of colonial flags, and the imposing head of a buffalo whose tender flesh, I am told, tasted like filet mignon and was a popular addition to the menu a few years back...

...And it was here that the New York Chamber of Commerce and the New York Yacht Club were founded (in 1768 and 1844...

...All in all, the Fraunces Tavern of today is a genteel place, a cool, dark, spacious hideaway on the extreme tip of lower Manhattan where well-heeled Wall Streeters (and occasionally their secretaries) come for a quick, relaxed business lunch or, in tavernkeeper Norden's words, "to have a shooter or two before going home...

...General Washington had made Fraunces Tavern his final headquarters, and he gave there the final speech of his military career to an assemblage that included the Generals Greene, Knox, Wayne, Von Steuben, Gates, and Kosciuszko...

...The club has some 400 members in New York and around the world...

...I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable....I cannot come to each of you, but shall feel obliged if each of you will come and take me by the hand...

...It was, of course, a fusillade of sheer calumny, since in point of fact, some 25 percent of the building today is the original brick and timber that somehow survived two centuries of shellings, fires, and bombings that have beset Samuel Fraunces' great saloon...

...Thus, backers of the amendment will permit states to change from "no" to "yes," but the conThe American Spectator November 1978 27...

...There is, at the same time, a fascinating secondary motif consisting simply of the many machines that work their way into the story...

...All the history books of the Macmillans and the McGraw-Hills and the Silver Burdetts notwithstanding, such was the stuff of which the Revolutionary spirit of the Colonies was made and nurtured...

...A successful entrepreneur and a man of great insouciance and personal flair—he once opened a wax museum—Fraunces opened his tavern a year later, calling it the Queen's Head Tavern after Queen Charlotte, the teenage wife of George III...

...if they can't speak, it's because they haven't been given a language...

...No matter, for at Fraunces, where the The American Spectator November 1978 25 men—bankers, brokers, engineers, lawyers, teachers—strut about in coats and ties and the ladies swaddle themselves in suedes or furs, it's somewhat impolitic to ask for beer anyway...

...Years later, when Washington returned to New York as President, he named Sam Fraunces his official Steward, perhaps as a reward for his good food, good drink, and his daughter Phoebe's loyalty—she had turned in her lover who was a member of a plot to assassinate General Washington in 1776 and who was executed as a result...

...Bill, Abby, and the Owner (and the farm workers, who form the only other society in the film) are severed from the past and from each other in precisely this way...

...Built with yellow bricks brought over as ballast on Dutch ships, the building could hardly be said to have been frangible, and to this adamantine composition it no doubt owes its existence today,having survived the great fires of 1777, 1832, 1837, and 1854 that destroyed most of the city...

...In fact, members say, President Hoover may have been one of the world's greatest fly fishermen...

...It was here, too, that glasses were raised signalling the end of the War of the Revolution...

...On Douglas Bartholomew is a free-lance journalist in Princeton, New Jersey...

...She was never heard from again...

...The tavern's most famous moment in history, of course, came after the war...

...The following year, as the Sons of Liberty and a party of citizens, among them a King's College student named Alexander Hamilton, were removing the cannon from the fort at the Battery, the British man-o-war Asia fired on them...

...As with every constitutional amendment in modern history, the ERA was given seven years to obtain the requisite ratifications by three-fourths of the states...

...There are other reasons for seeing Days of Heaven...

...Watching it, we yearn to empathize, to identify...

...The central trio cannot help remaining enigmas, given Malick's reticence...

...THE NATION'S PULSE by Peter J. Rusthoven Undue Process In Washington this fall, supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment are treating the nation to a historically unprecedented spectacle...

...While congressional passage of an amendment requires a two-thirds vote in each house, pro-ERA forces assert that a simple majority is sufficient to extend the ratification period...

...a profusion of rich dishes...

...Sam Fraunces died in Philadelphia in 1795...

...The evening's sumptuous offering, prepared by Fraunces himself, was referred to by John Adams in his diary as "the most splendid dinner I ever saw...

...True, there are the first-time visitors who come merely to swill a beer or two and look the place over...

...that a shell from a British ship once camecrashing through the roof...

...Similarly, not content with receivng an extension, which has never been given to any other amendment, ERA supporters insist that Congress declare past and possible future recisions of previous ratifications ineffective...

...It ,is a picturesque, if physically intimidated, little block whose only latter-day intruders are Ciro's Pizza two doors down on Pearl and, next to it, as if clinging parasitically to the block's midsection, an OTB...

...Since Malick's hands-off approach extends to the narrative, we need the voice-over narration of Linda (Linda Manz), Bill's 12-year-old sister, to know what's going on...

...There, amidst a great clinking of glasses full of Madeira and port, they appointed the Committee of Fifty that drafted the proposal to unite the Colonies and led to the formation of the First Continental Congress...

...When the building was proclaimed an official landmark of the city in 1965, a purblind architecture critic for a major New York newspaper assailed its claim to landmarkdom...

...But the truly sophisticated Fraunces habitues know better...

...Unfortunately, a cinematic representation of this condition does not necessarily make for a satisfying film, and Days of Heaven is less than satisfying...

...It suffered no more damage from fires in this century, but its more recent years have not been so halcyon as one might expect...

...which had previously ratified the amendment are considered effective...

...Although the seven-year limit was included in the ERA as passed in 1972, it is now argued that this is merely a "procedural" point, and not truly part of the amendment itself...

...On December 4, 1783, in the Long Room, General Washington gave a moving farewell to his men before embarking for Annapolis to resign his commission...

...and here that, just three years ago, Puerto Rican nationalists planted a bomb that took the lives of four people and injured 44 others...

...The shared meanings and social traditions that make his beloved European subtlety and irony possible just aren't there: In America, there are no assumptions—it's always necessary to start anew...

...In March of 1979, the seven-year period for ERA will expire, and the amendment will be either two or six states short of the necessary 38, depending on whether subsequent recisions by states Peter J. Rusthoven is an Indianapolis attorney...

...In the "climactic" scene, for example, where Bill is chased by the police (he has killed the Owner), he has absolutely no hope of making it...

...And without it, without a Fraunces Tavern in which the patriot of the day could consort and conspire with his likeLminded countrymen, well, we might all be sipping tea and drinking Guinness instead of munching peanuts and swilling Billy Beer...

...On April 24, 1774, following a boisterous gathering at the Queen's Head, members of the two societies marched to a nearby wharf where the British ship London was docked and dumped its cargo of tea overboard (a tea party for which New York has yet to receive any publicity...

...General George Washington A Farewell to His Troops December 4, 1783 Fraunces Tavern It is fitting that it began here and ended here, for all great saloons are revolutionary places—within them the mind is easily induced to fermentation upon whatever imperious cause is at hand, be it George III or Jimmy Carter...

...May 14, 1774, a group of angry merchants assembled in the tavern's upstairs Long Room to discuss the closing of the Port of Boston...

...THE GREAT AMERICAN SALOON SERIES by Douglas Bartholomew Fraunces' Tavern and the Spirits of '76 With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you...

...Called "Black Sam," in spite of a 1790 census listing him as a free, white male, Samuel Fraunces was a 40-year-old caterer at Bowling Green when he purchased the building at Pearl and Broad (then a warehouse) in 1762 for 2,000 pounds...

...A "shooter," Nor-den confides, is the American equivalent of the English "pop," if you know what that means...

...all weget are long pauses, vague Biblical overtones, and achingly beautiful long shots of the Texas plains...

...Constructed in 1719 on what was originally a "water lot" and later became the city's first landfill, the Georgian-style building was considered one of the finest of its day and served as the residence of Stephen DeLancey, the merchant son-in-law of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, the third mayor of New York...

...As everyone who has followed the stormy progress of the ERA is aware, time is running out for this most visible symbol of the so-called Women's Liberation Movement...

...and here that the State Department (then known unpretentiously as the Department of Foreign Affairs) met under Jefferson...

...A colonnaded, four-story, yellow brick structure, Fraunces stands not alone, but is part of an island of 18th- and 19th-century buildings dwarfed by the neighboring office towers that comprise the dramatic skyline of New York...

...In August of that year the Massachusetts delegates to the First Continental Congress were entertained by their New York counterparts at a banquet in the Long Room at the Queen's Head...

...Fraunces was purchased by the Sons of the Revolution in 1905 and completely restored two years later, prompting considerable criticism- from so-called scholars of the day who issued the canard that the finished product bore little resemblance to the Fraunces Tavern of Washington's day...

...Curios are the stock-in-trade of the Fraunces Tavern Museum...

...In place of human concerns, Malick and cinematographers Nestor Almendros and Haskell Wexler have concentrated on the changing natural world...

...Shortly thereafter, he leased it to John Jones who put up the shingle, "Free Mason Arms," and under whose management it was opened for "the Polite and Rational Amusement of Philosophical Lectures, Etc.," for which tickets were sold...

...One magical scene, where a train carrying President Wilson rides through the farm at night, opens up to us and the characters a world of possibilities beyond Texas...

...One particularly notable meeting room and banquet hall, however, belongs to the Anglers Club of New York...

...Fortunately for Hamilton and the others, the gunner's aim was poor...

...We see what Malick means, and may applaud him for forswearing the sins of the American cinema, but he has not come up with enough to take their place...

...it was nothing but Fire away Flannagan...

...often to magnificent effect...

...me about an obnoxious lady from a historical society who, upon visiting the tavern a few years ago, remarked, "this isn't the oldest building in New York and I'm going to have a survey done to prove it...

...Located at Broad and Pearl Streets in the financial district, Fraunces is but a seaman's stroll downtown from the stately, pillared facade of the New York Stock Exchange...

...some former Anglers were Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, and Dwight Eisenhower (Richard Nixon, whose law firm was only a few blocks away, was a frequent diner at Fraunces but eschewed the fishing...

...They sip generous double martinis or Manhattans or Bloody Marys (superb here) while perusing a menu offering such original colonial delights as Baked Chicken a la Washington (chunks of chicken and mushrooms baked in a delicate cream sauce, said to be the General's favorite), Yankee Pot Roast, and Apple Cake Monticello...

...Without providing so much as a single fact to support her thesis, she decided it was "an unarcheological [sic] fake" which "gives schoolchildren a fair idea of what a Georgian building looked like and gives local businessmen a fair lunch...but is not old, not authentic, and not preservation...

...that Presidents Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Harding, Hoover, Eisenhower, and Nixon ate and imbibed...

...Rather than accept this negative judgment of the traditional constitutional process, ERA backers have launched a frenzied lobbying effort in Congress for a three-year extension of the ratification period...

...What is more, there is no reason for us to feel anything when he is shot...

...A large, hand-built crate well-stocked with wine decanters, liquor flasks, and glasses, it was toted about on the back of Von Steuben's aide-de-camp like some fine piece of artillery awaiting the moment when,, forced to bivouac in some dusty, godforsaken place, the general found need to avail himself of its contents...

...For the uninitiated, that's Off-Track Betting, whose branch offices are as ubiquitous along the mean streets of Manhattan as pretzel vendors, porn, and carbon monoxide...

...At this writing, this curious effort seems disturbingly likely to succeed...

...For the most part, though, Days of Heaven is hollow...

...The Sons, I quickly learned (having 26 The American Spectator November 1978 drunk with one), are not to be confused with the Sons of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Society of Colonial Tavernkeepers, or the IOOF...

...The Anglers, whose annex to the tavern suffered the brunt of the 1975 bombing, are a private club of gentlemen anglers who pay $125 a year for the privilege of lunching together, selling $200 flyrods to one another, and sometimes fishing together...

...Since then his tavern has had nine owners, all of whom sought to preserve it, and of whom the patriotic Sons of the Revolution are the most recent and efficacious...

...The Sons, whose 500 members lay claim to being direct descendants of ancestors who fought in the Revolution (an ex-president of the Sons was Jackie O's father), have their headquarters in a warren of offices on the upper floors of the tavern...

...They lease the bar-restaurant to Norden while maintaining a museum, a colonial flag collection, and, in an adjacent building, a fifth-floor sail loft where sails for 19th-century clippers were built and repaired...

...alas, his collection of dry flies reportedly was a casualty of the bombing...

...It was in Fraunces Tavern, in fact, that the history of the United States began...

...In several states, one might note, ratification was achieved only after defeat in an earlier session of the legislature...

...And at a few moments (most of them wordless close-ups), the characters manage to break through their icy masks and come alive...

...it's not that I'm an aficionado of Beck's...

...Architecturally, Fraunces' history has been as turbulent as its political heritage...

...Elbert, the museum janitor who was good enough to take me upstairs to see the sail loft—not open to the public—told...

...It's just that Beck's enjoys some mysterious, Perrier-like status with Fraunces' current proprietor, Mr...

...The incident was rendered memorably by the poet Freneau in these lines: Scarce a broadside was ended 'till another began again By Jove...

...It is here, too, that I consumed my first "Washington Cocktail" —a tangy Jamaican fruit drink spiked with dark rum, gin, and Cointreau that works quite well despite its highly suspect rum-gin mix—in addition to untold quantities of Beck's beer, the latter allaying my fears that the Puerto Ricans might return while providing valuable insight concerning the military strategy of the Hessians following General Washington's famed crossing of the Delaware in 1776...

...Some thought him saluting his Sally's and Nancy's Till he drove a round shot through the roof of Sam Francis...

...The vocal minority which has led the push for ERA, never par cicularly concerned to project an impression of even-handedness or fair play, has abandoned any pretense to these values in this last-ditch effort to preserve its cherished amendment fromdefeat...

...Malick is so determined not to succumb to melodrama that he eliminates any possible drama from the film...

...The controversy surrounding the 1907 restoration by architect William Mercereau (who imported from Holland yellow bricks of the type used in the original construction) continued to smolder into the 1960s...

...It was the favorite meeting place for both public and covert gatherings of such patriotic societies as the Sons of Liberty and the Vigilance Committee...

...Such a saloon is Fraunces Tavern, the oldest building in Manhattan and the most historic pub in the United States today...

...The irony distilled from innocence (c.f., Huck Finn) suits Malick's detachment, and Linda's point of view—remarkably morbid and metaphysical—is genuinely interesting and affecting...

...Although occasionally a bit precious, the device generally works well...

...Fraunces took it over again in 1770, and from that day until the end of the War of the Revolution 13 years later, the Queen's Head was the headquarters of opposition to the Crown...

...A present member is Laurance Rockefeller...

...Until he does, his via negativa will prove a one-way street...

...Don't get me wrong...

...The extension proposal, which has already passed the House, 'is a truly remarkable exercise in the politics of "it all depends on whose ox is being gored...

...Considering this Texas world apart as an emblem for the country itself, one can easily see why no American filmmaker is up to Simon's standards...

...The cannon shot sailed a few hundred feet off its mark and through the Queen's Head roof...

...Robert Norden, and it's all you're likely to wheedle out of the tavern's bartenders, who think the word "beer" is synonymous with "Beck's" (it is not...