I recently read "A Choice of Weapons," the
autobiography of Gorden Parks, the African-American
photographer/composer/author/movie director. {I�d read
his novel "The Learning Tree" as a teenager, and never
realized how autobioraphical it was--it�s about a
young African American teenager coming of age in 1920s
Kansas.}
As did his fictional character Newt Winger in "The
Learning Tree," Parks moved from Kansas to Minnesota
after his mother died in the 1920s. He moved to St.
Paul with to live with his sister and relucant
brother-in-law, who eventually threw Parks out. Parks
then began a hand-to-mouth life on the streets,
beginning in north Mpls. {Here, David, is the
Minneapolis connection.} He was hired as a piano
player at an after-hours joint called Pope�s, which he
describes in his book as a �four-story ramshackle
house in the night-life district.� His chapter on
Pope�s concludes with:
�My job at Pope�s ended abruptly at the dawn of the
new year. Someone plunged a butcher knife through a
customer�s neck and pushed him three stories down into
the alley. As the police arrived, I escaped through a
rear exit. Running out, I saw the bloody corpse
sprawled in the snow; his face looked very young.
�Common sense, and panic, told me to quit north
Minneapolis�s north side as soon as possible.�
I include the grisly details because they�re part of
my question: do any north Minneapolis historians know
where Pope�s was? The �three stories down into the
alley� passage makes me think of a building that might
be on Broadway or Penn, but for all I know, the
building that was Pope�s may now be the site of a
fast-food restaurant.
It�s not often that north Minneapolis gets mentioned
in books. I found the history to be very interesting.
I�ve tried looking for information on the internet,
but all I can find is news about the Pope�s visit to
Minneapolis...not quite the same thing.
Susan Maricle
formerly of Folwell
Bruno, MN
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