Costello's (also known as Tim's) was a bar and restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, from 1929 to 1992. The bar operated at several locations near the intersection of East 44th Street and Third Avenue. Costello's was known as a drinking spot for journalists with the New York Daily News, writers with The New Yorker, novelists, and cartoonists, including the author Ernest Hemingway, the cartoonist James Thurber, the journalist John McNulty, the poet Brendan Behan, the short-story writer John O'Hara, and the writers Maeve Brennan and A. J. Liebling. The bar is also known for having been home to a wall where Thurber drew a cartoon depiction of the "Battle of the Sexes" at some point in 1934 or 1935; the cartoon was destroyed, illustrated again, and then lost in the 1990s. A wall illustrated in 1976 by several cartoonists, including Bill Gallo, Stan Lee, Mort Walker, Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, and Dik Browne, is still on display at the bar's final location.
The bar was founded in 1929 as a speakeasy on Third Avenue by brothers Tim and Joe Costello, who had emigrated to the United States from Ireland. Tim was known as an affable, intelligent proprietor with an interest in literature. In the early 1930s, the bar moved to the corner of East 44th Street and Third Avenue, before moving one door away on Third Avenue in 1949. The bar moved to its final location at 225 East 44th Street in 1974. Costello's closed in 1992; the Turtle Bay Café took over the space, operating until 2005. Since then, the location has been occupied by a sports bar called the Overlook. The bar is remembered through the stories that have been told about it over the years. The writer John McNulty is credited with creating a mythology around Costello's—which he called "this place on Third Avenue"—through a series of short stories published in The New Yorker in the 1940s.
Early years (1929–1950s)
Tim Costello (September 5, 1895 – November 7, 1962)[2] and his brother Joe opened the eponymous Costello's (also known as Tim's)[3] in 1929 (during prohibition) as a speakeasy—a bar illicitly selling alcohol—in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.[b] It was located on Third Avenue near the East 44th Street intersection and under the Third Avenue El.[5] Tim and Joe were born and raised in Ferbane, Ireland, to James and Teresa (née Flynn), who owned a drapery shop. As a young adult, Tim worked as a taxi driver in Dublin.[6] He was arrested in 1922 for dangerous driving, sentenced to three months in prison, and fined £10 (equivalent to $690 in 2023).[i] Tim emigrated to the United States in 1927; in transit, he met his future wife, Kathleen Gordon.[4] Tim was known as an affable, intellectual proprietor, who was knowledgeable about literature, opinionated about art, and often well-dressed in a Brooks Brothers suit.[7]
When Tim died in 1962 at the age of 67,[9] his son Timothy Costello inherited and continued operating the business.[16] In the 1970s, Costello's began to change along with the neighborhood, which was being developed by larger businesses and facing increasing rents.[11] By 1972, Costello's was no longer a gathering place for authors and journalists; rather, according to Timothy Costello, it catered to businesspeople, whom he referred to as "technicians".[12] The bartender John Gallagher said that many of their customers worked on Wall Street.[10] Through the 1970s, however, some Daily News journalists continued to frequent the bar.[12]
Costello's was evicted from 699 Third Avenue in 1973 because the building's owners intended to tear the building down; the Times reported that a spokesperson for the building's owner said "Yes, ... it's too bad about Costello's."[11] Despite claiming that he could not afford rent in the neighborhood, Timothy Costello reopened the following year at 225 East 44th Street.[17] Costello's closed in the morning of February 29, 1992, in part as a result of the early 1990s recession.[18] Later that year, a dive bar called The Turtle Bay Café moved into the location. The bar was frequented by diplomats, United Nations employees, and the cast and crew of the soap opera Guiding Light.[19] 225 East 44th Street has been occupied by a sports bar called the Overlook since 2004.[20] Regarding the closure of Costello's, the wines and spirits journalist Robert Simonson observed: "How quickly the character drains from things in 21st-century New York."[21]
Cartoon walls
Illustration from "Battle of the Sexes" following its 1972 restoration
Costello's was decorated with illustrations that were painted and drawn directly on the walls by several notable cartoonists, including James Thurber, Bill Gallo, Stan Lee, Mort Walker, Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, and Dik Browne.[22][20][23] At some point from 1934–1935, when Costello's was located at 701 Third Avenue, James Thurber illustrated the walls, depicting the "Battle of the Sexes".[24] The journalist Jacquin Sanders described the cartoons as black and white illustrations that were "full of large, angry women, small, cowed men and regretful dogs".[25]
There are several conflicting accounts of when and how Thurber completed the cartoon. The New York Times journalist Murray Schumach wrote that he borrowed the keys to the bar and painted the cartoon in one day in the winter of 1935.[10] Susan Edmiston and Linda D. Cirino reported that, one night, he drew the cartoon in 90 minutes.[24] By contrast, the Times journalist Robert Tomasson stated that Thurber worked throughout 1934–1935; he would arrive to the bar late at night, working from booth to booth, and in the morning, the walls would be varnished to preserve the illustrations.[11] The cartoon was accidentally destroyed when painters hired by Tim Costello painted over them. Thurber then again illustrated the wall with a similar cartoon. In 1949, that section of the wall was removed and moved to the bar's new location at 699 Third Avenue.[26] On April 8, 1972, several cartoonists who had worked for Yank Magazine during World War II restored the illustrations.[10] The Thurber cartoons were brought to the bar's final location at 701, where they were only occasionally displayed.[9] The Thurber cartoons disappeared in the 1990s.[20]
In 1976, two years after Costello's moved to its final location, Timothy Costello enlisted the cartoonist Bill Gallo, who was then president of the National Cartoonists Society, to illustrate one of the walls.[27] Gallo initially declined because he "didn't want to compete with Thurber".[23] Eventually, he struck a deal with Costello to close the bar and provide free food and drink for the approximately 40 cartoonists who contributed to the wall, including Stan Lee, Mort Walker, Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, and Dik Browne.[28] The wall features characters such as Hägar the Horrible, Beetle Bailey, and Spider-Man.[29] In 2005, the cartoonist Bill Kresse called the wall the "Sistine Chapel" of the National Cartoonists Society.[27]
When the Overlook took over the lease in 2004, there was fear that the cartoons would be removed during renovations.[30] The Overlook's owner denied that they had intended to remove the cartoons; instead, they preserved the cartoons—including old graffiti—under glass.[31] Gallo and two dozen other cartoonists returned in 2005 at the invitation of the Overlook's owner to illustrate a corner of the bar.[32] In 2009, the wines and spirits journalist Robert Simonson wrote that the 2005 illustrations "feel like wan attempts to recapture a more glorious artistic past", noting that each of the characters had been given dialogue advertising the Overlook.[21]
Legacy
Costello's is a part of the stories and mythologies of several writers. John McNulty wrote about the discussions and happenings at the bar, which he called "this place on Third Avenue", in the 1940s in a series of short stories for The New Yorker.[33] In those stories, McNulty recorded the bar's customers and staff, their doings, and their discussions.[34] The journalist Thomas Vinciguerra called McNulty's short stories "rambling yarns with titles as long and shaggy as the stories themselves".[35] According to the journalist George Frazier in Esquire, "there were those New Yorker writers who considered it unthinkable to hand in their manuscripts to the magazine before getting [Tim Costello's] approval".[36]
In one oft-repeated story about Costello's—which was recorded in The Oxford Book of American Literary Anecdotes—in the spring of 1944, Ernest Hemingway and John O'Hara bet $50 (equivalent to $865 in 2023)[ii] that Hemingway could not break a blackthorn cane over O'Hara's head. Hemingway then proceeded to do so.[37][d] The cane was allegedly a gift from John Steinbeck, who was reportedly "disgusted by the incident and lost any personal admiration he had for Hemingway".[39] The two halves of the broken cane were displayed over the bar until Costello's closed.[18]
Notes
^This photograph was taken by employees of the Works Progress Administration as part of a project to modernize New York City's tax records.[1]
^Based on a review of census records, the genealogist Sharon DeBartolo Carmack wrote that she did not believe that Tim opened a bar until at least 1933, and that Joe was likely not involved in the bar's operation.[4]
^Tim Costello's 1962 obituary in The New York Times stated that the bar was on the southeast corner.[9] In 1972, a Times reporter wrote that the bar was on the southwest corner,[10] but in 1973 a different Times reporter stated that it was on the northeast corner.[11]
^In his biography of O'Hara, the English literature scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli wrote that Hemingway broke the cane over his own head, not O'Hara's.[38]
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