Читать книгу Jacobs Beach. The Mob, the Garden and the Golden Age of Boxing онлайн

51 страница из 104

Gould was indisputably one of those chameleons. Joe was close to Madden—and that was not like being next to cleanliness. With Prohibition came endless business opportunities, chiefly at the shakedown end of the retailing gig. You could sell Madden's booze, if you signed up for Madden's goons to “protect” your premises and your back. Madden worked for Schultz only as long as it took him to stamp his own authority on his territory, Chelsea. With money from strikebreaking and bootlegging, Madden opened the Cotton Club—previously owned by the world heavyweight champion Jack Johnson when patrons knew it as the Club DeLuxe. (Years later, the establishment and its owner achieved immortality of sorts when Bob Hoskins played Madden in Francis Ford Coppola's eponymous movie of the infamous hangout.) Owney also had a stake in the Stork. If you were looking for crime and criminals, these were the places to be seen.

Madden thrived in Chelsea. His brewery occupied a building so obvious—on Tenth Avenue between 26th and 27th Streets—it must have been difficult for policemen of the day to walk past without putting their hands over their eyes. His beer, called Madden's Number 1, was, by all accounts, not bad, and he served it in pints. Damon Runyon asked him once if he were not stretching the patience of the law by putting his name on the bottle. Madden said it was the most popular beer in New York and he was “dead proud” to have his name on the label.