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8. The NightspotTo a certain extent, the public drinking place may be legitimately used as a setting for lolling, for having no sustained focus of attention, no form of manifest involvement.[107] However, lolling typically characterizes the behavior of only a relatively small proportion of bar patrons. Rather, what is more likely to occur is that those who are present in the setting engage in a variety of activities during the course of their stay, while drinking is treated and expected to be treated as a side involvement, subordinated to other activities and carried on in an abstracted and inattentive way.There were twenty-two patrons in the bar. Nine or ten of them were clustered in groups of two and three around the bar, with one couple talking at one of the tables. Two men were playing pool, and two others were playing the bowling machine. One woman was teaching one of the male patrons some dance steps at the far end of the room, and three male patrons were playing poker dice. There were only three or four patrons who were not immediately engaged in some form of activity with another patron, and none of these appeared absorbed in their drinks. Rather, they would idly sip their drink and listen to a conversation next to them for a moment or look over at the pool players. |
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| 155 | be treated by the patrons as either a main involvement or a side involvement,
as the mood suits them.[108] For those who attend in the company of others,
as well as for those who attend alone, conversation frequently constitutes
the major focus of their interest and attention. But such conversations
may also be subordinated to other activities such as dicing, pool or bowling,
the patron's attention primarily focused on the game and the conversation
between the participants being intermittent and casual, as their participation
in the game permits. Like conversation, the ubiquitous juke box may provide
background music in which most patrons evince sporadic involvement, but
it may also provide other patrons with a main activity, allowing them to
take their drinks and their coin to the machine and pass the time carefully
deliberating on the selections to be made. Similarly, one can allocate
a major or minor part of one's interest and attention to a variety of other
devices typically found within the public drinking place, such as pinball
machines, bowling machines, pool and billiard tables, table tennis, cards,
dice, darts, chess, radios, and television sets. In some establishments
in San Francisco, even more elaborate devices may be provided for patron
involvement, such as silent movies, shooting galleries, amusement park
rides and games, and in one establishment on at least one occasion, pencils,
paints, pastels, and drawing paper.
The general character of all these forms of diversion is that they can be attended to or not, and if attended to, can either be treated as a major form of involvement or be subordinated to some other activity. The Programed ProductionIn the nightspot, the diversion provided by the establishment has the character of a "production," a programed course of activity that is in some general fashion scripted, rehearsed, |
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| 156 | and presented to the patrons. In San Francisco there are establishments
that offer complete stage shows; others offer reviews, shows composed of
spot sketches or of comedians, singers, and dancers; and still others offer
musical presentations of a variety of types (jazz, calypso, Oriental,
Greek, banjo groups, pianos and organs, opera) and dancers (can-can dancers,
belly dancers, exotic dancers). There are establishments that provide prohibition-style raids, community singing, artists sketching nude models, and nude models painting one
another with gilt paint.[109]
Unlike the diversions made available in other types of public drinking places, such as pinball machines, pool tables and dice boxes, the patrons' involvement in the production is not optional. The production is offered and expected to be taken by those witnessing it as the main focus of their attention and the dominant form of their involvement. Marquees and posters placed outside the establishments advertise the nature of the production taking place within them,[110] and potential patrons may be required to pay a cover charge or admission fee to gain entrance, implying that there is something special to be seen inside. Whether or not a cover charge or admission fee is required for admission, once inside, the patrons may be informed that if they wish to witness the production they must be willing to buy some minimum number of drinks per show, and they may be required to purchase the necessary number of drinks even before the programed activity begins. |
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| 157 |
We were shown to a table with another couple who had also been waiting in line. There was a card on the small table that read, "Two drink minimum per patron per show." When the waitress came to take our order, she said, "You have to order two drinks each right now. That's the minimum." The other couple seated with us accepted her edict, and other patrons seated around said nothing to the waitress either, although some grumbled to one another when the waitress was out of hearing distance. When she brought our drinks, she informed us that we could stay only up to that part in the next show where we had come in, and, when that part came, she returned to our table saying, "You have to leave now."Unlike other types of public drinking places, where the entrance and exit of patrons has little or no relation to the ongoing activity, the entrance and exit of patrons of the night-spot is typically patterned with respect to the beginning and end of the production. Two couples who appeared to be in their early fifties came in a little after 8 p.m. They stood by the door looking around and finally one of the men asked the bartender, "What time does the show start?" The bartender answered, "Nine-fifteen." Both men looked at their watches, and one said. "That's an hour from now- Maybe we'll come hack tomorrow night" and they left. About half an hour later, two more middle-aged couples came in, found that the show would start in another half-hour, and then left. Not long after they left, three young men came in, asked when the show started and then left. This last group came back just before 9:15.Some nightspots post outside the door the times when the production will start, and others put barkers on the street to |
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| 158 | announce when the next show begins. If there are no seats available,
or if they wish to see the show from the beginning, potential patrons may
queue up outside the door until they can enter. Those who have been present
for one show may, of course, choose to stay for the next show as well,
but for most patrons the termination of one show coincides with the end
of their stay, and the majority of nightspot patrons exit during the time
when one performance of the production has been completed and the next
is not yet begun.
Within the nightspot, the arrangement of the seating facilities typically imposes upon the patrons a visual orientation toward the arena where the production is to take place. In the nightspot there may be as many as ten to fifteen times as many non-bar seats as there are bar seats (and some may have no bar seating facilities at all). The physical arrangement of these non-bar seating facilities is usually one in which small tables form a series of rows or tiers, with the chairs on only one side, so that those who are utilizing them are at all times visually oriented toward the production arena. In some night-spots, the physical bar may be oriented entirely toward the stage, ringing the perimeter of an elevated stage and providing a clear view of the staged events for those seated at the physical bar as well. Just as the production offered by the nightspot is expected to be taken by persons witnessing it as the main focus of their attention and the dominant form of their involvement in the setting, so too are those present typically there for the primary purpose of viewing it. A young couple was seated at the small table next to us. I asked the girl if she knew when the show was going to start. She said, "I hope it starts soon. This is my first time here. I heard about it [the show] from some friends who saw it. They said it was pretty good. In fact everyone has been talking about it, so we came to see what it was like." |
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| 159 |
Two young couples came in about 1:30 A.M. At one point, one of the girls said to me, "I live in [a small community down the peninsula]. We came to San Francisco mainly to see some of the shows on Broadway tonight. Have you seen any of them?" When I replied no, she went on to say, "You really should."one nightspot in the entertainment section of the city usually opened around two or three o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday, although there were rarely more than five or ten patrons present at any one time until the entertainment began at 9 P.m. On one Sunday when I was there, there were only three or four other patrons present until around 4 P.m., when a new band began auditioning. Although no announcement had been made of the audition, once it began patrons began to enter, apparently drawn by the noise of the music inside. At one point during the audition there were about twenty-five or thirty patrons present, but when the music ended those who were there left and few new patrons entered. In certain respects, the definition of the production of the nightspot as the main activity of the setting alters the general character of activity within the setting. While the patrons of the nightspot are customarily no less mutually open to one another than are patrons in other public drinking places, their opportunities for instigating encounters with unacquainted |
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| 160 | Others are typically less and hence in effect their apparent openness
is less.
Characteristically, those who witness the production are witness to it only; they constitute an audience to which the scripted and rehearsed events are presented, As members of an audience, the patrons of the nightspot have, as a corollary to their right to observe the events, the obligation to express some involvement in them and the obligation not to interfere with their presentation.[111] Although somewhat less exacting than other similar settings, such as the theater or the concert hall, the proprieties of audience demeanor require even in the nightspot that those present attend to and evince interest in the staged events. A group of five men were ushered to a table next to the stage just before the show began. They sat chatting and joking with one another until the performer came on stage and began talking; then they sat watching the events on the stage without any more verbal interaction between them.Thus encounters that in other types of public drinking places |
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| 161 | may create an almost constant hum of conversation are in the nightspot
regulated by the production, The conversational noise level of the nightspot
is typically subdued during the time the show is in progress, rising perceptibly
only when the breaks in the production occur. Although conversations are
carried on while the show is in progress, such conversations are usually
modulated, like more general audience demeanor, so they will neither disturb
those who are actively attending to the production nor provide insult
to those who are actively engaged in presenting the staged events. In some
cases, of course, as in the example to follow, the noise level generated
by the production of the nightspot may make it difficult if not impossible
to carry on a conversation.
Two men came in about twenty minutes before the first show began. One of them started an encounter with a woman seated alone at the bar next to him. They continued chatting intermittently, even after the show began, but it was apparent that it was difficult for them to bear each other once the performance started. They would lean their heads close together, and occasionally one or the other would shake his head, as though whatever was said was difficult to hear. Finally they stopped, each paying attention to the performance on stage until the show ended, when they began talking again.Just as the proprieties of audience demeanor restrict the extent to which the spectators to the production may involve themselves in sociability within the setting, the expectation that patrons will show involvement in and deference to the production restricts the extent to which other activities may be engaged in. Milling is a case in point. The patrons of the nightspot are customarily ushered to a table by an employee of the establishment when they enter, and they typically remain there for the duration of their stay. The movement of patrons within the establishment is usually restricted to hasty |
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| 162 | trips to the restrooms or to changing to a location offering a better
view of the production arena. Unlike other types of public drinking places,
the nightspot rarely has an unobstructed area between the physical bar
and the tables where patrons may stand and wander at liberty. Those who
do choose to stand and wander in the establishment during the course of
a performance may find themselves subject to recall by either the employees
or the other patrons or both.
A young sailor had been dancing on the stage with one of the entertainers, as was permitted in the establishment. After the number he wandered among the tables rather than returning directly to his seat, to the apparent displeasure of the doorman and other patrons. He stopped in front of one table where one of the men seated said something to him and he went on. Twice the doorman went up to say something to him, and eventually the sailor went to sit at the bar. After he sat down, the doorman made a telephone call and a few minutes later two members of the Shore Patrol |
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| 163 |
He said he wasn't, and she replied that he was. They argued for a moment; then he stood to one side and finally returned to a seat at the bar.Both the physical arrangement of the nightspot and the subordination of patron interaction during the ongoing production reduce the probability of contact between the unacquainted in two ways. In the first place, the expectation that movement will be restricted during the performance and the absence of any defined milling area for use even during the breaks in the performance (as well as the fact that most people are either entering or departing during such breaks) typically reduces the opportunity for beginning an encounter with anyone other than those seated on one's immediate right or left. Within the nightspot, then, the number of unacquainted persons who may be in proximity to any given patron during the course of his stay is reduced, and the number of possible contacts that may be made with them are generally diminished in proportion. Thus, while one may still be defined as open to contact, the number of people who are in this sense "available" to contact within the nightspot is fewer than in other public drinking places. Similarly, there is little opportunity for occasioned movement as well. In other public drinking places, even those in which there is a waitress available to take orders and fetch drinks for those seated away from the physical bar, patrons so situated may still see to their own orders at the bar if they choose. Although such activity may evoke the displeasure of the waitress, for whom such patrons are viewed as potential tips, they will nonetheless be served by the bartender. Such is not the case in the nightspot, where those who leave their tables to place their own orders at the bar may find it difficult if not impossible to be served and may well be told that they are expected to remain seated and have their drinks brought to them. With the exception of those who have been ushered to a |
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| 164 | table which they are to share with one or more others with whom they
are unacquainted, there is little structural support provided within the
establishment to facilitate contact either with the other patrons generally
or with those in one's immediate proximity. Thus, in effect, with the
exception of those who in the absence of separate facilities have been
officially put in one another's presence, relatively few patrons act upon
the mutual openness of the others; while all those present in the nightspot
could properly be contacted by any other patron, it is most likely that
they will not be.
But even for those seated on one's immediate right or left, the probability that overtures to sociability will be made: is also less than is generally the case in other types of establishments. As mentioned earlier, the lateral sealing arrangement along the physical bar in most public drinking places tends to facilitate overtures between unacquainted patrons so arranged by equalizing the spatial distance between groups and within groups. Unlike the continuous surface of the physical bar, the separate tables of the nightspot tend to induce postural "clustering" of patrons so arranged. Thus while the rows of tables and chairs in the nightspot have the general character of a lateral seating arrangement, with patrons and groups of patrons seated side by side, the effective use of the facilities typically produces a partially contra-positional. arrangement. Those seated at the tables of the nightspot tend bodily to turn in toward the tables, and in so doing turn away from those seated next to them. Hence the physical self available to the adjacent neighbor in the nightspot is no longer a profile, as in the case of those seated along the physical bar, but more of a seemingly unapproachable back. At the same time that the structural features of the night-spot diminish the extent to which contact between the unacquainted will be made, the obligation that any interaction between patrons be subordinated to the ongoing production diminishes the extent to which instigating an encounter is of |
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| 165 | any worth. Where sociability between patrons in other public drinking
places frequently provides those present with an activity that may serve
as a dominant form of involvement for the course of their stay, such sociability
is unnecessary in the nightspot, since the production is from the outset
defined as their main focus of attention.
Thus, as the likelihood of contact between the unacquainted in nightspots is less than the likelihood of such contact in other public drinking places, the ranks of the nightspot patrons may be swelled with many who, as a general rule, do not frequent other types of establishments. For those who may feel repugnance toward a setting where they can expect to be subjected indiscriminately to the overtures of others and where they are accorded no rights to moral indignation in the face of such overtures, the nightspot may provide a place where they can drink with an immunity to contact that is similar in effect (if not similar in reason) to that which is available to them in other public places. The relationship of the nightspot to the street supports its more decorous aura. Where most public drinking places present a blank facade to the street, obscuring from public view the events within the premises, this is often not the case with the nightspot. In many nightspots, at least in San Francisco, the door to the establishment is left open, and in others there is often some unobstructed portal through which those on the street may look in upon part (and occasionally all) of the proceedings inside. While the manifest function of the increased visibility of the nightspot may be to entice those who are outside to come in, the latent function is to provide at least partial assurance to potential patrons that whatever is happening inside is no more offensive than would be the events in other public settings. An analogous function is provided by the clustering of potential patrons at the door. While, on the one hand, the sight of queues of people waiting to gain entrance may be read as indicating that the production is worthy of be- |
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| 166 | ing seen, it may also be read as indicating that this is a setting
within which little social harm could come to pass.
Accordingly, the nightspots of the city take on the character of more "respectable" settings than do other public drinking places, respectable enough to warrant the patronage of respectable people. For example, although comprising only about one-tenth of the public drinking places in the city, the nightspot (almost to the exclusion of other bars) is a typical setting among those that guided tours and books for tourists recommend to visitors to the city as places in which to pass their evening hours. The nightspot is virtually synonymous with what is taken to constitute the "night life" of a city.[112] In the same way, the nightspot is a more acceptable setting for females and hence more suitable for dating couples. While 45 per cent of all patrons entering all types of bars entered one nightspot during ten selected observation periods, 52 per cent of all entering females and 71 per cent of all cross-sex couples entered this establishment during the observation periods.[113] The Tentative Order of EventsIf the nightspot is set apart from other types of public drinking places by virtue of the programed production that dominates the events within the setting, it is also distinguished from other settings of programed entertainment. While the production of the nightspot is scripted, rehearsed, and staged, the orderly character of events is almost always tentative. Un- |
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| 167 | like the theater or the concert hall, the nightspot, like other public
drinking places, carries within it an atmosphere of expectancy for the
unexpected, hinting at the possibility that at any moment the orderly character
of the establishment and the production within it may be broken, causing
personnel and patrons alike to "flood out" [114]--to lose control of their selves
of the moment.
Certainly one of the characteristic features of nightspot entertainment is a general disregard of the distance between audience and performers. Not only may the performers treat members of the audience in a particularistic manner, but so, too, may members of the audience treat the performers and the performance in a manner that makes the Patrons Often something other than merely spectators. Whether or not this interchange between performers and members of the audience is in fact a part of the events of the scripted production, it serves to establish an occasion that is essentially looser and less formalized than what occurs in the theater or the concert hall. In one establishment7 for example, the female dancers during the course of their performance would often establish collusive byplays with patrons seated close to the edge of the stage, Sometimes these byplays seemed to be merely acts intended to create the illusion of viable encounters, while the patron singled out was actually made to stand as the butt of a larger encounter between the performer and the audience as a whole; but at other times the interaction between performer and patron would take on all of the characteristics of a legitimate encounter, where what was being said between them was not the business of the entire audience. In another establishment, the performers on stage would casually carry on private conversations with one another during the course of their performance, as though there was no audience to be taken into |
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| 168 | consideration. In this establishment, on one occasion a patron with
a camera attempting to take photographs of the performers became the impromptu
focus of attention for both those on stage and those in the audience. The
entire production was halted for a few minutes while the entertainers
posed for him and the audience called out instructions. At the termination
of the episode, when the patron with the camera indicated he was finished,
the audience and performers applauded him and the events programed for
the stage began again.
When the programed production calls for participation from the audience as a part of the staged events, this participation is not always carried out in a regular and predictable manner. When members of the audience are invited up on the stage to dance with the performers, they may completely take over the arena to clown or mug to the audience or to improvise a routine of their own that is unrelated to the scripted events. Even when the staged events do not call for such participation, some of the spectators may choose and be permitted to participate extemporaneously in the production, as in the following instance: The performance as advertised consisted of a rock-and-roll group and one female dancer who came on at the end of the production. One of the female patrons had requested and was permitted to get on the stage during the second show. Then, during the intermission between the second and third shows, another female patron who had been sitting near me at the bar asked one of the doormen and then one of the performers if she, too, could get on the stage and dance, which she did during the third show.And just as the audience may become performers while the show is in progress, so may the performers become audience during the course of the production: |
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| 169 |
According to the marquee outside, the production was to be composed of two male performers, a group of musicians, and a female dancer. During the intermission between the first and second performance, one of the men advertised as part of the show had been standing near the bar talking with the bartender and a few other employees. When the second performance began, he started to walk toward the stage and then stopped to talk to two female patrons seated at a table. He then sat down, ordered a drink, and remained with them for about twenty minutes, leaving the events of the production to the other member of the team.Not only may the production become something other than the series of scripted events programed to take place, but the treatment accorded the patrons may become something other than that usually expected in other public settings. As one bartender said, The kids who work in these places really enjoy it. It's not just that the money's good, but they really get a kick out of turning the patrons on. They [the patrons] come to see a good time. Ifs a night out for them. So the kids that work there make it exciting. They'll bait them, be rude to them, be sexy for them --the whole bit. They both get a kick out of it.Cocktail waitresses, for example, will often take the order from male patrons with one arm resting over the patron's shoulder, or sometimes the waitresses will rumple the patron's hair as they pass by. In one establishment where the patrons were asked to come onto the stage to dance, the performers would often pick out one or two patrons to badger until the patrons either complied or completely flooded out in embarrassment. in another establishment, as couples were shown up a short flight of steps from one part of the bar to another, the doorman would routinely shine his flashlight on the female patron's |
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| 170 | buttocks as she went up the steps, much to the delight of the employees
and other patrons in the area behind the steps.
The reverse holds true as well. Just as the performers may bait the patrons in the setting, the patrons may bait the performers, calling out unsolicited questions and comments until the performers halt the scripted performance and attend to them in a jokingly compliant manner or themselves flood out with anger and embarrassment. Similarly, it is not uncommon for male patrons in nightspots to reach out for and caress the waitresses in ways in which the female employees public establishments would never be treated. Thus, while the programed production of the nightspot distinguishes the setting from other types of public drinking places in one respect, permitting it to be accorded a more decorous definition, this character is always tentative. Not only may the production in progress be altered to include those who are supposed to witness it or exclude those who are supposed to take part in it, but employees and patrons alike may engage in activities which in other settings might well constitute sanction able breaches of their defined roles. However, unlike such breaches of their defined roles in more serious settings, in the nightspot it is assumed that the events will not count. |
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[107] See Erving Goffman, Behavior in Public Places (New York: The Free Press, 1963), P. 58. [108] Ibid, pp. 43-45. [109] For an inventory of other types of productions in other cities, see Thomas Meehan, "Me Belly-Dancer Nightclub Boom" (Cosmopolitan, November, 1963), pp. 71-77. Parenthetically, E. Field says of the public drinking place in Colonial America, "No better place for the exhibition of strange animals and other novelties could be found than at the tavern." (The Colonial Tavern [Providence R.I.: Preston & Rounds, 1897], p. 154) [110] In the North Beach area of San Francisco, where the greatest concentration of such public drinking places is found, inside many of them there is posted a "Guide to North Beach," which lists the names and addresses of the various establishments and the nature of the production available at each. [111] D. Horton and A. Strauss, "Interaction in Audience-Participation Shows," American Journal of Sociology, 62 (1957), p. 580. [112] See, for example, Jack Sheldon, How to Enjoy 1 to 10 Perfect Days in San Francisco (New York: Collier Books, 1962), and Jack Wilcock, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas on $5 and $10 a Day (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1962). [113] The differences in patronage of the various types of bars can be found in Sherri Cavan, Social Interaction in Public Drinking Places (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1965), Appendix. [114] Cf. Erving Goffman, "Fun in Games" in Encounters (Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, lnc., 1961), p. 55. |
