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Full-color broadsheet, 12.5" x 25" folded into 10" x 6.5", printed on both sides. Numerous color illus. CONDITION: Very good, slight wear on corners, occasional faint soiling. A delightfully illustrated menu and advertisement for New Orleans s French Quarter, with a decorative food and bar menu printed for the Court of Two Sisters restaurant. This menu features classic New Orleans dishes such as Louisiane Lake Shrimp Remoulade, Creole Gumbo, Poisson Rouge a La Diable, Le Coq D or, Chicken Clemenceau, Peach Flambe, Liederkranz cheese, and Mint Juleps, New Orleans Hurricane with souvenir glass, Daiquiri, Absinthe Drip, Sazerac, and so on. A series of colorful vignettes on the verso shows the French Quarter, with tourist attractions such as the 500 Club, Old Court Tavern, Old Absinthe House Bar, Old French Opera House, Lucky Charm Gate, Jean Lafitte s Blacksmith Shop, and others. Decorative ribbons trail through the images, with symbols of masks, shutters, iron work, cocktail glasses etc. In the lower left corner is a picture of Nick Karno, who "Sez, When in New Orleans, Visit The Court of Two Sisters, 500 Club and Old French Opera House" (Karno owned all three). The Court of Two Sisters location has a rich history, beginning in 1726 as the residence of Sieur Etienne de Perier, royal governor of Louisiana. It was rebuilt in 1832, during an economic boom, by bank president Jean Baptiste Senon Cavalier, then set up as a "rabais" dress shop for aristocratic creole sisters Bertha and Emma Camors, who reportedly served tea and cake to their better customers in the courtyard. This business faded as an influx of Italian mafia took control of the French quarter, with accused mobsters such as Frank Caracci, Carlos Marcello and associate Nick Karno buying and operating the properties. The surmised date of this menu comes from records identifying Karno as sole owner in 1967, compared to 1963, when Frank Caracci and Karno were co-owners and portraits of both appeared on the menu. 1963 is the same year that the Court of Two Sisters was implicated in the assassination of JFK, with witnesses identifying Oswald and Jack Ruby separately meeting others in this establishment. Nick Karno, interestingly, came from a family of Russian Jews named Karnofsky who, as immigrants in the South Rampart St./Third Ward area, took a very young Louis Armstrong under their wing, hired and fed him, and helped him buy his first cornet; music was central to many of Karno s future businesses. REFERENCES: "Satchmo and the Jewish Family" at 64 Parishes online.
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