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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2022
Huey Long once described himself as sui generis. In the galaxy of American cities: New Orleans fits the same description. There is no other place like it — from the mania and madness of Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras, to the unbelievably hot, humid afternoons of late summer dozing on a bene in Jackson Square or watching the sails move in and out of the Lake Ponchartrain haze.
New Orleans is a city for the senses. The sight of a worn-out streetcar still clanking along under the oak trees of St. Charles Avenue. The smell of beer and whiskey and urine being washed down in the French Quarter by the 5 a.m. street cleaner. The moaning sound of a clarinet as it reaches out for “Just a Closer Walk With Thee.” And the taste of some of the best restaurant cooking in the country.
New Orleans also is a city par excellence of politics and politicians. Its political intrigues and range of personalities challenge the imagination. Louisiana has been described as the “westernmost of Arab States,” with New Orleans as its capitol. The zest and intensity with which the game of politics is played even overwhelms the natives from time to time.
With due apologies, respect and appreciation to Robert Dahl, Harold Lasswell, Roy Morey and Joe E. Walker.
1. For the most comprehensive, readable book of Huey Long's career, see Harry Williams, T., Huey Long, Alfred Knopf, 1969.Google Scholar
2 Ibid., p. 323
3. White, Theodore, The Making of the President 1968, Atheneum, 1969, pp. 332–333.Google Scholar
4. Mayor Robert Maestri is most remembered for the one line he uttered to FDR as the group was feasting on Oysters Rockefeller: ‘How da ya like dem ersters?’ Sindler, Allen P., Huey Long's Louisiana, John Hopkins Press, 1956, p. 127.Google Scholar A photo of that event is hanging on one of Antoine's walls. Sindler also undertook some gastronomic research at Antoine's, the results of which left him with a warm feeling for the place.
5. Interview with Earl K. Long as recorded on “Earl Long: Last of the Red Hot Papas,” edited and narrated by Brooks Read and Bub Hebert, News Records Inc., 1961. For a highly entertaining sketch of Earl K. Long and Louisiana politics see Liebling, A. J., The Earl of Louisiana, Simon and Schuster, 1961.Google Scholar
6. No credit cards accepted. Source: Antoine's menu.
7. Confidential communication.
8. Source: Brennan's menu.
9. The Caribbean Room is also the home of the famous “Mile High Pie,” a delightfully obscene ice cream dessert whose proportions are so immense that even Richard Scammon was momentarily shaken when he first encountered it.
10. Coat and tie required after 6 p.m. Source: Gold fettered sign on front door of Galatoire's.
11. It's not the French of Saigon either. Penniman, Howard, Elections in South Vietnam, American Enterprise Institute — Hoover Institution, 1972 Google Scholar, spent his early career at Louisiana State University 90 miles up river from New Orleans and at Brennan's and Solari's, a famous oyster bar that passed into gastronomic history some 10 years ago.
12. Robert Ward, in an astute display of strategic planning, already has a list prepared by his New Orleans agents.