This is a photograph of the front of the "Hungry i" around the
time the Kingston Trio played there. The original logo is on the left edge
of the photo, and the awning marks the entrance.
[2]
Ralph L. Vinciguerra
The Thirsty Ear's name was a play on a San Francisco club called the "The Hungry i", which was significant on the political landscape at one time. Specifically, the "Hungry i" was a venue on North Beach in San Francisco, where the name meant the "hungry intellectual". We presume the name "The Thirsty Ear" meant "a place to drink and hear music".
What follows is some research on the Hungry I, which provides reference information from which we hope the original person who coined the name might come forward.
A description of how the Hungry i became famous:
THE HUNGRY i & THE PURPLE ONION
If the Beats had their writers and their dark poetry, they also had a phalanx of comedians who illuminated the American conscienceness with their black humour, held up to the face like a mirror to expose the social hypocrisy of the times. Mort Sahl, sophisticated, cuttting edge political satirist slicing through the American political landscape like a Ginsu knife through butter...Woody Allen...East Coast personified who made neurosis cool...and the caustic acid bath humour of Lenny Bruce who taught a whole generation how to talk dirty and influence people. Two venues became the laugh-think temples of these high priests of satire and appropriately both were in North Beach..Enrico Banducci's HUNGRY i and Bud Steinhoff's PURPLE ONION..(It was Banducci who suggested the name PURPLE ONION to Bud!!) In addition to the comedy workouts, these landmark institutions also hosted a boatload of folkies and mistrels including the legendary Kingston Trio among others. Lenny may be gone, but the influence lives on! [1]
This is a photograph of the front of the "Hungry i" around the
time the Kingston Trio played there. The original logo is on the left edge
of the photo, and the awning marks the entrance.
[2]
The original location of the "Hungry i" has changed years ago and is now
a strip club that purchased the name from the original founder
Enrico Banducci. The original name meant the "hungry intellectual"
and was sited at 599 Jackson Street. this building is now gone.
It was known as an avant-guard place to gather and served as a
performance space for the likes of many famous names: Mort Sahl,
Phyllis Diller, Bill Cosby,
Lenny Bruce, Ronnie Schell, and Jonathan Winters.
Musical live recordings
include: The Kingston Trio, Vince Guaraldi, Glenn Yarbrough,
the Gateway Singers, and Godfrey Cambridge. [3]
These are photographs of the Hungry i when Barbara Streisand performed there
in 1963:
[4]
More text describing the environment of the Hungry i:
Newcomers to the "Hungry i" are always curious about the name. It originated seven years ago when Enrico Banducci launched the predecessor of the present club. Himself a violinist, and baritone singer, Banducci was well aware of the economic problems confronting many of the city's struggling musicians, writers, and painters. Determined to create a haven for the hungry intellectual (whence the "Hungry i"), Banducci fixed the door charge for his basement bistro at 25 cents, and made it a rule that free sandwiches and bean salad were set out on an accessible table each evening. Meals, beer, and wine were available for the affluent patrons! Both the prosperous and financially embarrassed could watch the stage show, which in the beginning consisted only of a young and unknown ballad singer, Stan Wilson.
The public response finally became so great that the club had to seek larger quarters. In 1953, it moved around the corner to its present site, a basement that previously housed an elaborate Chinese restaurant. The Boys' manager, Frank Werber (also "Hungry i" publicist), maintains it took weeks of work on the new room to establish the bohemian appearance that distinguished the original spa.
There was plenty of space for Banducci to create the sort of club he long had envisioned. When he was through arranging the underground rectangle (the word "square" is never mentioned in connection with the "Hungry i"!) he had four spots in one. The dining room is on one side, the bar and cocktail lounge on another. The third side is "The Other Room," where usually a singer or silversmith or pianist or painter vies with the current display of contemporary art for patrons' attention. It is not unusual, however, to find the customers more interested in chitchat and their aperitifs than aught else.
The heart of the club is the Showroom, which nestles in the center of the rectangle and is designed as an intimate theater. The audience sits in canvas director's chairs, arranged so the focus of attention is the performer's platform that projects from the bare brick wall at the room's end. The lighting and sound systems are excellent, and the waiters, who operate from a service bar, move quietly.
Rising costs of operation and talent have made the two-bit door charge of the old "i" a fond memory. Mink and diamonds, evening dresses and expensive suits are no longer a novelty among the throngs that stream into the establishment. And they see such "names" as Mort Sahl, Stan Wilson, Tom Leher, Annette Warren, Shelly Berman, Kaye Ballard, Josh White, The Gateway Singers, and -- The Kingston Trio. [5]
References
[1] http://www.sftravel.com/northbeach.html
[2] http://www.woodstocknation.org/hungryi.htm
[3] Mister SF.com provides Information on the transformation of the Hungry i.
[4] http://barbra-archives.com/Performances/streisand_1963_1966.html
[5] Text by Russ Wilson, from the site: http://users2.ev1.net/~smyth/linernotes/trio_1/recrdngs/LP_T1107.htm.