Palmer-Housing

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, how are you doing? This is Jimmy in San Diego.

Hello, Jimmy. Welcome.

Hi, Jimmy. Welcome to the program.

Well, I’m a screenwriter by profession, and I’ve written several episodes of Star Trek.

Oh, for real? Come on.

Which Star Trek?

Star Trek Voyager and Deep Space Nine.

Oh, cool.

I’ve actually written more episodes of Star Trek than any other freelance writer in the history of the franchise.

And the guys at Paramount used to call me the Jackie Robinson of Star Trek writers.

Yeah, that’s nice.

You can knock it out of the park every time, huh?

Very nice.

Well, anyway, I grew up in Detroit in the 60s and 50s and late, early 70s.

And my dad, who was a mortician, being an African-American businessman during that era, he would work a lot of really long, hard hours.

And he would come in and be really, really tired.

And he’d have that kind of, wow, it was a rough day sort of walk, right?

And he’d come in and say, oh, it was a tough day, son.

They really got me Palmer housing, right?

And I was going, Palmer housing, right?

So he said it so much, it was just part of his daily language.

And I’ve adopted it.

So now, you know, when I’ve had a rough day here or there, you know, I come in and I go, oh, wow, they got me Palmer housing today.

What I was able to glean from him over the years was that way back in the day when African-American men, one of the few jobs they could get was being a stewardor or a waiter at some hotel to try to liven up their work, I guess, they would end up improvising these unusual steps as they did their job.

That seems to be an African-American cultural imperative.

You know, I mean, there’s the boot dancers from South Africa.

There’s break dancing.

I mean, we see it all over again with style.

Exactly right.

So I was assuming that Palmer Housing was referring to a restaurant or a hotel where, you know, the stylized walk that the waiters developed to give themselves some identity was unique to one hotel or one restaurant called the Palmer House.

And if so, were there other ones like, you know, you’d be putting on the rich and you’d come out with some other fancy step, you know, as you were serving.

Or was there such a thing as doing the Hilton? You know? Doing the Marriott.

This is all ringing a bell for me here.

Wow.

You’ve hit on a lot of different things here.

Yeah.

The first one to tell you is the Palmer House is still there today.

It’s in Chicago at the corner of Staten Monroe.

Oh, my God.

But it’s the third hotel that’s been on that space, according to what I’m seeing.

But for a long time back in the day, most of the staff at the Palmer House were black men, or the women as well.

And they were known for, get this, flat feet.

What?

I don’t know if it was the way they stood or the way that they walked because they were constantly on their feet.

But in 1942, Zora Neale Hurston published a story called A Story in Harlem Slang.

And she uses this language in there, in this short story.

Yeah, and it’s glossed as Palmer House, walking flat-footed as from fallen arches.

Oh, my God.

So there’s a connection here.

We’ve got a little bit of history coming together in the story you’re telling us about your father.

That’s fantastic.

All of a sudden, something just occurred to me.

What?

My uncle, Weston, he always said that he had gotten a job working for Al Capone back in the day.

Well, I used to run numbers out of beauty parlors.

Seriously?

And he was in Chicago.

Yeah, my Uncle Weston came from Chicago.

And you know what? It just occurred to me that that must be where my dad got it from.

He got it from my Uncle Weston, who when Al Capone was finally arrested and everything, my uncle grabbed all the money he could get and fled to Detroit.

That’s his story.

Oh, my God.

That’s amazing.

Jimmy, we’re going to let you go because you have a movie to write.

I’m done.

I’m on it right now.

Hey, guys, the check’s in the mail.

No, but there’s only a little more to be said about Palmer housing as a style of walking.

That’s the best stuff that we got.

You can’t do much better than Zora Neale Houston.

That is terrific.

That’s amazing.

I also find it, strangely enough, in a journal of Mormon thought from 1971.

There’s a poem in there.

It says, trying to show me something, the rickety wagon ain’t had them.

They ain’t felt the bumping when your foot’s so flat from Palmer housing round.

Really?

Oh, my God.

So I don’t know what it has to do with Mormon thought, but it’s in there from 1971.

Maybe they just borrowed it from…

Oh, that’s a wonderful tribute to my dad.

You know, I’m going to memorize that poem and pass it on to my nieces and nephews.

Well, Jimmy, you need to send us an email and let us know how your further research goes.

It sounds like you maybe can find some historical avenues.

Maybe there’s some of the older generation left who can tell you a little bit more about your father and your uncle, and maybe you can piece that together and have just a whopping good tale.

Wow, that’s amazing.

That is, oh, thank you so much, you know.

All right.

This is the reason I listen to this show.

That is great.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

I’m a huge fan, and I have been for a long, long time.

Wonderful.

All right, Jimmy.

You make us feel smarter, Jimmy.

Thanks for calling.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Grant, that is so cool.

So you think that it’s specific to the Palmer House, though.

There’s nothing like a Hilton walk or a Ritz walk, like he was suggesting.

Not as far as I know.

And I should also mention that there’s a little bit more about Palmer housing in Clarence Major’s famous black slang dictionary, Juba to Jive.

Cool.

Well, I’d love to hear if other folks have used it in their vernacular.

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