Eighty-sixing a persistent myth about Chumley's
since the phrase is in the news
If you’ve been reading the papers, you know that the Department of Justice has re-indicted James Comey, the former director of the FBI, for posting a photo on Instagram of seashells spelling out the numbers 8647. This is, allegedly, a coded incitement to violence because “86” means to have run out of an item (or to get rid of something in restaurant slang) and Trump is the 47th president.
I cannot tell you what Comey was thinking when he posted the photo.
I can tell you that many media outlets are reiterating a false story that the term comes from the back door of Chumley’s, the venerable speakeasy in Greenwich Village.
The story usually goes something like this: Chumley’s had two entrances—a front door hidden in a courtyard at 58 Barrow, and a nondescript back door (pictured above) at 86 Bedford. So far, so good.
When the cops would raid Chumley’s for serving liquor without a license, the barkeeps would tell the customers to “86 it!” meaning exit out the Bedford Street doorway since the police were coming in the front door. Eventually the term came to mean to remove something from the menu or that a restaurant was out of the item. That meaning, in turn, morphed into slang for ejecting an unruly customer and, from there, eventually simply to kill something off. (“Eighty-six the mom!” Jeffrey Katzenberg allegedly said when the mother character was axed from Disney’s Aladdin.)
While Chumley’s was certainly raided, there’s no evidence that “eighty-sixing” something is related in any way to the bar.
In fact, Chumley’s wasn’t founded until 1927, and the October 22, 1920, issue of The Topeka State Journal was already referring to the term as something restaurant workers would know.
“‘Eighty-six’ means just what ‘Thirty’ does to a printer—’That’s all. No more to come.’”
With that citation in hand, I would ask us all to put Chumley’s involvement with the phrase to rest once and for all.
Related: Chumley’s is often cited as the only bar that never stopped being a speakeasy—it continued to operate without a sign or any visible indication that it was a restaurant even after Prohibition was lifted. While the part about having no sign is true, this newspaper advertisement (n.d., but I’m guessing the 1950s), deflates that myth, as well. Clearly, Chumley’s was happy to welcome your business.
Chumley’s chimney collapsed in 2007. After a multi-year odyssey, the space was finally rehabbed, but it’s never been the same.
…and, in other news…
There are still a few spaces left for this weekend’s walks in Lower Manhattan covering the American Revolution in New York.
If you are interested, please go to the registration form at https://pci.jotform.com/form/260634652203147, where you can read about the walk. $30 per person (plus fees). We hope to see you on Saturday or Sunday!