Hungry i
Encyclopedia
The hungry i was originally a nightclub
in North Beach, San Francisco. It was launched by Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, who sold it to Enrico Banducci
in 1950.
, the hungry i and Banducci were also instrumental in the careers of actor/comic Ronnie Schell
, comic Bill Cosby
, and minister Malcolm Boyd
. Musically, The Kingston Trio
recorded two famous albums at the hungry i, including the first live performance of their version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight
". Tom Lehrer
's final satirical album That Was The Year That Was
(1965) was also recorded there, as well as The Limeliters
' album Our Men In San Francisco (1963).
Jazz legend Vince Guaraldi
, folk singer Glenn Yarborough, the Gateway Singers, and comedians Godfrey Cambridge
, Professor Irwin Corey, and Mort Sahl
were also given career boosts from their appearances at the hungry i, as well as Dick Cavett
and Woody Allen
. The folk-rock group We Five
were signed to A&M records
after Herb Alpert
saw them perform there.
John Phillips (of The Mamas & the Papas
fame) and his The Journeymen were the house band in the early '60s.
The young Barbra Streisand
begged Banducci for a single night at his nightclub, insisting that she would soon be a huge star. Banducci agreed to sign the singer, who had never performed professionally but was eventually starring in I Can Get It for You Wholesale
on Broadway. The resulting concerts (March-April 1963) were well-attended, giving Streisand nationwide acclaim.
When the comedy and folk music scene wilted in the mid-1960s with the rise of hard rock and Vietnam war protests, Banducci closed the club and sold its name to a topless club at another location nearby at 546 Broadway, where the name doubtless still draws in unwary tourists interested in history. Banducci and many of the club's performers reunited in 1981 for a memorable one-night performance, captured in the nationally televised documentary hungry i Reunion, produced and directed by Thomas A. Cohen and featuring separate reminiscences by Maya Angelou
and Bill Cosby
.
, and was on view through August 25, 2007. Alumni who performed at the hungry i during its heyday — as well as club owner Enrico Banducci and his daughter — gathered for an opening celebration March 27th. Among those reminiscing on their time at the club were Orson Bean
, Shelley Berman
, Father Malcolm Boyd
, Travis Edmonson
, Tom Lehrer
, The Kingston Trio
, Mort Sahl
, Ronnie Schell
, Ernie Sheldon, and Glenn Yarborough.
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
in North Beach, San Francisco. It was launched by Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, who sold it to Enrico Banducci
Enrico Banducci
Enrico Banducci was an American impresario. Banducci operated the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, where he launched the careers of Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Bill Cosby, Jonathan Winters, and Barbra Streisand, and featured Woody Allen and Dick Cavett before they were...
in 1950.
The name
How the club's name came about is something of a mystery. According to one story, the lower-case "i" was meant to represent "intellectual." Banducci swore that it was literally Freudian and was short for "the hungry id." In another story, the sign was not finished in time for the club's opening, and next-day reviews in the San Francisco papers cemented the name for all time. In another story, artist Mark Adams came up with the name. "It (the lowercase 'i') designated the first-person singular, with all of its various cravings," he explained in a 1985 interview quoted in a 2006 obituary for him.The club
Originally located at 599 Jackson Street on the ground floor of the International HotelInternational Hotel
International Hotel may refer to:* International Hotel , a historic building* The I-Hotel, a residential hotel and community center in San Francisco, California* The former name of the Las Vegas Hilton...
, the hungry i and Banducci were also instrumental in the careers of actor/comic Ronnie Schell
Ronnie Schell
Ronald Ralph "Ronnie" Schell is an American actor, stand-up comedian and cartoon voice actor . Early in his career he appeared as himself as a contestant on You Bet Your Life opposite Groucho Marx, demonstrating a comic barrage of jive talk.-Life and career:Schell was born in Richmond, California...
, comic Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
, and minister Malcolm Boyd
Malcolm Boyd
Malcolm Boyd is an American Episcopal Priest and author.-Biography:In the 1960s Boyd became known as “The Espresso Priest” for his religiously-themed poetry-reading sessions at the “Hungry i” nightclub in San Francisco. Boyd went on to become a prominent white clergyman in the American Civil...
. Musically, The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
recorded two famous albums at the hungry i, including the first live performance of their version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight
The Lion Sleeps Tonight
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight", also known as "Wimoweh" and originally as "Mbube", is a song recorded by Solomon Linda and his group The Evening Birds for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. It was covered internationally by many 1950s pop and folk revival artists, including The Weavers,...
". Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater...
's final satirical album That Was The Year That Was
That Was the Year That Was
That Was the Year That Was is a live album recorded at the hungry i in San Francisco, containing performances by Tom Lehrer of satiric topical songs he originally wrote for the NBC television series That Was The Week That Was, known informally as TW3...
(1965) was also recorded there, as well as The Limeliters
The Limeliters
The Limeliters are an American folk music group, formed in July 1959 by Lou Gottlieb , Alex Hassilev , and Glenn Yarbrough . The group was active from 1959 until 1965, when they disbanded. After a hiatus of sixteen years Yarbrough, Hassilev, and Gottlieb reunited and began performing as...
' album Our Men In San Francisco (1963).
Jazz legend Vince Guaraldi
Vince Guaraldi
Vincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an Italian American jazz musician and pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip...
, folk singer Glenn Yarborough, the Gateway Singers, and comedians Godfrey Cambridge
Godfrey Cambridge
-External links:*...
, Professor Irwin Corey, and Mort Sahl
Mort Sahl
Morton Lyon "Mort" Sahl is a Canadian-born American comedian and actor. He occasionally wrote jokes for speeches delivered by President John F. Kennedy. He was the first comedian to record a live album and the first to perform on college campuses...
were also given career boosts from their appearances at the hungry i, as well as Dick Cavett
Dick Cavett
Richard Alva "Dick" Cavett is a former American television talk show host known for his conversational style and in-depth discussion of issues...
and Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
. The folk-rock group We Five
We Five
We Five was a 1960s folk rock musical group based in San Francisco, California. Their best-known hit was their 1965 remake of Ian and Sylvia's "You Were on My Mind", which reached #1 on the Cashbox chart, #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart...
were signed to A&M records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
after Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert
Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
saw them perform there.
John Phillips (of The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas were a Canadian/American vocal group of the 1960s . The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
fame) and his The Journeymen were the house band in the early '60s.
The young Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
begged Banducci for a single night at his nightclub, insisting that she would soon be a huge star. Banducci agreed to sign the singer, who had never performed professionally but was eventually starring in I Can Get It for You Wholesale
I Can Get It for You Wholesale
I Can Get It for You Wholesale is a musical with music and lyrics by Harold Rome and a book by Jerome Weidman based on his 1937 novel of the same title. It marked the Broadway debut of 19-year-old Barbra Streisand, who was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in...
on Broadway. The resulting concerts (March-April 1963) were well-attended, giving Streisand nationwide acclaim.
When the comedy and folk music scene wilted in the mid-1960s with the rise of hard rock and Vietnam war protests, Banducci closed the club and sold its name to a topless club at another location nearby at 546 Broadway, where the name doubtless still draws in unwary tourists interested in history. Banducci and many of the club's performers reunited in 1981 for a memorable one-night performance, captured in the nationally televised documentary hungry i Reunion, produced and directed by Thomas A. Cohen and featuring separate reminiscences by Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...
and Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
.
Exhibition
An exhibition on the history of the hungry i opened March 28, 2007 at the San Francisco Performing Arts Library, now the Museum of Performance & DesignMuseum of Performance & Design
The Museum of Performance & Design, formerly the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum, is located in San Francisco, California in the historic War Memorial Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue...
, and was on view through August 25, 2007. Alumni who performed at the hungry i during its heyday — as well as club owner Enrico Banducci and his daughter — gathered for an opening celebration March 27th. Among those reminiscing on their time at the club were Orson Bean
Orson Bean
Orson Bean is an American film, television, and Broadway actor. He appeared frequently on televised game shows in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, including being a long-time panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth....
, Shelley Berman
Shelley Berman
Sheldon "Shelley" Berman is an American comedian, actor, writer, teacher, lecturer, and poet.- Early life :Berman was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Irene and Nathan Berman.- Career :...
, Father Malcolm Boyd
Malcolm Boyd
Malcolm Boyd is an American Episcopal Priest and author.-Biography:In the 1960s Boyd became known as “The Espresso Priest” for his religiously-themed poetry-reading sessions at the “Hungry i” nightclub in San Francisco. Boyd went on to become a prominent white clergyman in the American Civil...
, Travis Edmonson
Travis Edmonson
Travis Edmonson was an American folk singer, who performed both as a soloist and in the group Bud and Travis.-Early life:...
, Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater...
, The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
, Mort Sahl
Mort Sahl
Morton Lyon "Mort" Sahl is a Canadian-born American comedian and actor. He occasionally wrote jokes for speeches delivered by President John F. Kennedy. He was the first comedian to record a live album and the first to perform on college campuses...
, Ronnie Schell
Ronnie Schell
Ronald Ralph "Ronnie" Schell is an American actor, stand-up comedian and cartoon voice actor . Early in his career he appeared as himself as a contestant on You Bet Your Life opposite Groucho Marx, demonstrating a comic barrage of jive talk.-Life and career:Schell was born in Richmond, California...
, Ernie Sheldon, and Glenn Yarborough.
External links
- Interview about 'hungry i' exhibit at the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum (March 2007)
- Enrico Banducci, Bar School, and a Guy From Fresno via CoastNews.com
- Farewell Favorites: Enrico Banducci and the hungry i: Five Pages
- Dorothy Currin at Enrico Banducci's hungry i (scroll down)
- Enrico Banducci and the hungry i - BBC Programme Catalogue
- Barbra Streisand: Early Performances - Live at the hungry i
- "The hungry i Reunion" TV show, The New York Times (February 10, 1982, original review September 18, 1981)