Entry from January 10, 2005
Fraudway; Queerialto; Double-Crossroads of the World
Fraudway (for Broadway) and Queerialto (for Rialto) and Double-Crossroads of the World (for Crossroads of the World) are some of the cynical Broadway nicknames from the 1920s that didn't stick. They are memorable, nevertheless.
7 July 1926, Warren (PA) Tribune, pg. 4, col. 4:
"Rubber checks", which means checks the banks ignore socially, are less a novelty on Fraudway than most any other place in the world.
(From "Diary of a New Yorker" by Clark Kinnaird - ed.)
5 July 1928, Zanesville (OH) Signal, pg. 5, col. 5:
By the way, they're calling that famous corner at 42nd and Broadway, "the double-crossroads of the world." And on windy days they say it "causes the cross-eyes of the world."
GILBERT SWAN
Google Books
Broadway Portraits
By Samuel Marx
New York, NY: Donald Flamm
1929
Pg. 5:
You may have never heard the name of some of them. But they are part, particle and parcel of New York's Main Stem, Hardened Artery, Great White Way, Incandescent Lane, Mazda Boulevard, Chow Mein Stem, Double Cross-Roads of the World, Two-Times Square, or, as somebody once called it, Broadway.
23 June 1932, Times-Recorder (Zanesville, Ohio), pg.10, col. 1:
A BROADWAY COLUMNIST GIVES YOU
THE LOW DOWN ON THE MAIN STEM!
He shows you how they play the game of love at the double-cross roads of the world.
(An ad for the Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. film Love Is a Racket - ed.)
11 September 1935, Washington Post, pg. 10:
It is heartening to push your way through the glutted traffic lanes of the Queerialto, heartening to walk into theaters and find every seat sold with hundreds of people standing in the aisles.
(From "Broadway" by Ed Sullivan - ed.)
13 September 1935, Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, pg. 8, col. 8:
No wonder they call it Fraudway.
(From "Trails on Broadway" with Paul Harrison - ed.)
23 April 1936, Washington Post, pg. 22:
The Queerialto.
(From "Broadway" by Ed Sullivan - ed.)
25 June 1936, Washington Post, pg. 14:
The Hatfield-McCoy feud of Kentucky would have served only as a trailer for the feuds of Fraudway.
(From "Broadway" by Ed Sullivan - ed.)
25 December 1988, The Sunday Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), "Reporter at Large" by Mark Finston, Accent: People, pg. 10, col. 4:
During the first half of this century Broadway gossip columnist vied fiercely with each other to characterize their Great White Way in the most colorful way possible. Some of the nicknames invented in these Winchelleeers: Gay White Way, Great Tight Way, Mazda Lane, Dazzling Gulch, the Galaxy, the Grand Canyon, Milky Way, Neon Boulevard, Tungsten Territory, Baloney Boulevard, Hard Times Square, Times Queer, the Rue of Roues, Buzzard Boulevard, Fraudway, Aspirin Alley, Gin Gulch, Hooch Highway, Coffeepot Canyon, Orange Juice Gulch and the Dirty White Way.
7 July 1926, Warren (PA) Tribune, pg. 4, col. 4:
"Rubber checks", which means checks the banks ignore socially, are less a novelty on Fraudway than most any other place in the world.
(From "Diary of a New Yorker" by Clark Kinnaird - ed.)
5 July 1928, Zanesville (OH) Signal, pg. 5, col. 5:
By the way, they're calling that famous corner at 42nd and Broadway, "the double-crossroads of the world." And on windy days they say it "causes the cross-eyes of the world."
GILBERT SWAN
Google Books
Broadway Portraits
By Samuel Marx
New York, NY: Donald Flamm
1929
Pg. 5:
You may have never heard the name of some of them. But they are part, particle and parcel of New York's Main Stem, Hardened Artery, Great White Way, Incandescent Lane, Mazda Boulevard, Chow Mein Stem, Double Cross-Roads of the World, Two-Times Square, or, as somebody once called it, Broadway.
23 June 1932, Times-Recorder (Zanesville, Ohio), pg.10, col. 1:
A BROADWAY COLUMNIST GIVES YOU
THE LOW DOWN ON THE MAIN STEM!
He shows you how they play the game of love at the double-cross roads of the world.
(An ad for the Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. film Love Is a Racket - ed.)
11 September 1935, Washington Post, pg. 10:
It is heartening to push your way through the glutted traffic lanes of the Queerialto, heartening to walk into theaters and find every seat sold with hundreds of people standing in the aisles.
(From "Broadway" by Ed Sullivan - ed.)
13 September 1935, Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, pg. 8, col. 8:
No wonder they call it Fraudway.
(From "Trails on Broadway" with Paul Harrison - ed.)
23 April 1936, Washington Post, pg. 22:
The Queerialto.
(From "Broadway" by Ed Sullivan - ed.)
25 June 1936, Washington Post, pg. 14:
The Hatfield-McCoy feud of Kentucky would have served only as a trailer for the feuds of Fraudway.
(From "Broadway" by Ed Sullivan - ed.)
25 December 1988, The Sunday Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), "Reporter at Large" by Mark Finston, Accent: People, pg. 10, col. 4:
During the first half of this century Broadway gossip columnist vied fiercely with each other to characterize their Great White Way in the most colorful way possible. Some of the nicknames invented in these Winchelleeers: Gay White Way, Great Tight Way, Mazda Lane, Dazzling Gulch, the Galaxy, the Grand Canyon, Milky Way, Neon Boulevard, Tungsten Territory, Baloney Boulevard, Hard Times Square, Times Queer, the Rue of Roues, Buzzard Boulevard, Fraudway, Aspirin Alley, Gin Gulch, Hooch Highway, Coffeepot Canyon, Orange Juice Gulch and the Dirty White Way.
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