Honky tonk

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For other uses, see Honky Tonk (disambiguation).
Tootsie's Orchid Lounge in Nashville, Tennessee
Tootsie's Orchid Lounge in Nashville, Tennessee

A honky tonk is a type of bar with musical entertainment common in the Southwestern and Southern United States, also called honkatonks, honkey-tonks, tonks or tunks. The term has also been attached to various styles of 20th-century American music. As of 2008, honky tonk music seems to be the most recognized and mainstream subgenre of country music.

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[edit] Derivation

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that the origin of the word honky tonk is unknown. However, the earliest source explaining the derivation of the term (spelled honkatonk) was an article published by the New York Sun in 1900 and widely reprinted in other newspapers.[1] It states uncategorically that the term came from the sound of geese which led an unsuspecting group of cowboys to the flock instead of to the variety show they expected. Also, the OED states that the first use in print was in 1894[2] in the Daily Ardmoreite (Ardmore, Oklahoma) newspaper where it was honk-a-tonk. However, honkatonk has been cited from at least 1892 in the Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas)[3] where it referred to an adult establishment in Ft. Worth.

Other sources speculate that the "tonk" portion of the name may well have come from a brand name of piano. One American manufacturer of large upright pianos was the firm of William Tonk & Bros. (established 1889[4]), which made a piano with the decal "Ernest A. Tonk". These upright grand pianos were made in Chicago and New York and were called Tonk pianos. Some found their way to Tin Pan Alley and may have given rise to the expression of "honky tonk bars". It is unlikely, however, that a Tin Pan Alley piano manufactured in 1889 would influence the vocabulary in either Texas or Indian Territory by 1892 or 1894.

There are no reliable sources stating that "Tonks" were originally specifically African American institutions; similar establishments that catered to Whites acquired the name Honky Tonk, from the slang honky, referring to a white person. Although there may be multiple examples of oral history and writings by African Americans born in the 19th century referring to African American establishments as "honkey tonks" or "honk-a-tonks", none were written contemporary to the events.

It is a fact that the term "honky" was, as a term for whites, derived from bohunk and hunky. In the early 1900's, these were derogatory terms for Bohemian, Hungarian, and Polish immigrants. According to Robert Hendrickson, author of the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Black workers in Chicago meat-packing plants picked up the term from white workers and began applying it indiscriminately to all Caucasians.

[edit] Honky tonks

Honky tonks were rough establishments, mostly in the Deep South and Southwest, that served alcoholic beverages to working class clientele. Honky tonks sometimes also offered dancing to piano players or small bands, and sometimes were also centers of prostitution. As Chris Smith and Charles McCarron noted in their 1916 hit song "Down in Honky Tonk Town", "It's underneath the ground, where all the fun is found."

[edit] Origins of the honky tonk establishment

Although the derivation of the term is unknown, honky tonk originally referred to bawdy variety shows in the West (Oklahoma and Indian Territories and Texas) and to the theaters housing them. In fact, the earliest mention of them in print refers to them as variety theaters[5] and describe the entertainment as variety shows[6]. The theaters often had an attached gambling house and always a bar.

In recollections long after the frontiers closed, writers such as Wyatt Earp and E.C. Abbott referred often to honky tonks in the cowtowns of Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, etc. of the 1870s and 80s[7]. Their recollections contain lurid accounts of the women and violence accompanying the shows. However, in contemporary accounts these were nearly always called hurdy gurdy shows, possibly derived from the term hurdy gurdy that was sometimes mistakenly applied to a small, portable barrel organ that was frequently played by organ grinders and buskers (street musicians).

As late as 1913, Col. Edwin Emerson, a former Rough Rider commander, hosted a honky-tonk party in New York ("COL. EMERSON'S NOVEL PARTY; Rough Rider Veteran Gives 'Old Forty-niners’ Honky-Tonk Fandango'." New York Times, New York, N.Y., February 23, 1913. pg. C7). The Rough Riders were recruited from the ranches of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Indian Territories, so the term was still in popular use during the Spanish American War.

[edit] Bars

The distinction between honky tonks, saloons and dancehalls was often blurred, especially in cowtowns, mining districts, military forts and oilfields of the West. Eventually, as variety theaters and dancehalls disappeared, honky tonk became associated mainly with lower class bars catering to men. Synonymous with beer joint and like terms, honky tonks usually serve beer or hard liquor and may have had a bandstand and dance floor. Many may have furnished only a juke box. In the Southeastern US, honky tonk gradually replaced the term juke joint for bars primarily orientated towards blues and jazz. As Western swing slowly became accepted in Nashville, Southeastern bars playing Western swing and Western swing influenced country music, were also called honky tonks.

[edit] Endnotes

  1. ^ Reno Evening Gazette (Nevada), 3 February 1900, pg. 2, col. 5. "Every child of the range can tell what honkatonk means and where it came from. Away, away back in the very early days, so the story goes, a party of cow punchers rode out from camp at sundown in search of recreation after a day of toil. They headed for a place of amusement, but lost the trail. From far out in the distance there finally came to their ears a 'honk-a-tonk-a-tonk-a-tonk-a,' which they mistook for the bass viol. They turned toward the sound, to find alas! a dock [sic] of wild geese. So honkatonk was named—N. Y. Sun".
  2. ^ The Daily Ardmoreite (Oklahoma), February 26, 1894, pg. 2, col. 1. (Oklahoma Historical Society, Microfilm #110). "The honk-a-tonk last night was well attended by ball heads, bachelors and leading citizens. Most of them are inclined to kick themselves this morning for being sold."
  3. ^ Galveston Daily News (Texas), July 26, 1892, pg. 6. " "FORT WORTH, Tex. (...) A youth named Goodman, who arrived here from Wilbarger county entered Andrews’ honkatonk on Fifteenth street and was ordered out on account of his age." (Honky Tonk (not from Tonk pianos), retrieved July 9, 2006)
  4. ^ Pierce, Pierce Piano Atlas.
  5. ^ The Daily Oklahoman, Sunday, September 5, 1915, pg. 1., col. 1. "There is scarcely an old-time gambler in the United States who does not remember the Reeves gambling house and 'honkytonk' in Guthrie. ...a stage and rows of curtained boxes, was built as an addition for the purposes of a free-and-easy variety show."
  6. ^ Reno Evening Gazette (Nevada), 3 February 1900, pg. 2, col. 5. "The programme is made up largely of specialties. Whatever the feeling of a long-suffering public, the honkatonk vocalists never will permit “Sweet Rosie O’Grady” and “Just One Girl” to perish from the earth, and coon songs are sung as May Irwin never did and never will sing them. Always at least one drama is presented, the entire company, vocalists, dancers and all, participating. Among the most popular plays are “The Dalton Boys” and “Mildred, the She-Devil of the Plains,” for the old traditions still are respected to a certain extent, though the participation of the audience is no longer solicited."
  7. ^ Hunter, Trail Drivers of Texas, pg. 832. "I went to Dodge City, the honkatonk town, cleaned up an bought a suit of clothes, and left for San Antonio, reaching home July 1, 1885."

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Additional reading

  • Kienzle, Rich. Southwest Shuffle: Pioneers of Honky Tonk, Western Swing, and Country Jazz. New York: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-94102-4
  • Lake, Stuart. Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. Pocket, 1994 (reprint edition). ISBN 0-671-88537-5
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