Greeting:

I used to play the Four Winds in Greenwich Village pretty regularly, the last time being around 1969. Does that make me a little known 1960's folk singer?

At one time some of the basket houses, including the Four Winds, had a "no singing" policy because of some stupid NYC rule requiring any place with singing to have a cabaret license issued by the Police Department. In reality, performers sang there all the time. The house rigged up a buzzer system and had someone act as lookout on the street just outside the front door. His main job was to get people to come in, but he also was there to press a button if he saw a policeman coming. When you heard the buzzer sound, you immediately stopped singing until the lookout stuck his head inside and gave you the all clear. The venue did not need a cabaret license if all it had was "incidental music," which really meant background music. As far as the NYPD was concerned, acoustic guitar or banjo music without singing met the definition.

--- Steve