Bea Arthur Talks About Being a Singer in Nightclubs

Interviewer: You also sang at nightclubs- Bea: Oh I did everything! I-oh my god, I forgot about that! There was a place called the 19th Hole. My life has been-it’s something out of I Love Lucy, actually. I auditioned-I went-I remember I had a-I always auditioned with a copy of “I’m Confessing That I Love You” And I auditioned at this horrible place called the 19th Hole and was hired immediately, and then found out that night, that there were three of us, three girls. There was a pianist, if you can call him that – the worst piano I ever head in my life – but the three girls were to sit in the bar and spit drinks. I-I know you-you don’t know what that means. I don’t think anybody remembers. But you used to-in other words; you’d make men buy you drinks. And it was always whiskey, which came in a little thing and a Coca Cola. And you would take a sip of the whiskey and then spit it out in the Coca Cola so that you never got drunk. And-oh Jesus, and periodically you’d have to go back to this dreadful pianist and sing. Cause otherwise it would be illegal I guess. And I-I’ll never forget. It was that night, three sailors from Norway came in and they bought the three of us drinks. And I think a hamburger… And they spoke no English at all. All they could say was, “(Norwegian word)” – obviously their ship was docked in-n Brooklyn. And that’s when I realized it was not my ticket to-to stardom. I’ve had a checkered career – believe me!