After my post on the Strunskys, I received several nice emails from Michael Strunsky whose father English was the brother of Emily and Leonore. Here’s what he had to say:
“In about 1918 George Gershwin was a song plugger at Remick’s, a music publishing house on Tin Pan Alley (28th street, I think).  You remember, the “pluggers†were the first line salesmen whose job it was to get vaudeville performers to include a new song in his (her) act, resulting in sheet music sales.  One night a co-plugger in the next cubicle by the name of Herman Paley invited GG to his family’s house for dinner.  At dinner was Herman’s younger brother Lou Paley, and Lou’s very pretty girlfriend, Emily Strunsky.  The three of them formed a friendship that lasted until George’s death in 1937, and they formed the “partnership†that finally convinced George’s older brother Ira to wed Emily’s younger sister, Leonore (Lee) in 1926.  George played at Emily and Lou’s wedding in 1920 and, a few weeks later, accompanied them to a house in Harlem to test a used Steinway piano (they bought it) which today sits in my living room in San Francisco.”
Michael also attached this ad from a socialist paper:
EAT WHERE
The food is good
The prices moderate
The environment pleasant
Cafeteria
Three Steps Down
19 West Eighth Street
MASCHA STRUNSKY
“PS: Al Hirschfeld  used to come by every morning and paint the day’s menu on the wall for which he was paid a free lunch.
