Promotional Beatnik cigarette holder from Cafe Bizarre in Greenwich Village.
NY: Cafe Bizarre, ca. 1960.
Item #SKB-15650
The cigarette holder prints the word "Bizarre" in the same spooky stylized lettering used on the cover of the LP that was recorded there, along with their catch phrase "Where the Beat Meet the Elite." The Cafe Bizarre, founded in 1957, was one of the most conspicuous and sensational clubs to capitalize on the beatnik phenomenon, and the venue for many counterculture poets and musicians of the period. Musitron Records even recorded an album of Beat festivities at Cafe Bizarre in the late '50s. (In the post-beatnik-era Warhol discovered The Velvet Underground there.) This is a vintage piece of beatnik ephemera, not to be confused with the more recent dime-store-novelty "Beatnik Cigarette Holder." Near fine (4" long). One of the scarcest Cafe Bizarre items.
Price: $185.00