My father grew up in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, which was known as the HOA to the kids who lived there. It was a real orphanage located in the same place as the HHB, which I invented.
My father’s name when he was born was David Carasso, although he changed Carasso to Carson when he was old enough, so he would be a “real American.” His mother died from childbirth complications when he was a few months old. His father, Abraham Carasso, died of gangrene after a cut he’d gotten in his carpentry work became infected. Abraham truly did build a cabinet with secret compartments for the sultan of Turkey, and he truly did receive a medal, or so family lore has it. After Abraham died, my father, his older brother, Sam, and his younger half-brother, Leo, were placed in the HOA. My father’s sisters and his older brother, Sidney, went to live with relatives.
My father was much younger than eleven when he arrived at the HOA, although I don’t know exactly how young he was. Some children liked the HOA, but my father hated it. Many years later, he would tell my sister and me almost nothing about it, even though we were dying to know about the exciting childhood of our safe, respectable daddy. One of the few tales he did tell was of sneaking out of the orphanage to buy candy. He had a thriving candy business in the HOA, till he got caught and had to declare bankruptcy!
After he left the Home, my father had nothing more to do with the place, until he and my mother retired. One day, a man recognized him on the street and turned out to be one of his HOA pals. After that, my father joined the HOA alumni association and was a member until he died in 1986.
There are many differences between the fictional HHB and the real HOA. An important one is that the HOA took in both boys and girls. Another big difference is that relatives couldn’t bring children directly to the HOA; the children had to be placed there through a legal process. As far as I know, the superintendents at the HOA were not monsters like Mr. Doom, but discipline was strict, and punishments were severe. There is a wonderful book about the HOA called The Luckiest Orphans by Hyman Bogen, published by the University of Illinois Press. The HOA closed its doors in 1941. Its most famous alumnus is the newspaper columnist Art Buchwald.
Although all the characters in Dave at Night are completely fictional, parties or salons were held during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and ’30s that were attended by leading figures in the arts, both black and white. A’lelia Walker, who inherited the hair-straightening-products fortune of her mother, Madame C. J. Walker, was a prominent hostess of the day. The crown prince of Sweden did try to attend one of her parties and was unable to get in. Noah’s Ark, the painting by Aaron Douglas that Dave admires during Irma Lee’s party, was actually painted in 1927.
Two excellent books about Harlem are When Harlem Was in Vogue by David Levering Lewis, published by Knopf, and This Was Harlem by Jervis Anderson, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. You Must Remember This by Jeff Kisseloff, published by Schocken Books, is a delightful history of Manhattan from the 1890s to World War II.
Like Dave, I know only a few Yiddish words and phrases, so Solly’s Yiddish came from The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten, which is published by Pocket Books, and which has many jokes along with the definitions.