This promotional post card is from the Ham n Egg Corner, a restaurant in the 1950s and 60s that served customers on Broadway and 51st street in New York. Fortuitously, it was in the epicenter of the city’s jazz scene - practically across the street from the famous jazz club Birdland -and musicians playing there and at other venues nearby on 52^nd street adopted the Ham n Egg Corner as their after-hours rendezvous. The peak hour was apparently 3am as sets wrapped up and band members trickled in with their various instruments to sit at the red linoleum tables and wind down over a plate of ham n eggs.

Joseph Sylvester Opferman (1904 - 1992) was the uncredited creative genius behind all of Arthur Ganger's restaurants in New York and Los Angeles. Responsible for all design and illustrations on menus and promotional post cards like this, his whimsical humor is still a joy to behold 80+ years after its creation.

Courtesy Private Collection.