Mr. K and the Super — Frank W. Dressler

Mr. K. and the Super is the emotionally moving, sometimes hilarious recollections of a newly married ex-GI, recently enrolled at Columbia, of his service as "super" of two New York City apartment buildings in the early 1950's. The two buildings were a bubbling cauldron of emotions, ambitions and high jinks ruled by Mr. K, a Polish emigrant landlord actively conspiring to overthrow the communist regime of his homeland. Mr. K sought to control his domain with a lease whose "thou shalt not" clauses put the Ten Commandments to shame...but utterly failed to tame the assorted energies and desires of his more creative tenants. These tenants included the Major, a retired British officer who wrote mysteries with erotic themes that he surreptitiously tested on his fellow tenants, and his wife, an expert on many occult arts. Perhaps most energetic were two young Princeton grads who sold space for LIFE magazine who assiduously sought to date and bed nubile young things at least every weekend. Their antics resulted in a fishing expedition that culminated in a memorable roof top fight of feral cats; and through their real or imagined sex lives, triggered a LIFE goes to a Party feature story in their building. These and similar stories are offset by the tragic story of the beautiful Anastasia and the emotionally moving stories of the Uncle and the Niece and Waldo the Wondrous. Read on. These and other long ago tenants of 6 and 8 West 9th Street are anxious to share their equally interesting stories.