Actually, the appeal of the Skid Row party was that you could dress like a bum (i.e, in comfortable clothing). Joe is not the only mid-century author who mentions this, see also the Y-Teen, The Right One. As to cheese…muenster? Or maybe limberger? You also serve beer and hardboiled eggs, I think.

Turns out Joe was a strongman, acting in silent movies and stunt doubling. And heir to the Turkish Taffy empire (well, not really an empire, but it sounds good).

Here’s a good piece on Joe: http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Bonomo/hero.htm.

Although it gets a little odd towards the end — makes you want to know more specifics:
“Maybe he spread himself too thin, maybe not, but somewhere between the rise and fall of JB & his many enterprises—and most definitely upon Weider’s obvious usurpment of the brawn belt—the noise and brawl and mayhem that colored Bonomo’s personal improvement schemes was muted by pot smoking vagrant schemers who hatched a gazillion dollar self help industry built upon an ice nine hen house of beige quackery tuned into a numbing celestial hum of vibrasonic high colonics. “