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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZCOTTON CLUBBuilt '18 as the Douglas Casino in Harlem (then becoming the largest black community in the world at the north end of Manhattan island) at corner of Lenox and 142nd Street, with theatre on ground floor, dance hall upstairs; boxer Jack Johnson turned it into the Club Deluxe; then bootlegger Owney Madden into outlet for his beer, entertainment for white downtowners. Duke Ellington residency '27--31 helped make it nationally famous with broadcasts, then Cab Calloway. The cream of society visited, incl. Mayor Jimmy Walker, Lady Mountbatten (who dubbed it 'The Aristocrat of Harlem'); the club's revues were written by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, Harold Arlen and others as well as featuring Ellington's music. Other clubs in the area were Connie's Inn, owned by George and Connie Immerman, where Fats Waller's Keep Shufflin' and Hot Chocolates were produced; Baron Wilkins's Exclusive Club, where Ellington played with his Washingtonians '23; Smalls' Paradise, which admitted blacks (if they could afford it) and waiters danced the Charleston while balancing trays: owner Ed Smalls encouraged the band to park their cars in front on slow nights to make the place look busy. The Cotton Club moved downtown to Broadway and 48th '36; by then the Harlem Renaissance was over, based as it had been on a shaky foundation of white patronage, and fuelled by Prohibition which had ended '33. Harlem: The Great Black Way 1900--1950 '82 by Jervis Anderson describes the period; film Cotton Club '84 was too slick. |