Cotton Club

The Cotton Club was a New York City night club in the 1920s and 30s.It was first in the Harlem neighborhood on 142nd St & Lenox Ave from 1923 to 1935.Black Past 2007/2011 Then for a brief period from 1936 to 1940 it was in the midtown Theater District. The club was a big success in America's Prohibition Era.

The club had a whites-only policy for customers, but featured many of the best black entertainers  and jazz musicians of the era. Stars included (musicians) Cab Calloway, Andrew Preer, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Fats Waller - (vocalists) Adelaide Hall,Williams I.C. 2002. Underneath a Harlem Moon ... the Harlem to Paris years of Adelaide Hall, Chapter 15. Google Lottie Gee, Ethel Waters, Avon Long, Aida Ward, Edith Wilson, the Dandridge Sisters, Avis Andrews, Will Vodery Choir, Berry Brothers, Nina Mae McKinney, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne and (dancers) Bill Robinson, The Nicholas Brothers, Stepin Fetchit, Butterbeans and Suzy, Earl Snakehips Tucker and Evelyn Welch.

During its heyday, the Cotton Club served as a hip meeting spot featuring regular "Celebrity Nights" on Sundays, which featured celebrity guests such as Jimmy Durante, George Gershwin, Sophie Tucker, Paul Robeson, Al Jolson, Mae West, Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Langston Hughes, Judy Garland, Moss Hart and Mayor Jimmy Walker among others.

The club was set up by world boxing champion Jack Johnson, but taken over by the Yorkshire-born gangster Owney Madden in 1923. Johnson stayed on as manager.

 References 

Category:1923 establishments in the United States
Category:1920s establishments in New York (state)
Category:1940 disestablishments
Category:Entertainment in New York City
Category:Entertainment venues
Category:1940s disestablishments in the United States
Category:20th-century disestablishments in New York (state)