Glamour Gangsters And Racism 30 Photos Inside Harlem S Infamous Cotton Club

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1 of 31Taxis line up outside of the Cotton Club at Broadway and 48th Street, circa 1937 in New York City, New York. George Karger/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 2 of 31A chorus line dancing the can-can at the Cotton Club. George Karger/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images 3 of 31The American sprinter Jesse Owens and dancer and actor Bill Robinson —on the left — surrounded by dancers during a rehearsal at the Cotton Club, Sept. 2, 1936. Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images 4 of 31Marlene Dietrich, glamorous film star, visited the Cotton Club with director Fritz Lang on Feb. 6, 1937 — and was almost mobbed by a group of fans. Bettmann/Getty Images 5 of 31A crowd of men wait for Marlene Dietrich to leave the Cotton Club. Herb Breuer/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images 6 of 31The exterior of the Cotton Club in Harlem. Hulton Archive/Getty Images 7 of 31Interior photo of the Cotton Club, 1930.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 8 of 31Attacking his food with relish after the opening game of the World Series, Joe DiMaggio, NY Yankees star, dines at the Cotton Club on Oct. 6, 1937. Bettmann/Getty Images 9 of 31Comedian Bert Wheeler buys cigarettes from a vendor in the Cotton Club, on Sept. 25, 1936. Bettmann/Getty Images 10 of 31American bandleader and singer Cab Calloway leads an orchestra during a New Year’s Ball at the Cotton Club in New York, 1937. Bettmann/Getty Images 11 of 31An audience watches a performance, 1934.Bettmann/Getty Images 12 of 31Billy Rose, who runs the Casa Manana, pictured at the Cotton Club opening with Eleanor Holm, left, and film star Estelle Taylor, right, 1938.Bettmann/Getty Images 13 of 31Acrobatic dancers performing onstage at the Cotton Club. George Karger/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images 14 of 31Vintage illustration of the Cotton Club menu cover, 1920s. Found Image Holdings/Corbis via Getty Images 15 of 31Marlene Dietrich at the Cotton Club with her husband Rudolph Sieber.NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images 16 of 31Dancers performing onstage at the Cotton Club. George Karger/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images 17 of 31Duke Ellington, Mercer Kennedy Ellington, and Jeni LeGon smiling at the Cotton Club during a birthday party, April 10, 1937.Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images 18 of 31Floor show from the famous Harlem night club, featuring a leggy row of chorus girls, 1920s.Bettmann/Getty Images 19 of 31The American bandleader and jazz musician Cab Calloway performing at the Cotton Club, 1939. Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images 20 of 31James Cromwell and his wife, the former Doris Duke, speaking together at New York’s Cotton Club, Nov. 3, 1936.Bettmann/Getty Images 21 of 31Jimmy Durante, abundant-nosed comedian, explains New York night life to Mayor and Mrs. George J. Zimmerman of Buffalo, N.Y., at the Cotton Club, 1936.Bettmann/Getty Images 22 of 31Maude Russel and her Ebony Steppers at the Cotton Club, in the show “Just a Minute,” 1929.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 23 of 31Bill Robinson, more affectionately known as “Bojangles” of Harlem, with Jimmy Braddock, left, and heavyweight champ Max Schmeling, right, 1936.Bettmann/Getty Images 24 of 31When U.S. deputy marshals and federal dry agents raided the Cotton Club’s Chicago location, they found a locked safe in the office. Hoping to find records to prove that the club was a Capone business managed by Al’s brother Ralph, they drilled open the safe. But what they found remains a secret even today — known only to the police and to the owners of the club, 1931.Bettmann/Getty Images 25 of 31Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Giambrone welcome the the New Year by doing the “Big Apple” at the Cotton Club, 1937.Bettmann/Getty Images 26 of 31Rose Halpert, left, enjoys her New Year’s Eve party, despite the fact that she is blind, 1936.Bettmann/Getty Images 27 of 31Tapdancers performing onstage at the Cotton Club. George Karger/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images 28 of 31The Cotton Club got a second location in California. Here, pianist Fats Waller poses with members of Frank Sebastian’s Cotton Club Cuties, at Frank Sebastian’s New Cotton Club, circa 1935 in Culver City, California. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 29 of 31Two performers at the Cotton Club, 1934.Remie Lohse/Condé Nast via Getty Images 30 of 31An exterior view of the Cotton Club on Broadway and 48th Street circa 1937 in New York City, New York. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 31 of 31Like this gallery?Share it:

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Glamour, Gangsters, And Racism: 30 Photos Inside Harlem’s Infamous Cotton Club View Gallery

If there was a staple of Harlem nightlife in the 1920s and 30s, it was the Cotton Club.

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1 of 31Taxis line up outside of the Cotton Club at Broadway and 48th Street, circa 1937 in New York City, New York. George Karger/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

2 of 31A chorus line dancing the can-can at the Cotton Club. George Karger/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

3 of 31The American sprinter Jesse Owens and dancer and actor Bill Robinson —on the left — surrounded by dancers during a rehearsal at the Cotton Club, Sept. 2, 1936. Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

4 of 31Marlene Dietrich, glamorous film star, visited the Cotton Club with director Fritz Lang on Feb. 6, 1937 — and was almost mobbed by a group of fans. Bettmann/Getty Images

5 of 31A crowd of men wait for Marlene Dietrich to leave the Cotton Club. Herb Breuer/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

6 of 31The exterior of the Cotton Club in Harlem. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

7 of 31Interior photo of the Cotton Club, 1930.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

8 of 31Attacking his food with relish after the opening game of the World Series, Joe DiMaggio, NY Yankees star, dines at the Cotton Club on Oct. 6, 1937. Bettmann/Getty Images

9 of 31Comedian Bert Wheeler buys cigarettes from a vendor in the Cotton Club, on Sept. 25, 1936. Bettmann/Getty Images

10 of 31American bandleader and singer Cab Calloway leads an orchestra during a New Year’s Ball at the Cotton Club in New York, 1937. Bettmann/Getty Images

11 of 31An audience watches a performance, 1934.Bettmann/Getty Images

12 of 31Billy Rose, who runs the Casa Manana, pictured at the Cotton Club opening with Eleanor Holm, left, and film star Estelle Taylor, right, 1938.Bettmann/Getty Images

13 of 31Acrobatic dancers performing onstage at the Cotton Club. George Karger/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

14 of 31Vintage illustration of the Cotton Club menu cover, 1920s. Found Image Holdings/Corbis via Getty Images

15 of 31Marlene Dietrich at the Cotton Club with her husband Rudolph Sieber.NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

16 of 31Dancers performing onstage at the Cotton Club. George Karger/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

17 of 31Duke Ellington, Mercer Kennedy Ellington, and Jeni LeGon smiling at the Cotton Club during a birthday party, April 10, 1937.Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images

18 of 31Floor show from the famous Harlem night club, featuring a leggy row of chorus girls, 1920s.Bettmann/Getty Images

19 of 31The American bandleader and jazz musician Cab Calloway performing at the Cotton Club, 1939. Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

20 of 31James Cromwell and his wife, the former Doris Duke, speaking together at New York’s Cotton Club, Nov. 3, 1936.Bettmann/Getty Images

21 of 31Jimmy Durante, abundant-nosed comedian, explains New York night life to Mayor and Mrs. George J. Zimmerman of Buffalo, N.Y., at the Cotton Club, 1936.Bettmann/Getty Images

22 of 31Maude Russel and her Ebony Steppers at the Cotton Club, in the show “Just a Minute,” 1929.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

23 of 31Bill Robinson, more affectionately known as “Bojangles” of Harlem, with Jimmy Braddock, left, and heavyweight champ Max Schmeling, right, 1936.Bettmann/Getty Images

24 of 31When U.S. deputy marshals and federal dry agents raided the Cotton Club’s Chicago location, they found a locked safe in the office. Hoping to find records to prove that the club was a Capone business managed by Al’s brother Ralph, they drilled open the safe. But what they found remains a secret even today — known only to the police and to the owners of the club, 1931.Bettmann/Getty Images

25 of 31Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Giambrone welcome the the New Year by doing the “Big Apple” at the Cotton Club, 1937.Bettmann/Getty Images

26 of 31Rose Halpert, left, enjoys her New Year’s Eve party, despite the fact that she is blind, 1936.Bettmann/Getty Images

27 of 31Tapdancers performing onstage at the Cotton Club. George Karger/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

28 of 31The Cotton Club got a second location in California. Here, pianist Fats Waller poses with members of Frank Sebastian’s Cotton Club Cuties, at Frank Sebastian’s New Cotton Club, circa 1935 in Culver City, California. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

29 of 31Two performers at the Cotton Club, 1934.Remie Lohse/Condé Nast via Getty Images

30 of 31An exterior view of the Cotton Club on Broadway and 48th Street circa 1937 in New York City, New York. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

31 of 31Like this gallery?Share it:

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Glamour, Gangsters, And Racism: 30 Photos Inside Harlem’s Infamous Cotton Club View Gallery

Glamour, Gangsters, And Racism: 30 Photos Inside Harlem’s Infamous Cotton Club

View Gallery

Boasting some of the era’s most talented performers, the entertainment venue and speakeasy remains an icon of New York City even today. But as much as we praise the club for bringing names like Duke Ellington and Lena Horne into the spotlight, the truth was that the Cotton Club functioned under a very thinly-veiled cover of racism — and A-listers gobbled this up faster than prohibition booze.

The Grand Opening

African-American heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson purchased a fledgling casino at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem in 1920. Under the name Club Deluxe, Johnson’s supper club didn’t have much success. It wasn’t until the gangster Owney Madden acquired the property from the boxer in 1923 and renamed it the Cotton Club that things took off.

Madden spent lots of cash renovating his new business venture, which he used as a vehicle to sell his “No. 1” beer during the American Prohibition-era. He kept Johnson on as manager and redecorated the club in a mix of Southern plantation and jungle-type decor. Not only did he make the stylistic choice of reinforcing the racial stereotypes of the time through this redesign, but Madden also made the club into a whites-only establishment.

In fact, the Cotton Club had the strictest segregation policy of all the Harlem cabaret clubs at the time. Ultimately, attending this cabaret was a way for white people to indulge in two taboos simultaneously — to drink and mingle with black people.

Cotton Club Acts

Many genuine talents got their start at the infamously bigoted but popular speakeasy.

The overall entertainment consisted of musical revues, singing, dancing, comedy, variety acts, as well as the famed house band. Fletcher Henderson was the first bandleader, with Duke Ellington famously taking the helm in 1927. Ellington recorded over 100 compositions during this time — and his musical talents ascended him to the top of the Jazz Age.

The Duke also had a hand in the Cotton Club later relaxing its segregation policy — even if only slightly.

Other awe-inspiring acts included Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Adelaide Hall, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Ethel Waters, and Louis Armstrong. In 1934, Adelaide Hall starred in the “Cotton Club Parade,” the highest-grossing show the club ever had. It ran for eight months, brought in 600,000 customers, and marked the first time that dry ice was used onstage as a fog effect. A 16-year-old Lena Horne appeared in the show as well under her real name Leona Laviscount.

It took a very specific type of girl to become a dancer at the Cotton Club. Hopefuls needed to be 5'6" or taller, light-skinned African-American, and under 21 years old.

The chief form of entertainment was the floor shows. “The chief ingredient was pace, pace, pace,” the shows’ director Dan Healy observed. “The show was generally built around types: the band, an eccentric dancer, a comedian - whoever we had who was also a star…And we’d have a special singer who gave the customers the expected adult song in Harlem.”

“No one was allowed to talk during the shows,” remembered Ellington. “I’ll never forget, some guy would be juiced, and talking, and the waiter would come round…and then the next thing, the guy would just disappear!”

A Sign Of The Times

Though the owners of the Cotton Club paid their entertainers well, those talents experienced their rise to fame at a venue that promoted the very stereotypes against them.

Titled On the Shoulder of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance, Abdul-Jabbar lamented that “the Cotton Club, which promoted the inferiority of black identity, was a major obstacle that had to be overcome.”

Upon a visit to the Cotton Club, the black writer and poet Langston Hughes, who was only let in because of his well-known status, commented on the vibe inside the cabaret. “Harlem Negroes did not like the Cotton Club … nor did ordinary Negroes like the growing influx of whites toward Harlem after sundown, flooding the little cabarets and bars where formerly only colored people laughed and sang, and where now the strangers were given the best ringside tables to sit and stare at the Negro customers — like amusing animals in a zoo.”

Indeed, other Harlem nightclubs like the Savoy Ballroom, Lenox Club, and the Renaissance Ballroom were where black Harlem-ites truly felt welcomed. At the Cotton Club, the black performers did not mix with the white clientele. When the shows were over, author Steve Watson wrote that performers “visited the basement of the superintendent at 646 Lenox, where they imbibed corn whiskey, peach brandy, and marijuana.”

The Decline And Legacy

The original Cotton Club was at the height of its popularity from 1922 to 1935. But in the wake of the Harlem riots in 1935, the club relocated to another New York location and never regained its earlier magic. It closed in 1940.

A Chicago branch of the Cotton Club was run by Ralph Capone, Al’s brother, and a California branch in Culver City, California during the late 1920s and into the 1930s. There’s still a Cotton Club in operation today in New York City, though it seems to be a tourist attraction for their Sunday Jazz brunch more than anything else.

Perhaps most notably, there was a West coast parallel to Harlem’s Cotton Club — with a few important differences. San Diego’s Hotel Douglas opened its doors in 1924, with its own nightclub called the Creole Palace. This California club, also known as the “Cotton Club of the West,” featured prominent figures such as Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, and Count Basie.

The Creole Palace was a business created by — and catered primarily to — the African American population and as such employed light and dark-skinned dancers in a variety shows which offered most of the same fare as the original Cotton Club. One addition was the burlesque shows, which featured mixed-race entertainment at a time when the rest of the nation was still segregated.

Next, dive further into the 1930s with these photos of high-society people with no time for the Great Depression. Then immerse yourself in the Harlem Renaissance with these photos that define a movement.

The Cotton Club had a reputation for catapulting famous careers, but history has a way of glossing over the cabaret’s social transgressions.#

The Grand Opening#

Cotton Club Acts#

A Sign Of The Times#

The Decline And Legacy#

The Cotton Club had a reputation for catapulting famous careers, but history has a way of glossing over the cabaret’s social transgressions.

The Grand Opening

Cotton Club Acts

A Sign Of The Times

The Decline And Legacy