Cotton Club 1923-1935

The Cotton club was owned originally by well known gangsters who were leading bootleggers at the time and they needed the club for selling their illegal alcohol to influential clients from up town New York. The club was opened during the great depression, where alcohol was a valuable commodity, as it was illegal to sell it. Those seeking bootleg alcohol would willingly pay over the odds for the privilege and were usually influential people in society.

The Cotton club was called the aristocrat of Harlem. If you stood outside a while you would see all sorts of wealthy people enter the club. At the time it was a whites only audience and mostly African Americans performers provided most of the entertainment. The club produced Broadway style floor shows which were very popular and was home for many years to the great Duke Ellington and then Cab Calloway who were both big headliners at the club with their big bands.

Many of the great names in Tap Dancing performed at the Cotton Club and some of them had long term contracts to perform there over a period of time. It was common for some of the performers to find parts in stage and film productions, as many of the downtown members of the audience were well-known directors and producers from big production companies.

The Cotton Club was eventually closed by federal agents for violating the prohibition (Illegally selling alcohol.), but soon reopened possibly due to it's influential connections. It was finally closed again permanently in February 1936 and moved to a new location on 47th street between Broadway and 7th Avenue. The new location of The Cotton Club was known as the Douglas Theatre and was owned by a Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson, the name was later changed back to The Cotton Club.