Who played at the Cotton Club during the Harlem Renaissance?
Throughout the Harlem Renaissance, white audiences would gather at the club to see and hear Black jazz performers. Many famous names—including Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway—got their start at the Cotton Club. Where was the Cotton Club? The Cotton Club was in the center of Harlem, on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue in upper Manhattan.
Where did Duke Ellington perform in Harlem?
See Article History. Cotton Club, legendary nightspot in the Harlem district of New York City that for years featured prominent black entertainers who performed for white audiences. The club served as the springboard to fame for Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and many others.
What is the Cotton Club in Harlem?
Cotton Club, legendary nightspot in the Harlem district of New York City that for years featured prominent Black entertainers who performed for white audiences. The club served as the springboard to fame for Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and many others.
Where did George Calloway sing in Harlem?
He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City, where he was a regular performer. Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular big bands from the start of the 1930s to the late 1940s.
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What was the original name of the Cotton Club?
the Club DeluxeBefore it was the Cotton Club, the venue was owned by the first Black heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson. It was called the Club Deluxe, a nightclub with 400 seats in 1920. It was located in the core part of Harlem, at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue.
Was the Cotton Club a real club?
The Cotton Club was Harlem's premier nightclub in the 1920s and 1930s during the Prohibition Era. The club featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era, including Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, and Ethel Waters.
Why do they call the Cotton Club?
Owney Madden, who bought the club from heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, intended the name Cotton Club to appeal to whites, the only clientele permitted until 1928. The club made its name by featuring top-level black performers and an upscale, downtown audience.
Who owned the Cotton Club in Harlem?
gangster Owney MaddenOpened in 1923, the Cotton Club on 142nd St & Lenox Ave in the heart of Harlem, New York was operated by white New York gangster Owney Madden. Madden used the Cotton Club as an outlet to sell his “#1 Beer” to the prohibition crowd.
What was the most famous nightclub located in Harlem New York?
Cotton ClubCotton Club, legendary nightspot in the Harlem district of New York City that for years featured prominent Black entertainers who performed for white audiences. The club served as the springboard to fame for Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and many others.
Is the Cotton Club still around?
The Cotton Club closed permanently in 1940 under pressure from higher rents, changing taste, and a federal investigation into tax evasion by Manhattan nightclub owners. The Latin Quarter nightclub opened in its space and the building was torn down in 1989 to build a hotel.
What is the Cotton Club now?
The current Cotton Club is at the gateway to Sugar Hill, way on the west side of 125th Street. Set up largely for groups and rented out for private parties, they do bring back the heyday of the Harlem swing tradition with a full size big band and vocalists.
Why was the Cotton Club considered a Jim Crow club?
Langston Hughes described the venue as “a Jim Crow club for gangsters and monied whites,” and noted that white visitors to the neighborhood would flood “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 ...
What was ironic about the Cotton Club?
There was an almost subversive irony to calling the club by that name, given that the performers who worked there were some of the most successful African Americans in the country, people who worked in an arena a thousand times more glamorous, comfortable and pleasant than a cotton field.
Where was the Cotton Club filmed?
New York CityThe Plaza Hotel, 750 5th Avenue and Central Park South, Manhattan. The Plaza Hotel in New York City is a landmark 20-story luxury hotel that occupies the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it derives its name. The Apthorp, West End Avenue (btw 78th and 79th Street) Manhattan.
Why did the Harlem Renaissance end?
The decline of the Harlem Renaissance was due to the Great Depression. It lead to more economic instability and led to people focusing their interests elsewhere. People were now too busy worrying about what was going to happen to relish in the revitalization of Harlem.
When did the Harlem Renaissance end?
Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance and art.
What was ironic about the Cotton Club?
There was an almost subversive irony to calling the club by that name, given that the performers who worked there were some of the most successful African Americans in the country, people who worked in an arena a thousand times more glamorous, comfortable and pleasant than a cotton field.
Where was the Cotton Club in Chicago?
1710 S. Michigan AvenueOne of the favorite clubs in Chicago was The Cotton Club at 1710 S. Michigan Avenue from 1987-2008. It was the upscale spot where promotion reps could get the PDs to come by their artist's release party since the venue was close to the station.
Why did Madison open the Cotton Club?
Madison was a famous white gangster and bootlegger. 1 His primary goal was to use the Cotton Club to illegally sell alcohol. In the 1920s the U.S. government passed a law outlawing the manufacture and sale of alcohol across the country. The era came to be known as Prohibition.
What's the difference between the Cotton Club and the Cotton Club encore?
“The Cotton Club Encore” has 27 added minutes and 13 minutes excised from the original cut. One of the removed moments I missed was a scene with Diane Venora as Gloria Swanson (scenes where Fanny Brice and James Cagney appear are also gone).
What was the Cotton Club and why is it important?
The Cotton Club was an all-white cabaret in Harlem that introduced many white audiences to jazz and blues music. It offered many Black creatives op...
What was unusual about the Cotton Club in Harlem?
The Cotton Club was unusual in that it was an all-white venue in a predominantly Black neighborhood, but the staff and performers were Black. The e...
What was the purpose of the Cotton Club?
Owney Madden opened the Cotton Club to sell bootleg liquor during prohibition and to make money off of a white clientele that was eager to travel t...
Did Langston Hughes go to the Cotton Club?
Langston Hughes was able to go to the Cotton Club once he had achieved a sufficient level of fame such that the venue could "overlook" his Blacknes...
What was Cab Calloway's band called?
In 1930, The Missourians became known as Cab Calloway and His Orchestra. At the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York, the band was hired in 1931 to substitute for the Duke Ellington Orchestra while they were on tour. Their popularity led to a permanent position. The band also performed twice a week for radio broadcasts on NBC. Calloway appeared on radio programs with Walter Winchell and Bing Crosby and was the first African American to have a nationally syndicated radio show. During the depths of the Great Depression, Calloway was earning $50,000 a year at 23 years old.
Who was Cab Calloway?
1927–1994. Musical artist. Cabell " Cab " Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer, dancer, bandleader and actor. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist of the swing era.
Why did Calloway fire Gillespie?
In 1941, Calloway fired Gillespie from his orchestra after an onstage fracas erupted when Calloway was hit with spitballs. He wrongly accused Gillespie, who stabbed Calloway in the leg with a small knife. From 1941 to 1942, Calloway hosted a weekly radio quiz show called The Cab Calloway Quizzicale.
What was the song that Cab Calloway sang in the movie?
The 1933 film International House featured Calloway performing his classic song, "Reefer Man", a tune about a man who smokes marijuana. Fredi Washington was cast as Calloway's love interest in Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho (1934). Lena Horne made her film debut as a dancer in Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party (1935).
What was the first African American song to sell a million copies?
In 1931, Calloway recorded his most famous song, " Minnie the Moocher ." It was the first single record by an African American to sell a million copies. Calloway performed the song and two others, " St. James Infirmary Blues " and "The Old Man of the Mountain," in the Betty Boop cartoons Minnie the Moocher (1932), Snow-White (1933), and The Old Man of the Mountain (1933). Calloway performed voice-over for these cartoons, and through rotoscoping, his dance steps were the basis of the characters' movements.
What label did Calloway play for?
Calloway's band recorded for Brunswick and the ARC dime store labels (Banner, Cameo, Conqueror, Perfect, Melotone, Banner, Oriole) from 1930 to 1932, when he signed with RCA Victor for a year. He returned to Brunswick in late 1934 through 1936, then with Variety, run by his manager, Irving Mills.
When did Calloway move to New York?
In 1929 , Calloway relocated to New York with the band. They opened at the Savoy Ballroom on September 20, 1929. When the Alabamians broke up, Armstrong recommended Calloway as a replacement singer in the musical revue Connie's Hot Chocolates. He established himself as a vocalist singing " Ain't Misbehavin' " by Fats Waller. While Calloway was performing in the revue, the Missourians asked him to front their band.
What was the name of the black club in Harlem?
The Cotton Club was a renowned jazz nightspot in Harlem, a historically Black neighborhood in New York City, during the 1920s and 1930s. Originally dubbed "Club DeLuxe" by owner Jack Johnson (a retired Black prize fighter), it was purchased and renamed "The Cotton Club" by mob boss Owney Madden in 1923. Madden, who was white, made the space a heavily segregated, "plantation-themed" cabaret. Throughout the Harlem Renaissance, white audiences would gather at the club to see and hear Black jazz performers. Many famous names—including Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway—got their start at the Cotton Club.
What was the Cotton Club in Harlem during the Great Depression?
The Cotton Club was still flourishing in Harlem during the first years of the Great Depression. In 1935, however, the tensions that the larger Harlem community was struggling with reached a breaking point. White employers were refusing to hire Black employees at the time, making the financial strains of the Depression even harder on Harlemites than other, white, New Yorkers. When the community boycotted the local establishments that would not hire Black employees, many claimed that the police played a significant role in bringing forth an injunction to stop the protests and to violently enforce the injunction in the weeks that followed. It is believed that these tensions boiled over on March 19, 1935, in response to the arrest of a ten-year-old, dark-skinned Latino boy-—Lino Rivera—for alleged shoplifting. The poor treatment of the boy, on top all of the other burdens on the community, pushed things over the edge. That night, a riot broke out, beginning at the white-owned store where Rivera's arrest had occurred, but continuing on to other white-owned businesses in the area. By the end, over 200 people were injured, three dead, and roughly $2 million dollars of damage had been done.
Where was the Cotton Club?
The Cotton Club was in the center of Harlem, on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue in upper Manhattan. Harlem was home to the Harlem Renaissance, a period of Black empowerment, creative output, and cultural expansion in the early 20th century. The neighborhood played a central role in the lives of many Black creatives at the time, including Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Josephine Baker. It was also a launchpad for some of the most famous Black jazz musicians of the era, several of whom made names for themselves while performing for white audiences at the Cotton Club.
What were the famous people at the Cotton Club?
In spite of the club's racial policing, many famous Black artists found great success at the Cotton Club. In 1927, Duke Ellington's orchestra became the house band. Lena Horne was one of the club's dancers. Sammy Davis Jr. performed there regularly, as did Cab Calloway. Vaudeville star Bill "Bojangles" Robinson appeared at the club, and Madden convinced some of the city's best composers and lyricists to write a new floor show for the club every six months. The Cotton Club became famous for its unique productions, and then became even more so when radio station WHN began recording and broadcasting performances from the venue. Some of the best jazz and blues musicians of the era were regulars at the Club. It became the place to see top performers and performances in New York City.
Why did Owney Madden open the Cotton Club?
Owney Madden opened the Cotton Club to sell bootleg liquor during prohibition and to make money off of a white clientele that was eager to travel to the unknown reaches of Harlem and experience "Black" entertainment. While he was still imprisoned in upstate New York, Madden was able to make money and run illegal operations that benefited him and his business connections.
Why did the Cotton Club close?
Due to the riot, the Cotton Club was forced to close its Harlem doors. Madden would relaunch the venue downtown in Times Square in 1936, but it would never reach its former heights. Popular music tastes had changed, and a new generation of listeners preferred swing bands. Plus, the ending of the prohibition era meant that the venue no longer offered a unique combination of access to alcohol and entertainment. The club closed its doors permanently in 1940.
What music did Madden play?
Jazz, blues, and show tunes were all performed at the club. Madden commissioned new material from major Broadway and Tin Pan Alley composers and lyricists, but the performers themselves brought fresh music to the Club as well.
Who did the band Calloway play with?
The standout musicians Calloway performed with include saxophonist Chu Berry, trump eter Dizzy Gillespie and drummer Cozy Cole.
What books did Cab Calloway write?
In addition to music, Calloway influenced the public with books such as 1944's The New Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary: Language of Jive, which offered definitions for terms like "in the groove" and "zoot suit.".
What was the number one song in 1930?
Soon, as the bandleader of Cab Calloway and his Orchestra, he became a regular performer at the popular nightspot. Calloway hit the big time with "Minnie the Moocher" (1931), a No. 1 song that sold more than one million copies. The tune's famous call-and-response "hi-de-hi-de-ho" chorus — improvised when he couldn't recall a lyric — became Calloway's signature phrase for the rest of his career.
Where was Cab Calloway born?
Early Life. Born Cabell Calloway III on December 25, 1907, in Rochester, New York, Cab Calloway's charm and vibrancy helped him become a noted singer and bandleader. He grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where he first started singing, and where his lifelong love of visiting racetracks took hold.
Who was the male lead in Hello Dolly?
In that show, he portrayed Sportin' Life, a character Calloway himself had reportedly inspired George Gershwin to create. Calloway took other onstage roles over the years, including the male lead in a 1967 production of Hello Dolly!, whose all-Black cast also featured Pearl Bailey.
Who did Louis Armstrong tutor?
While performing at Chicago's Sunset Club, Calloway met Louis Armstrong, who tutored him in the art of scat singing (using nonsensical sounds to improvise melodies). In 1928, Calloway took over the leadership of his own band, the Alabamians. Ready for the next step in his career, he headed to New York the following year.
Where was the Cotton Club in New York City?
The legendary Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Ave. in Harlem (1923 to...
What was the Cotton Club?
The legendary Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Ave. in Harlem (1923 to 1935), then in the midtown Theater District (1935-1940). The club operated during the era of Prohibition and Jim Crow laws. Black people could not initially patronize the Cotton Club, but the venue featured, and jump-started the careers of, many of the most popular black entertainers of the era, including musicians Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and Fats Waller; and vocalists and dancers Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Bill Bojangles Robinson, and Stepin Fetchit. By the Theater District era, there was also a black clientele, including sports greats like boxer Joe Louis.
Who patronized the Cotton Club?
In the late 1930s, a woman named Edith patronized the club, and she garnered an album full of autographs that constitutes a chronicle of the Cotton Club in those years, and to a degree of New York theatrical society. It is the only signed memento of the Cotton Club that we have ever had, and the most important we have seen.
Overview
Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor, dancer, and actor. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years.
Early life
Calloway was born in Rochester, New York, on December 25, 1907 to an African American family. His mother, Martha Eulalia Reed, was a Morgan State College graduate, teacher, and church organist. His father, Cabell Calloway Jr., graduated from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania in 1898, and worked as a lawyer and in real estate. The family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, when Calloway was 11. Soon after, his father died and his mother remarried to John Nelson Fortune.
Music career
In 1927, Calloway joined his older sister, Blanche Calloway, on tour for the popular black musical revue Plantation Days. His sister became an accomplished bandleader before him, and he often credited her as his inspiration for entering show business. Calloway's mother wanted him to be a lawyer like his father, so once the tour ended he enrolled at Crane College in Chi…
Personal life
In January 1927, Calloway had a daughter named Camay with Zelma Proctor, a fellow student. His daughter was one of the first African-Americans to teach in a white school in Virginia. Calloway married his first wife Wenonah "Betty" Conacher in July 1928. They adopted a daughter named Constance and divorced in 1949. Calloway married Zulme "Nuffie" MacNeal on October 7, 1949. They lived in Long Beach on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, on the border with neighb…
Death
On June 12, 1994, Calloway suffered a stroke at his home in Westchester County, New York. He died five months later from pneumonia on November 18, 1994, a month before his 87th birthday, at a nursing home in Hockessin, Delaware. He was survived by his wife, five daughters, and seven grandsons. Calloway was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Legacy
Music critics have written of his influence on later generations of entertainers such as James Brown, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, as well as modern-day hip-hop performers. John Landis, who directed Calloway in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, stated, "Cab Calloway is hip-hop." Journalist Timothy White noted in Billboard (August 14, 1993): "No living pathfinder in American popular musi…
Discography
• 1943: Cab Calloway And His Orchestra (Brunswick)
• 1956: Cab Calloway (Epic)
• 1958: Cotton Club Revue 1958 (Gone Records)
• 1959: Hi De Hi De Ho (RCA Victor)
Further reading
• Calloway, Cab and Rollins, Bryant (1976). Of Minnie the Moocher and Me. Thomas Y. Crowell Company. ISBN 9780690010329
'Minnie The Moocher'
Songs and Film Appearances
- With other hits that included "Moon Glow" (1934), "The Jumpin' Jive" (1939) and "Blues in the Night" (1941), as well as appearances on radio, Calloway was one of the most successful performers of the era. During the 1930s and 1940s, he appeared in such films as The Big Broadcast (1932), The Singing Kid (1936) and Stormy Weather (1943). In addition to music, Call…
'Porgy and Bess' to 'The Blues Brothers'
- In 1948, as the public had stopped flocking to big bands, Calloway switched to working with a six-member group. Beginning in 1952, he spent two years in the cast of a revival of the musical Porgy and Bess. In that show, he portrayed Sportin' Life, a character Calloway himself had reportedly inspired George Gershwin to create. Calloway took other onstage roles over the years, including …
Personal Life
- Calloway married Zulme "Nuffie" Calloway in the mid 1950s and together they made their home in Greenburgh, New York. The couple had one daughter, Chris Calloway, who later performed with her father and became a respected jazz singer and dancer. Chris died in August 2008 after a long battle with breast cancer; a couple months later, Nuffie died at a nursing home in Delaware at th…