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{{shortShort description|Jazz club in New York City}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Duke Ellington - publicity.JPG|thumb|[[Duke Ellington]] was one of the original Cotton Club orchestra leaders.]]
[[File:Vu (magazine) N°77.JPG|thumb|[[Adelaide Hall]], star of the Cotton Club]]
[[File:Cab Calloway Gottlieb.jpg|thumb|[[Cab Calloway]] was another of the original Cotton Club performers.]]
[[File:Ethel Waters - 1943.jpg|thumb|[[Ethel Waters]] starred at the Cotton Club]]
[[File:Lena Horne - 1941.jpg|thumb|[[Lena Horne]] as a young girl was featured at the Cotton Club.]]
[[File:Dorothy Dandridge Cain's Hundred 1962.jpg|thumb|right|[[Dorothy Dandridge]], entertainer at the Cotton Club]]
The '''Cotton Club''' was a New York City [[nightclub]] from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and [[Lenox Avenue]] (1923–1936), then briefly in the midtown [[Theater District, Manhattan|Theater District]] (1936–1940).<ref name="Blackpast">Elizabeth Winter, [http://www.blackpast.org/aah/cotton-club-harlem-1923 "Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- )"], Black Past (retrieved September 9, 2014).</ref> The club operated during the [[Prohibition in the United States|United States' era of Prohibition]] and [[Jim Crow]] era [[racial segregation]]. Black people initially could not patronize the Cotton Club, but the venue featured many of the most popular black entertainers of the era, including musicians [[Fletcher Henderson]], [[Duke Ellington]], [[Jimmie Lunceford]], [[Chick Webb]], [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Count Basie]], [[Fats Waller]], [[Willie Bryant]]; vocalists [[Adelaide Hall]],<ref name="chapter15">Iain Cameron Williams, Chapter 15, ''Underneath A Harlem Moon: The Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall'', Continuum, 2002.</ref><ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0KA9AAAAIBAJ&sjid=visMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4392,9375602&dq=adelaide+hall&hl=en "Adelaide Hall with Cotton Club Revue"], ''The Afro American'', September 23, 1933.</ref> [[Ethel Waters]], [[Cab Calloway]], [[Bessie Smith]], [[Lillie Delk Christian]], [[Aida Ward]], [[Avon Long]], the [[Dandridge Sisters]], the [[Will Vodery]] Choirchoir, [[The Mills Brothers]], [[Nina Mae McKinney]], [[Billie Holiday]], [[Midge Williams]], [[Lena Horne]], and dancers such as [[Katherine Dunham]], [[Bill Robinson]], [[The Nicholas Brothers]], [[Charles Coles|Charles 'Honi' Coles]], [[Leonard Reed]], [[Stepin Fetchit]], the [[Berry Brothers]], [[The Four Step Brothers]], [[Jeni Le Gon]] and [[Earl Snakehips Tucker]].
 
AtIn its prime, the Cotton Club served as a hip meeting spot, with regular "Celebrity Nights" on Sundays featuring guests such asincluding [[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 [[Jimmy Walker]], among others.
[[File:Adelaide Hall - Cotton Club Revue of 1934, Loew's Metropolitan Theater, Brooklyn, 6 September 1934, (Advertisment).jpg|thumb|left|[[Adelaide Hall]] starring in the Cotton Club Revue of 1934 at the Loew's Metropolitan Theater, Brooklyn, commencing on 7 September 1934 (advertisement).]]
 
== History ==
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The Cotton Club was a [[Racial segregation in the United States|whites-only]] establishment with rare exceptions for black celebrities such as Ethel Waters and Bill Robinson.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|first=Thomas|title=Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|year=2014|isbn=978-0-393-06582-4|location=New York|pages=338}}</ref> It reproduced the racist imagery of the era, often depicting black people as savages in exotic jungles or as "[[darkies]]" in the [[Plantations in the American South|plantation South]]. A 1938 menu included this imagery, with illustrations done by Julian Harrison, showing naked black men and women dancing around a drum in the jungle. Tribal mask illustrations make up the border of the menu.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=What's on the menu? Cotton Club|url=http://menus.nypl.org/menu_pages/62223/explore|url-status=live|access-date=22 Feb 2021|website=NYPL Labs|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413150207/http://menus.nypl.org/menu_pages/62223/explore |archive-date=2021-04-13 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Program / Menu from the Cotton Club|url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2013.223.21|access-date=2021-05-06|website=National Museum of African American History and Culture|language=en}}</ref>
 
The club imposed a subtler [[Color line (civil rights issue)|color line]] on the [[Chorus line|chorus girls]], whom the club presented in skimpy outfits. They were expected to be "tall, tan, and terrific,", which meant they had to be at least 5'6" tall, light-skinned, and under 21 years of age.<ref>Bruno, "The Cotton Club".</ref> The male dancers', the [[Cotton Club Boys (chorus line)|Cotton Club Boys]], skin colors were more varied. "Black performers did not mix with the club's clientele, and after the show many of them went next door to the basement of the superintendent at 646 Lenox, where they imbibed [[corn whiskey]], peach brandy, and marijuana."<ref name="Watson">Steve Watson, [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/blues/watson.html "The Harlem Renaissance"].</ref>
 
Ellington was expected to write "jungle music" for a white audience; Ellington's contributions to the Cotton Club were priceless, as described in this 1937 ''New York Times'' excerpt: "So long may the empirical Duke and his music making roosters reign—and long may the Cotton Club continue to remember that it came down from Harlem".<ref>''New York Times'', 1937.</ref> Entrance was expensive for customers, and it included a two dollar minimum cover fee on weekdays for food and drink, so the performers were well-compensated.<ref>"Duke Ellington", ''The Harlem Reader'', p. 76.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/readex/doc?p=EANX&docref=image/v2:12ACD7C7734164EC@EANX-12CCEACB790D4D08@2428465-12CCEACB9F6CAD80@4-12CCEACC5B02EAC0@Cotton+Club+Grosses+%2445%2C000+in+One+Week|title=Cotton Club Grosses $45,000 in One Week|newspaper=Plaindealer|volume=XXXVII|number=43|date=23 October 1936|page=5|access-date=24 April 2019}}</ref><ref name=":2" />
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Shows at the Cotton Club were [[musical revue]]s, and several were called "Cotton Club Parade" followed by the year. Musical revues were created twice a year in hopes of becoming successful Broadway shows.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|first=Thomas|title=Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|year=2014|isbn=978-0-393-06582-4|location=New York|pages=341}}</ref> The revues featured dancers, singers, comedians, and variety acts, as well as a house band.<ref name=Blackpast /> These revues helped launch the careers of many artists, including Andy Preer, who led the Cotton Club's first house band in 1923. Duke Ellington's orchestra was the house band from December 4, 1927, until June 30, 1931.<ref>Williams, Iain Cameron. Chapter 8, ''Underneath A Harlem Moon'' Williams, pp. 122–124.</ref>
 
The first revue that Ellington's orchestra performed was called the "RhythmaniaCreole Revue" and featured [[Adelaide Hall]]. Hall had just recorded several songs with Ellington, including "[[Creole Love Call]],", a worldwide hit.<ref>World Catalogue:
[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51780394 ''Underneath A Harlem Moon''] by Iain Cameron Williams, Chapter 8, pp. 122–124{{ISBN|0-8264-5893-9}}</ref> The club gave Ellington national exposure through radio broadcasts originating there, first over [[WEPN (AM)#WHN|WHN]], then over [[WNBC-AM|WEAF]], and after September 1929 on Fridays over the [[NBC Red Network]], for which WEAF was the flagship station.<ref name="New York Times, 1974">''New York Times,'' 1974.</ref>
 
The club also enabled him to develop his repertoire while composing dance tunes for the shows as well as overtures, transitions, accompaniments, and "jungle" effects, giving him a freedom to experiment with orchestral arrangements that touring bands rarely experienced. Ellington recorded more than 100 compositions during this period. Eventually, responding to Ellington's request, the club slightly relaxed its policy of segregation.<ref name="New York Times, 1974"/>
 
[[Cab Calloway]]'s orchestra brought its "Brown Sugar" revue to the club inon September 28, 1930, replacing Ellington's orchestra after its departure inon February 4, 1931. [[Jimmie Lunceford]]'s band replaced Calloway's in 1934. Ellington, Calloway, and Louis Armstrong returned to perform at the club in later years. [[Lena Horne]] (Leona Laviscount) began at the Cotton Club as a chorus girl at the age of sixteen, and sang "Sweeter than Sweet" with Calloway. [[Dorothy Dandridge]] performed at the club while part of the [[Dandridge Sisters]], and [[Coleman Hawkins]] and [[Don Redman]] played at the club as part of Henderson's band. Tap dancers [[Bill Robinson|Bill "Bojangles" Robinson]], [[Sammy Davis Jr.]] (as part of the [[Will Mastin Trio]]), and the [[Nicholas Brothers]] performed at the club as well.
 
Another notable "Cotton Club Parade" in 1933 featured [[Ethel Waters]], and [[Duke Ellington]] performing [[Stormy Weather (song)|Stormy Weather]]. Later this performance would also include [[Lena Horne]], and [[Katherine Dunham]] in the film adaptation of [[Stormy Weather (1943 film)|Stormy Weather]].<ref>Vogel, Shane. “Performing"Performing ‘Stormy'Stormy Weather’Weather': Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, and Katherine Dunham.”", ''South Central Review'', vol. 25, no. 1, 2008, pp. 93–113. {{JSTOR|40040021}}</ref> The club also drew from white popular culture. Walter Brooks, who had produced the successful [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] show ''[[Shuffle Along]]'', was the club's nominal owner. [[Dorothy Fields]] and [[Jimmy McHugh]], one of the most prominent songwriting teams of the era, and [[Harold Arlen]] wrote the songs for the [[revue]]s, one of which, ''[[Blackbirds of 1928]]'', starring [[Adelaide Hall]], featured the songs "[[I Can't Give You Anything But Love]]" and "Diga Diga Doo,", produced by [[Lew Leslie]] on Broadway.<ref name="chapter15" />
 
In 1934, Hall starred in the "Cotton Club Parade 1934,", the highest-grossing show ever to appear at the club. The show opened on March 11, 1934, and ran for six months, attracting over 600,000 paying customers. The score was written by [[Harold Arlen]] and [[Ted Koehler]] and featured the classic song "[[Ill Wind (Arlen-Koehler song)|Ill Wind]].". During Hall's performance of "Ill Wind,", a dry-ice machine was used to create a fog effect, the first time such equipment had been used on a stage.<ref name="chapter15" /> Sixteen-year-old [[Lena Horne]] was also featured on the bill. After appearing at the Cotton Club the entire show starring [[Adelaide Hall]] was taken out on a road tour across America.
 
===The Midtown years===
The club closed temporarily in 1936 after the [[Harlem riot of 1935|race riot in Harlem the previous year]]. [[Carl Van Vechten]] had vowed to boycott the club for having such racist policies as refusing entry to African Americans in place.<ref name=Watson /> The Cotton Club reopened later that year at [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]] and 48th.<ref>Bruno, "The Cotton Club",</ref> The site chosen for the new Cotton Club was a big room on the top floor of a building where Broadway and [[Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)|Seventh Avenue]] meet, an important [[Midtown Manhattan|midtown]] crossroads at the center of the [[Great White Way]], the Broadway [[Theater District, Manhattan|Theater District]].<ref>Haskins, p. 113.</ref>
 
Stark and the club's owners were quite certain the club would succeed in this new location, but they realized that success depended on a popular opening show.<ref>Haskins, p. 114.</ref> A 1937 ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' article states, "The Cotton Club has climbed aboard the Broadway bandwagon, with a show that is calculated to give the customers their money’smoney's worth of sound and color—and it does."<ref>''The New York Times'', 1937.</ref>
 
The most extravagant revue in the club's 13-year history opened on September 24, 1936, with Robinson and Calloway leading a roster of approximately 130 performers.<ref>Haskins, p. 116.</ref> Stark paid Bill "Bojangles" Robinson $3,500 a week, the highest salary ever paid to a black entertainer in a Broadway production and a higher salary than had ever been paid to any nightclub entertainer.<ref>Haskins, p. 127.</ref>
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A Chicago branch of the Cotton Club was run by [[Ralph Capone]], and a California branch was located in [[Culver City, California|Culver City]] during the late 1920s and early 1930s, featuring performers from the original Cotton Club such as Armstrong, Calloway, and Ellington.
 
Cotton Clubs in [[Cotton Club (Las Vegas)|Las Vegas]], [[Cotton Club (Portland, Oregon)|Portland, Oregon]], and [[Lubbock, Texas]], and [[ Colorado Springs]] were all different locations of other Cotton Clubs. The Lubbock club was opened on November 11, 1938, by Tommy Hancock, and was an integrated club, not unlike the Chicago club.<ref>"Cotton Club | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)". ''tshaonline.org''. 2014-07-11.</ref> The club in Lubbock, however, was home to more white artists than the Harlem club.<ref>Untiedt, Kenneth L. (2012). ''First Timers and Old Timers: The Texas Folklore Society Fire Burns on''. University of North Texas Press. {{ISBN|978-1574414714}}.</ref> The Cotton Club in Portland was opened by Paul Knauls in 1963.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://boisevoices.com/epaul.php|title=Boise Voices: Paul Knauls, Sr.|access-date=20 July 2019|publisher=Boise Voices Oral History Project}}</ref> The club in Las Vegas was opened by Moe Taub in 1944. This location differed from other clubs because it was a casino.<ref>Roman, James. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wwpMBAAAQBAJ&q=%22cotton+club%22&pg=PA105 ''Chronicles of Old Las Vegas''.] Google Books, 2011.</ref> Taub opened the club to black servicemen.<ref>Goertler, Pam. ''A West Side Story''. http://www.ccgtcc-ccn.com/Westside.pdf.</ref>
 
==In popular culture==
{{Quote box|width=28%|quote=‘I'I learned from Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, the Nicholas Brothers, the whole thing, the whole schmear. [The Cotton Club] was a great place because it hired us, for one thing, at a time when it was really rough [for Black performers].’'
|source=— Lena Horne<ref>Lena Horne Quote: https://www.idlehearts.com/quotes/author/lena-horne</ref>}}
[[File:A_night-club_map_of_Harlem_LOC_2016585261.jpg|thumb|222x222px|A 1933 map of [[Nightclub|nightclubs]] in Harlem, showing the Cotton Club and others such as the [[Savoy Ballroom]] and [[Smalls Paradise]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Manhattan, Vol. 1, No. 1: A Night-Club Map of Harlem |url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2020.26.34a-e |access-date=2023-10-29 |website=National Museum of African American History and Culture |language=en}}</ref>]]
 
A fictional version of the club, called the Cotton Pickers Club, appears in the 1932 film ''[[Taxi!]]''
 
The Cotton Club is featured in the music video for the song "[[Oye Como Va]]" by Cuban-American singer [[Celia Cruz]].
 
The ''Cotton Club Gala'', which featured some of the club's original dancers, was produced at [[La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club]] twice in 1975<ref>La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [httphttps://catalog.lamama.org/index.php/Detail/Occurrence/Show/occurrence_idOccurrences/1492 "Production: ''Cotton Club Gala'' (1975a)". Accessed June 12, 2018.]</ref><ref>La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [httphttps://catalog.lamama.org/index.php/Detail/Occurrence/Show/occurrence_idOccurrences/1542 "Production: ''Cotton Club Gala'' (1975b)". Accessed June 12, 2018.]</ref> and again in 1985. The 1985 production was directed by La MaMa founder [[Ellen Stewart]].<ref>La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [httphttps://catalog.lamama.org/index.php/Detail/Occurrence/Show/occurrence_idOccurrences/884 "Production: ''Cotton Club Gala'' (1985)". Accessed June 12, 2018.]</ref> La MaMa also toured Europe with the ''Cotton Club Gala'' in 1976.<ref>La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [httphttps://catalog.lamama.org/index.php/Detail/Occurrence/Show/occurrence_idOccurrences/2915 "Tour: ''Cotton Club Gala'' European Tour (1976)". Accessed June 12, 2018.]</ref>
 
The 1983 music video for the [[Kool & the Gang]] song "[[Joanna (Kool & the Gang song)|Joanna]]" depicts Joanna reminiscing about her days as a dancer at the Cotton Club.
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[[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s 1984 film ''[[The Cotton Club (film)|The Cotton Club]]'' offers a history of the club in the context of race relations in the 1930s and the conflicts between Madden, [[Dutch Schultz]], [[Mad Dog Coll|Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll]], [[Lucky Luciano]], and [[Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson]].
 
''The Cotton Club Comes to the Ritz'' (1985)<ref>The Cotton Club Comes to the Ritz (film-documentary) [https://web.archive.org/web/20171223051836/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b75021c05]</ref> starring [[Adelaide Hall]], [[Cab Calloway]], [[Doc Cheatham]], [[The Nicholas Brothers]] etc. Produced by [[BBC]] TV.
 
In the 1988 film ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]'', the fictional Ink and Paint Club is based on the Cotton Club.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1eb9AAAAQBAJ&q=ink+paint+club+cotton&pg=PA97|title=The Cinema of Robert Zemeckis|last1=Kagan|first1=Norman|date=2003|publisher=Taylor Trade Publishing|page=97|isbn=978-1461699057}}</ref>
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The Cotton Club was briefly depicted in the 1997 movie ''[[Hoodlum (film)|Hoodlum]]'' featuring [[Laurence Fishburne]], [[Tim Roth]], and [[Andy García]] as the site of a confrontation between Schultz (Roth) and Johnson (Fishburne).
 
The club is mentioned in the [[novelization]] of the 1998 ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "[[Far Beyond the Stars]]". The novelization mentions that [[Benny Russell]]'s parents met at the Cotton Club when Russell's mother was a dancer there and gives some descriptive detail of the club.
 
Coppola's film is discussed in the 2000 [[Ken Burns]] [[PBS]] documentary miniseries, ''[[Jazz (TV series)|Jazz]]''.
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[[Category:1977 establishments in New York City]]
[[Category:Former music venues in New York City]]
[[Category:20th century in Harlem]]
[[Category:Jazz clubs in New York CityHarlem]]
[[Category:Music venues completed in 1923]]
[[Category:Music venues in Manhattan]]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Club"