The Cotton Club was Harlem’s premier nightclub in the 1920s and 1930s, rising to prominence during the Prohibition Era. Originally located at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923–1935), it later moved to the Theater District in Midtown Manhattan, where it operated until closing in 1940.
During the 1920s, Harlem was flourishing. These were the times of the Harlem Renaissance, when jazz was exploding, and these were the times of Prohibition, when New Yorkers were thirsty for the prohibited alcohol and the newly found nightlife where jazz thrived and after-hours revelry was the norm.
Harlem became the place to be for late-night dancing, drinking, and live music. Perhaps the most notable venue was the Savoy Ballroom, which opened in 1926. The Savoy was racially integrated and spectacular! It featured two bandstands and hosted nonstop music and dance battles into the early morning hours. Legendary bandleaders like Fletcher Henderson, Jimmie Lunceford, and King Oliver frequently took the stage.
It became fashionable for white patrons to visit Harlem, but many wanted to experience Black culture without actually mingling with African Americans. In response, entrepreneurs obliged by opening segregated venues designed to cater to white audiences.
The most famous of these was the Cotton Club.
Initially opened in 1920 as Club Deluxe by heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, the club was taken over in 1923 by Owney Madden, a notorious bootlegger who had recently been released from Sing Sing. Madden needed a venue to promote and distribute his popular #1 Beer, and he saw Harlem’s growing allure as an opportunity. He renamed the venue the Cotton Club and retained Johnson as manager.
Under Madden’s ownership, the Cotton Club rose to prominence as Harlem’s premier nightclub—lavish, exclusive, and strictly segregated.
Eddie Mallory conducts Mills Blue Rhythm Band at the Cotton Club, n.d.
Black performers dazzled the stage, while the patrons were strictly white. Cotton Club played on the idea of a Southern plantation reflected in its name and décor.
The Cotton Club imposed rigid aesthetic standards on its performers. Chorus girls had to be “tall, tan, and terrific“—meaning light-skinned, at least 5’6” tall, and under 21. While male dancers were allowed more variety in skin tone, all performers were barred from interacting with the clientele.
Despite its discriminatory policies, the Cotton Club became a launching pad for some of the greatest African American artists of the era. Duke Ellington’s orchestra served as the house band from 1927 to 1931, gaining national attention through regular radio broadcasts. Cab Calloway succeeded him with his high-energy “Brown Sugar” revue, followed by Jimmie Lunceford’s band in 1934.
The club hosted a galaxy of stars: Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, and Ethel Waters all performed there. A young Lena Horne got her start at the club as a chorus girl at age 16.
In 1936, the Cotton Club relocated to Midtown Manhattan. But the new location never recaptured the magic of its Harlem heyday. By 1940, the club succumbed to changing tastes, rising rents, and a federal investigation into nightclub owners for tax evasion. It closed its doors for good.
The original Harlem Cotton Club, located at Lenox Avenue and 142nd Street, was demolished in 1958. However, the “Cotton Club” name lives on in a modern incarnation located at 656 W 125th St. This venue offers swing dance nights, big-band shows, and dinner events paying homage to the jazz legacy of the original Cotton Club.
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