What did the Cotton Club do?
Consequently, what happened at the Cotton Club?
In 1920, Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight boxing champion, opened the Club Deluxe on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue in the center of Harlem. Owney Madden, a white gangster, took over operations in 1923, and renamed the venue the Cotton Club. It quickly became the most popular cabaret in Harlem.
Accordingly, when did the Cotton Club desegregate?
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.
On a recent Monday night at the club, the M.C., John Beatty, called her onstage. She belted out, “Swing, Brother, Swing,” which Billie Holiday famously sang with the Count Basie Orchestra, and then “Billie's Blues.” Her voice did not exactly replicate Holiday's — does anyone's?