Just up the street from the Savoy Ballroom, this was the most famous of the NYC nightclubs in the 1920's and 30's. Renowned for the stars who started and continued their illustrious jazz careers here, the Cotton Club's black singers and dancers entertained white patrons from downtown while management banned blacks in the audience. After years of importing entertainment from Chicago, Duke Ellington was lured from the Kentucky Club on Times Square to become the leader of the house band on December 4, 1927. Billed as "The Aristocrat of Harlem," the club's radio broadcasts were heard live nationwide from in the 1930's, featuring such performers as Billy Holiday, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Cab Calloway, and Ella Fitzgerald. With the demise of prohibition, the club, originally started as a speakeasy, lost some of its appeal as a "den of iniquity" and closed on February 16, 1936, following the exodus of other clubs to downtown locations. In its new location at Broadway and 48th Street, it continued to present its glamourous reviews but at higher prices. It closed for good on June 10, 1940. The original site of the Cotton Club was demolished in 1958 along with the Savoy Ballroom for the construction of Bethune Towers/Delano Village; however, its legacy lives on at a new site under the same name at 666 West 125th Street.

Harlem Shadows: Jazz Clubs
The following list give the addresses of other jazz clubs that are no longer found in Harlem, their fate and/or their most famous featured band or star:
a. Congo Room of the Capitol, West 115th & Malcolm X Boulevard, c. 1940
b. Bamville Club, 65 West 125th Street, c. 1920-1930 - Coleman Hawkins
c. The Plantation, West 126th near Malcolm X Blvd., c. 1930 - rivaled Cotton Club; Cab Calloway
d. Club Cabaret, 416 Malcolm X Boulevard, c. 1923-25
e. Club Baron, 437 Malcolm X Boulevard, c. 1940-46
f. Goldgraben's, I.G. Café, 439 Malcolm X Boulevard, c. 1919-30; In 1964, was renamed Baron's Lounge - favorite hangout for musicians after work at other clubs
g. Elk's Rendezvous, 464 Malcolm X Boulevard, c. 1930-45 - held social club dances
h. Club Harlem, West 130th & Malcolm X Blvd., c. 1927-29; In 1964 was renamed Harlem Grill
i. Gee-Haw Stables, West 132nd Street between 7th & Malcolm X Blvd., c. 1940-45; In1964, was a Gulf Gas Station - had a horse's head over the entrance, an after-after-hours club
j. Lincoln Theatre, 58 West 135th Street, c. 1909-1964 - installed a $10,000 Wurlitzer organ for Fats Waller; now a church (1964 data)
k. The Elk's Café, Malcolm X Blvd. between West 137th and West 138th Streets, c. 1917-20
l. Capitol Palace, 575 Malcolm X Boulevard, c. 1922-50 - now a playground
m. Brittwood Bar & Grill, 594 Malcolm X Boulevard, c. 1932-42 - Willie Gant's Musical Maniacs;
n. Golden Gate Ballroom, Malcolm X Boulevard & West 142nd Street, c. 1939-50 - luxurious ballroom
o. Rhone's Orchestra Club, 625 Malcolm X Boulevard, c. 1920-35 later Lenox Club, a.k.a. "The Breakfast Club," 652 Malcolm X Boulevard, c. 1935-45 - Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, 3 shows nightly with an 8-girl line; demolished 1958 for Bethune Towers/Delano Village.

Return to the Start of the Malcolm X Boulevard Tour