Science Source Stock Photo - Cotton Club, 1930s

Cotton Club, 1930s

Description: In 1920, heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson opened Club Deluxe, on the corner of 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem. Owney Madden, a bootlegger and gangster, took over the club in 1923 and changed its name to the Cotton Club. The club was a whites-only establishment even though it featured many of the best black entertainers and jazz musicians of the era. Eventually, in deference to a request by Duke Ellington, the club slightly relaxed its policy of excluding black customers. The Cotton Club closed for good in 1940, under pressure from higher rents, changing tastes and a federal investigation into tax evasion by Manhattan nightclub owners.

Credit:

New York Public Library/Science Source

Unique identifier: SS2603762

Legacy Identifier: BZ8996

Type: Image

Size: 4500px × 3538px (~45 MB)

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