Cotton Club
Ellington's famous venue
The Cotton Club was a famous Harlem nightclub operating from 1923 to 1940, showcasing Black performers like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway to exclusively white audiences.
The name evokes the Jim Crow era's segregated entertainment: Black talent on stage, Black patrons barred from entry.
The Cotton Club launched careers while enforcing the color line.
- HarlemManhattan neighborhood, cultural landmark
- jazzImprovisational American music genre
- gin jointIllegal drinking establishment
- Cab CallowayScat-singing jazz bandleader
- swingSuspended recreational seat
Duke Ellington · nightclub · 1920s · 1930s · floor show · gangsters · prohibition · dancers · chorus girls · segregation · Lena Horne · torch singer · bootleg · big band · Manhattan · showgirls · tap dancing · mobsters
- Roaring Twentiesflappers, Charleston, speakeasies, jazz age, Prohibition
- jazzbebop, swing era, hard bop, soul jazz, cool jazz
- 1920s Musicjazz, ragtime, Charleston, Dixieland, blues
- HarlemApollo Theater, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, Savoy Ballroom, Sugar Hill
- Music LandmarksAbbey Road, Apollo Theater, Beale Street, Carnegie Hall, CBGB
- New York historyEllis Island, Tammany Hall, Erie Canal, Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park
Cotton ClubSavoy Ballroom
Historic Harlem dance venue
rent party · juke joint · Apollo Theater · neighborhood bar · hole-in-the-wall
cotton, club, cottons, cottony, cottoned, cottoning, clubs, clubbed, clubbing