{"product_id":"cotton-club-new-york-1930s","title":"Cotton Club, New York 1930s","description":"\u003cp\u003eCotton Club was the legendary jazz era nightspot in the Harlem district of New York City that featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the 1920s and 30s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was established in 1923 when the white gangster and bootlegger Owney Madden got out of Sing Sing prison and bought a faltering supper club called Club De Luxe at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue, owned by Jack Johnston, America’s first black heavyweight boxing champion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe underworld figure initially wanted a place to sell his bootleg liquor during Prohibition and refurbished the place, christening it the Cotton Club. It became a ‘whites only’ speakeasy and employed black staff and performers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn his biography, the jazz singer and bandleader Cab Calloway (1907-1994) described the décor of the Cotton Club:’ The stage set looked like a ‘Sleepy Time Down South’ stage set from the days of slavery. The bandstand was a replica of a southern mansion with large, white columns and a backdrop painted with weeping willows and slave quarters. The band played on the veranda. A few steps down was the dance floor, which was also used for floorshows.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Cotton Club flourished, despite its segregation policy. The American poet, novelist and social activist Langston Hughes, a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance, visited the club and derided it as ‘a Jim Crow club for gangsters and monied whites.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDinner and dancing for the 700 wealthy white patrons started at 9pm and the club’s famous floor shows started at midnight, featuring revues called Cotton Club Parades and acts by singers, singers, vaudeville performers, comics, tap dancers, and chorus girls.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe club was a springboard for many black performers including Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald. Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holliday and weekly radio broadcasts spread the fame of the club to a national audience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 1930s, Duke Ellington was eventually able to persuade the club to relax its racist segregation policies and allow blacks to be admitted, although they were only permitted seats in the back of the club.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis Cotton Club menu was from the early 1930s and the lavish revues at that time featured Cab Calloway as leader of the in-house orchestra, tap dancer Bill ‘ Bojangles’ Robinson, who was the the highest paid black performer  in the United States  of the era, and singer and songwriter Sister (Rosetta) Tharpe whose gospel songs, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and electric guitar, are said to have influenced early rock n roll musicians such as Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Harlem race riot of 1935, precipitated by a teenager’s theft of a penknife from a store and fueled by economic hardship, racial injustice and mistrust of the police, was the beginning of the end of the Cotton Club.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1936, fearing white patrons were no longer safe in Harlem, the Cotton Club was moved to New York midtown theater district but closed permanently in 1940 due to factors including changing music tastes, competition in the entertainment scene and a tax evasion investigation\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson archival inks. Custom printed with border for matting and framing.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003eEach order includes a print of the interior menu.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb style=\"line-height: 1.2;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eAll printed in USA.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage Menu Art","offers":[{"title":"8.5x11\" Archival Print (Unframed) $25.00","offer_id":57491920814246,"sku":"tjq1790052766719","price":17.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"11x14 Archival Print (Unframed) $30.00","offer_id":57491920847014,"sku":"qcw1790052766720","price":18.9,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"13x19 Archival Print (Unframed) $40.00","offer_id":57491920879782,"sku":"vme1790052766721","price":29.2,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"16x20 Archival Print (Unframed) $55.00","offer_id":57491920912550,"sku":"isx1790052766722","price":40.15,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"20x24 Archival Print (Unframed) $85.00","offer_id":57491920945318,"sku":"ygq1790052766723","price":57.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"24x36 Archival Print (Unframed) $135.00","offer_id":57491920978086,"sku":"zjp1790052766724","price":83.7,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0745\/9133\/8662\/files\/cotton-club-new-york-1930s_1.webp?v=1790052771","url":"https:\/\/coffeetamper.shop\/products\/cotton-club-new-york-1930s","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}