How Did The Infamous 1930s Cotton Club Really Sound? Find Out-14 Nov Phantom Dancer Radio Show
Every week, Greg Poppleton brings you The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop two hour mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-1960s radio and TV.
Divided into 8 sets, Greg has been bringing you the Phantom Dancer on 107.3 2SER Sydney since 1985. It’s now heard on 23 radio stations across Australia. You can hear it any time only at 2ser.com
HOW DID THE INFAMOUS 1930s COTTON CLUB REALLY SOUND?
You’ll hear it on this week’s Phantom Dancer.
Set 7, in fact, is an all vinyl mix of Duke Ellington broadcasts from the infamous New York City nightclub where gangsters rubbed shoulders with socialites in a black fantasia.
The air checks are from 1937 and 1938.
This is the nightclub that inspired James Haskin’s novel, The Cotton Club, which in turn formed the basis of the 1984 Francis Ford Coppola 1984 hit crime drama of the same name.
An while Duke Ellington became synonymous with the Harlem nightspot in the late 1930s, it also featured such stars as Cab Calloway, Adelaide Hall, a very young Lena Horne, Fletcher Henderson and pianist/bandleader Dorothy Dandridge.
Started by heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson in 1920 as the Cafe Deluxe, Owney Madden took over the Harlem Club in 1923 on his release from Sing Sing prison.
Seeking rehabilitation through employment, no doubt, the gangster/bootlegger used the club to sell his boutique #1 beer. Though lovingly crafted from premium hops, no doubt, his brewed beverage was nonetheless illegal at the time due to prohibition.
And though the club was located in the black cultural heartland of Harlem, and the talent was all black, presenting ‘authentic black entertainment’, the club was notorious for its brazenly selective door policy, strictly well-off white patrons only.
However, the steep cover charge translated into high fees for the performers.
Ellington, himself, was expected to write ‘jungle music’ for the ‘black exotica’ presented in the form of revues with dancers, comedians and the band.
Meanwhile the club killed many of the smaller black cabarets in Harlem, unable to compete with the lavish Cotton Club shows, their customers discouraged by the flood of white tourists who wanted to try any black club if it couldn’t be the Cotton Club.
At the time of the 1937-38 Duke Ellington broadcasts you’ll hear on today’s Phantom Dancer, the club had moved out of Harlem to Broadway. It was a safer locale for the club’s patrons after the Harlem race riots of 1936.
The Cotton Club’s Broadway opening featured a lavish 130 performer show starring Cab Calloway and dancer Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson who was paid the highest ever fee for a performer on Broadway.
In 1940, changing tastes, high rents and a tax evasion investigation closed the Cotton Club’s doors permanently.
Here’s footage 1930s Harlem and the original, famous Cotton Club with Duke Ellington:
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #288
107.3 2SER Tuesday 14 November 2017 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT)
National Program:
ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm
and early morning on 22 other stations.
Set 1
Big Bands on 1950s Radio
Take The A Train (Theme) + Koko
Duke Ellington Orchestra
Town Casino
NBC Cleveland OH
17 Sep 1952
South
Chuck Cabot Orchestra
Empire Room
Rice Hotel
KTRH CBS Houston
Apr 1953
Cry
Ray Anthony Orchestra (voc) Marcie Miller
Cafe Rouge
Hotel Statler
WCBS CBS NY
1952
Set 2
Progressive Jazz on Radio
Instrumental
Miles Davis Nonet
’Symphony Sid Show’
Royal Roost
WMCA NY
4 Sep 1948
Red Pepper Blues
Art Pepper
’Jazz International’
AFRTS Re-broadcast
Hollywood
16 Jun 1960
Perdido
Pete Brown
’Stars in Jazz’
Birdland
WNBC NBC NY
2 Sep 1952
Set 3
Bing Crosby
Love in Bloom (theme) + Humming, Singing and Whistling
Bob Crosby (voc)Georgie Stoll Orchestra
’Woodbury Program’
KNX CBS Los Angeles
18 Sep 1934
Too Marvelous
Bing Crosby (voc) Buddy Cole Music
’Ford Roadshow’
KNX CBS LA
7 Sep 1957
Blue Skies + When The Blue Of The Night Meets The Gold Of The Day (theme)
Bing Crosby (voc) John Scott Trotter Orchestra
’Philco Show’
KECA ABC LA
30 Oct 1953
Set 4
Accordion Jazz
Japanese Sandman
Rytmin Swing Yhtye
Comm Rec
Helsinki
22 Jan 1948
Theme + It Had To Be You + The Very Thought Of You
Art van Damme Quartet (voc) Louise Carlisle
Radio Transcription
Chicago
1950
Kissa Viekoon (Jeepers Creepers)
Bruno Laako and Lepokot (The Bats)
Comm Rec
Helsinki
1939
Set 5
1st Esquire Jazz Concert
Blues + Esquire Bounce
Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Coleman Hawkins and more
’1st Esquire Jazz Concert’
WJZ Blue New York
Metropolitan Opera House
18 Jan 1944
Rockin’ Chair
Mildred Bailey
’1st Esquire Jazz Concert’
WJZ Blue New York
Metropolitan Opera House
18 Jan 1944
Basin Street Blues
Louis Armstrong All-Stars
’1st Esquire Jazz Concert’
WJZ Blue New York
Metropolitan Opera House
18 Jan 1944
I’ll Get By
Roy Eldridge (tp) Billie Holliday (voc)
’1st Esquire Jazz Concert’
WJZ Blue New York
Metropolitan Opera House
18 Jan 1944
Set 6
1940s Dance Bands on the Air
How Cute Can You Be
Jimmie Grier Orchestra
Radio Transcription
Hollywood
1945
A Red Kiss On A Blue Letter
Les Brown Orchestra (voc) Doris Day
Peacock Room
Baker Hotel
CBS Dallas
9 Aug 1945
Sioux Sue
Ray Noble Orchestra
Beverley Wiltshire Hotel
Beverley Hills Ca
KFI NBC LA
4 Feb 1940
It’s Mellow
Glen Gary and the Casa Loma Orchestra
Aircheck
Hotel New Yorker NYC
1944
Set 7
Cotton Club on 1937-38 Radio
Harlem Speaks
Duke Ellington Orchestra
Cotton Club
WOR Mutual NY
18 Mar 1937
Intro + Jig Walk
Duke Ellington Orchestra
Cotton Club
WABC CBS NY
22 May 1938
I’m Slappin’ on Seventh Avenue + Lost in Meditation
Actor - Singer - Voiceover 