Joe Zelli (Rome, 1889 – Copake, New York, 1971) was an American club owner ran celebrated

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Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France, and New York City from the 1910s to the 1930s. His most famous club was The Royal Box, at 16bis rue Fontaine, Paris, which opened in 1922 and closed in 1932. It had a balcony with an American bar and "royal boxes". The Royal Box is considered the first ever nightclub in the world, with opening hours from midnight until dawn. It was the nocturnal home to many members of the

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, expatriates who flocked to Paris after the First World War. Notable clients included

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Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became Standard (music), standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway the ...

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, and

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The club had the most prominent jazz orchestra in Paris at the time and included

Sidney Bechet Sidney Joseph Bechet ( ; May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important Solo (music), soloists in jazz, and first recorded several months before trumpeter Louis Ar ...

and

Eugene Bullard Eugene Jacques Bullard (born Eugene James Bullard; October 9, 1895 – October 12, 1961) was one of the first African-American military pilots, although Bullard flew for France, not the United States. Bullard was one of the few black combat pilo ...

as bandleader. Bullard was a war hero who was the first African-American fighter pilot, flying for France in World War I. The filmmaker David McDonald stumbled upon Joe Zelli's grave while on a walk during the height of the pandemic in 2021. Feeling that Zelli was reaching out to him from beyond the grave, McDonald commenced a film entitled ''My Encounter With The Ghost Of Joe Zelli'', which debuted in 2024. Zelli returned to the U.S. and later owned other clubs, but none as successful as The Royal Box. A caricaturist named Zito drew guests to the nightclub over a period of four years, making a

celebrity wall A celebrity wall, caricature wall, or wall of fame is a gallery of photographs or caricatures of celebrities, typically found on the wall of restaurants and bars. They suggest that celebrities are liable to be encountered there, and also function a ...

downstairs. This is said to be the inspiration for the caricatures at

Sardi's Sardi's is a continental restaurant located at 234 West 44th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, in the Theater District of Manhattan, New York City. Sardi's opened at its current location on March 5, 1927. It is known for the caric ...

restaurant in New York.Wendy Wick Reaves, ''Celebrity Caricatures in America'', 1998, , p. 184

Notes

1889 births 1971 deaths Italian emigrants to the United States {{Restaurateur-bio-stub