The Paradise Club or Club Paradise was a

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

and

jazz club A jazz club is a venue where the primary entertainment is the performance of live jazz music, although some jazz clubs primarily focus on the study and/or promotion of jazz-music. Jazz clubs are usually a type of nightclub or bar, which is licens ...

at 220 North Illinois Avenue in

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city (New Jersey), city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of ...

. It was one of two major black jazz clubs in Atlantic City during its heyday from the 1920s through 1950s, the other being

Club Harlem Club Harlem was a nightclub at 32 North Kentucky Avenue in the Northside, Atlantic City, Northside neighborhood of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Founded in 1935 by Leroy "Pop" Williams, it was the city's premier club for black jazz performers. Like ...

. Entertaining a predominantly white clientele, it was known for its raucous floor shows featuring gyrating black dancers accompanied by high-energy jazz bands led by the likes of

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

Jimmie Lunceford James Melvin Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era. Early life Lunceford was born on a farm in the Evergreen community, west of the Tombigbee River, near Fulton, ...

, and

Lucky Millinder Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder (August 8, 1910 – September 28, 1966) was an American swing music, swing and rhythm and blues, rhythm-and-blues bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang ...

. In 1954 the Paradise Club merged with Club Harlem under joint ownership.

History

Opened in the 1920s, the Paradise Club was owned by Harold Paul Abrams, who also owned Harold's Club and the Basin Street Club. Abrams was also the general manager of the 500 Club. Abrams promoted the Paradise as "the oldest nightclub in America". It was the first club to offer "breakfast shows" after the nightlong entertainment. Willis notes that most of the white clientele came from the

Traymore Hotel The Traymore Hotel was a resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Begun as a small boarding house in 1879, the hotel expanded and became one of the city's premier resorts. As Atlantic City began to decline in its popularity as a resort town, dur ...

, a summer resort. While it was fine for them to frequent the all-black shows at the Paradise Club, none of the black performers could use the whites-only beach at the Traymore. Blacks in the racially segregated city were restricted to one section of the beach, but were able to enter attractions on the entire Boardwalk. During the 1946 off-season the club opened the Paradise Swing Room, a musical bar. In May 1954 the Paradise Club announced its merger with Club Harlem. Clifton Williams and Ben Alten of Club Harlem became co-owners with Abrams. With the merger, the elaborate ''Smart Affairs'' revue presented by

Larry Steele Larry Nelson Steele (born May 5, 1949) is a former professional basketball player, best known for being on the Portland Trail Blazers team that won the 1977 NBA Finals. Early life Born in Greencastle, Indiana, Steele grew up in Bainbridge, ...

at Club Harlem began appearing at the Paradise Club as well. Like other nightclubs in the district, the Paradise Club succumbed to a drop-off in business from the advent of legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City. By the mid-1980s, only Club Harlem was still operating. The site of the club is now a parking lot.

Architecture and interior

The club's nondescript exterior and "simple neon sign" revealed nothing of the raucous goings-on within. The interior was designed like "a

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

-era roadhouse" with darkened rooms, low ceilings, and small tables arranged around the dance floor and stage. During the stage shows, while, amber, and blue colored spotlights played around the room. A girl in a short skirt walked around taking souvenir pictures of the guests.

Shows

The stage shows opened with singers warming up the crowd with "risqué vaudeville tunes" and comedians dressed in "overalls and straw hats hotold raunchy jokes". These were followed by a troupe of six "dark-skinned, full-bodied" women outfitted in "top hats, short black shorts, and tuxedo vests a size or two too small" performing as the Sextuplet Dancers, backed by the Count Basie band. Alternate shows featured "light-skinned" dancers in feather boas and bikinis performing in front of "a trio of African American drummers dressed like the natives in a ''

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Creat ...

'' movie". The gyrating, hip-thrusting dancers were considered a bigger draw for the white audience than the musicians, who included future jazz greats

, and

. As

Johnny Coles John Coles (July 3, 1926 – December 21, 1997) was an American jazz trumpeter. Early life Coles was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on July 3, 1926. He grew up in Philadelphia and was self-taught on trumpet. Later life and career Coles spent his ...

, a member of

Clifford Brown Clifford Benjamin Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956) was an American jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer. He died at the age of 25 in a car crash, leaving behind four years' worth of recordings. His compositions "Sandu", "Joy Sprin ...

's band, described it: "This gig was about playing the show; it wasn't about playing jazz. . . We'd get a chance to do maybe a jazz tune or two before the show started". However, after the last show ended, the musicians would often go over to Club Harlem to jam with their band into the early morning hours, and musicians performing at the

Steel Pier The Steel Pier is a 1,000-foot-long () amusement park built on a pier of the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, across from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City (formerly the Trump Taj Mahal). Built in 1897 and opened in 1898, it wa ...

would make their way to the Paradise for the same purpose. Popular acts at the Paradise Club included Salt and Pepper, a black female

tap dancing Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its ow ...

duo, Dorcyee Bradley, an exotic dancer, and comedy team

Stump and Stumpy Stump and Stumpy were a tap dance/comedy/acting duo popular from the mid-1930s to the 1950s, consisting of James "Stump" Cross, and either Eddie Hartman or Harold J. Cromer as "Stumpy". Their act was mostly jazz tap, and comedy expressed through ...

. The club also featured novelty acts, such as tap dancer

Peg Leg Bates Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates (October 11, 1907 – December 6, 1998) was an African-American entertainer from Fountain Inn, South Carolina, United States. Life and career Early life Peg Leg Bates was born Clayton Bates on October 10, 1907, in ...

, whose "Jet Plane" finale, in which he leaped over the stage, landed on his wooden leg, and then executed a series of backward hops accompanied by trumpet blasts from the band, saw his leg puncture the wooden stage floor in the early 1940s. It took half an hour to pull him out. After that, the stage floor was reinforced with metal sheeting.

Cholly Atkins Charles "Cholly" Atkins (born Charles Sylvan Atkinson; September 13, 1913 – April 19, 2003) was an American dancer and vaudeville performer, who later became noted as the house choreographer for the various artists on the label Motown. Biogr ...

and

Honi Coles Charles "Honi" Coles (April 2, 1911 – November 12, 1992) was an American actor and tap dancer, who was inducted posthumously into the American Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2003. He had a distinctive personal style that required technical precisio ...

directed a revue at the Paradise in the summer of 1941. In the 1950s

Tadd Dameron Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron (February 21, 1917 – March 8, 1965) was an American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist. Biography Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dameron was the most influential arranger of the bebop era, but also wrote charts for swi ...

arranged and conducted the music for the club's revue. Other jazz musicians who played the Paradise included

Frankie Manning Frank Manning (May 26, 1914 – April 27, 2009) was an American dancer, instructor, and choreographer. Manning is considered one of the founders of Lindy Hop, an energetic form of the jazz dance style known as swing. Biography Manning was b ...

Sonny Clay William Rogers Campbell "Sonny" Clay (May 15, 1899, Chapel Hill, Texas – April 13, 1973, Los Angeles, California) was an American jazz pianist, drummer, and bandleader, who had an unusual impact on the development of Australian jazz. Biograp ...

, and

. The

Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16- to 18-piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 19 ...

had a summer residency at the club in 1947, opening on 27 June. They agreed to perform for reduced wages for the opportunity for a full summer booking. During the engagement, Basie was on a deep fishing trip and fell overboard while trying to land a fish. Club owner Abrams jumped overboard to save the musician.

Illegal gambling

The Paradise Club was one of four Atlantic City nightclubs raided by police in July 1940 on suspicion of illegal gambling activities. Led by the new mayor, Tom Taggert, the raiding party confiscated "three truckloads of gambling paraphernalia" and arrested 32, then shut down the Paradise Club, Club Harlem, the

Wonder Gardens Wonder Gardens (also known as Wonder Bar) was a jazz and R&B nightclub at 1601 Arctic Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Established around 1929, it was one of four black-owned nightclubs in the black entertainment district on Kentucky Avenue. B ...

, and

Grace's Little Belmont Grace's Little Belmont was a jazz music bar and lounge in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Located at 37 North Kentucky Avenue, it was one of the four popular black nightclubs situated on that street between the mid-1930s and mid-1970s; the others were C ...

. The clubs were doing business as usual the day after the raid.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * {{cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kvfCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA98, title=Tappin' at the Apollo: The African American Female Tap Dance Duo Salt and Pepper, first=Cheryl M., last=Willis, year=2016, publisher=McFarland, isbn=978-1476623153

External links

"Harold P. Abrams Collection"
Atlantic City Public Library Jazz clubs in Atlantic City, New Jersey Nightclubs in Atlantic City, New Jersey