I mean, would there be a market today for this 1930’s-style nightclub? Everybody has to be formally dressed…and there has to be a mob “wise guy” type as maitre-de-hote. Also, Cab Calloway style jazz music, and gambling in the back room!
I’ve been thinking of this ever since I saw “Harlem Nights” (great movie, with cameo perfomances by the late red Foxx, and Della resse).
Could i persude hip young 20-somethings to don tuxedos and listen to classic jazz, while sipping champaign?
Or is this stuff all in the past? damn, I’d like to spend an evening in the Cotton Club! :eek:
I don’t think you could re-create a club where the performers were black, but black people were not admitted as patrons . . .
In New York, there are still a few 1930s-style dinner clubs, which cater mostly to wealthy businesspeople, tourists, anniversary couples. But people don’t tend to go there as every-night affairs, as they did 40, 60, 80 years ago.
Interesting question: what killed “the formal evening out?” Television? The social revolution of the '60s? Disco?
I was a huge fan of the swing music revival in the late '90s, when college-age kids and hipsters dressed up in nice suits and retro clothes and went out swing dancing and drank classic cocktails. The music was awesome (a blend of '30s and '40s big bands and newer bands that blended swing with rockabilly and punk elements), the girls looked gorgeous and the guys looked classy, and it was nice to take a date out and actually DANCE with her, rather than just bumping and grinding as in the “meat market” clubs. I was really disappointed that the entire scene was just a fad, although I understand there are still mini-swing scenes going strong in places like NYC, LA, and San Diego.
Yes, Disco. Disco ruined everything.