Clicquot Club was a
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
at 15 North Illinois Avenue in
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497. , in the heart of the city. Billed as the club that "never closed", it became notorious as an illegal gambling spot in the city.
History
Operating during the
Prohibition era in the 1920s, the club provided both illegal liquor and illegal gambling. The bar and
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...
were considered "feeder rooms" to bring people to the profit-making roulette wheels, craps tables, and card games in the backrooms. A news item in December 1931 reported a raid on the club in which Federal agents removed $20,000 worth of lavish Japanese and Chinese furnishings from the 20-room mansion and "poured several thousand dollars worth of alleged whiskies and champagnes down a drain".
The bar and cabaret also developed a reputation for lawlessness, as the Clicquot became known as one of the "bust-out joints" for
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
convention-goers eager to "release their inhibitions as they experienced everything and anything available". Until 1951, when the
Kefauver Committee
The United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce was a special committee of the United States Senate which existed from 1950 to 1951 and which investigated organized crime which crossed state borders in the U ...
mounted an "anti-hostess campaign", the Clicquot used its waitresses to push drinks on guests and even offer to sit and drink with them, in violation of New Jersey's alcoholic beverage control laws.
The cabaret underwent a series of management changes in the 1940s. In March 1942 Max Cohen assumed management of the cabaret. In February 1943 Cleo Valenteene, a former burlesque and nightclub dancer, became manager, followed by performer Nan DeMar in July 1943. In December 1950 Michael J. Keeley became the owner-operator.
Shows
The Clicquot Club has been called "the leading white nightclub" in Atlantic City. In 1945 popular black bandleader Mandy Ross was booked into an engagement at the club, and a white vocalist refused to perform with the band. In 1946, Eleanor Sherry and Her Swinghearts performed at the club. The cabaret often booked
revues, including the 1946 Nan DeMar
revue and a 30-performer revue in 1948.
[ Eddie Kaplan was responsible for booking acts to perform at the club in the late 1940s.]
Notes
References
Sources
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*{{cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbt1NiemfHsC&pg=PA85, title=Swing City: Newark Nightlife, 1925–50, first=Barbara J., last=Kukla, year=2002, publisher=Rutgers University Press, isbn=0813531160
Nightclubs in Atlantic City, New Jersey