La Martinique was a popular

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 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, United States during the 1940s. Situated in a basement at 57

West 57th Street 57th Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan, one of the major two-way, east-west streets in the borough's grid. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided into its east and west sections at ...

, the club was owned and operated by Dario Goldfarb and Jim Vernon. It was at La Martinique that Mr. & Mrs.

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

would host the after party following the October 23, 1941 premiere of ''

Dumbo ''Dumbo'' is a 1941 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth Disney animated feature film, it is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, ...

'' at the

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...

. The club is remembered for launching the careers of many singers of the era, including

Dick Haymes Richard Benjamin Haymes (September 13, 1918 – March 28, 1980) was an Argentinian singer and actor. He was one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, an actor, television host, ...

, Danny Kaye, Jackie Miles and Zero Mostel, as well as playing host to more established performers, such as

Jo Stafford Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop music singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classi ...

who had a six-month residency there beginning in February 1945. La Martinique was one of several clubs to hold special events on Sunday evenings, generally considered a slow night for the clubs. An edition of the ''Sunday Frolics'' from April 1946 advertised one such evening, with

Joey Adams Joey Adams (born Joseph Abramowitz; January 6, 1911 – December 2, 1999) was an American comedian, vaudevillian, radio host, nightclub performer and author, who was inducted into the New York Friars' Club in 1977 and wrote the book ''Bors ...

as the host, and Rolly Rolls, the Merry Parisian, as the "honored guest". In addition the evening featured "celebrities of the stage and screen" and the club's new spring revue. The club was closed by the early 1950s, with

Josephine Baker Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted Fran ...

opening a new establishment on the original La Martinique site in 1952.

References

1950s disestablishments in New York (state) 57th Street (Manhattan) Midtown Manhattan Nightclubs in Manhattan {{Manhattan-struct-stub