Stork Club

Stork Club was a nightclub in Manhattan, New York City. During its existence from 1929 to 1965, it was one of the most prestigious clubs in the world. A symbol of café society, the wealthy elite, including movie stars, celebrities, showgirls, and aristocrats all mixed in the VIP Cub Room of the club. The club was established on West 58th Street in 1929 by Sherman Billingsley, a former bootlegger from Enid, Oklahoma. After an incident when Billingsley was kidnapped and held for ransom by Mad Dog Coll, a rival of his mobster partners, he became the sole owner of the Stork Club. The club remained at its original location until it was raided by Prohibition agents in 1931. After the raid, it moved to East 51st Street. From 1934 until its closure in 1965, it was located at 3 East 53rd Street, just east of Fifth Avenue, when it became world-renowned with its celebrity clientele and luxury. Billingsley was known for his lavish gifts, which brought a steady stream of celebrities to the club and also ensured that those interested in the famous would have a reason to visit.

Until World War II, the club consisted of a dining room and bar with restrooms on upper floors with many mirrors and fresh flowers throughout. Billingsley originally built the well-known Cub Room as a private place where he could play cards with friends. Described as a "lopsided oval", the room had wood paneled walls hung with portraits of beautiful women and had no windows. A head waiter known as "Saint Peter" determined who was allowed entry to the Cub Room, where Walter Winchell wrote his columns and broadcast his radio programs from Table 50.

During the years of its operation, the club was visited by many political, social, and celebrity figures. It counted among its guests the Kennedy and Roosevelt families, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The news of Grace Kelly's engagement to Prince Rainier of Monaco broke while the couple were visiting the Stork Club. Socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, owner of the Hope Diamond, once lost the gem under a Stork Club table during an evening visit to the club. Ernest Hemingway was able to cash his $100,000 check for the film rights of ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' at the Stork Club to settle his bill.

In the 1940s, workers of the Stork Club desired to be represented by a union, and by 1957, the employees of all similar New York venues were union members. However, Billingsley was still unwilling to allow his workers to organize, which led to union supporters picketing in front of the club for many years until its closure. During this time, many of the club's celebrity and non-celebrity guests stopped visiting the Stork Club; it closed in 1965 and was demolished the following year. The site is now the location of Paley Park, a small vest-pocket park.

History

Early history

The Stork Club was owned and operated by Sherman Billingsley (1896–1966) an ex- bootlegger who came to New York from Enid, Oklahoma. The ''Stork Club'' first opened in 1929 at 132 West 58th Street, just down the street from Billingsley's apartment at 152 West 58th Street. Billingsley's handwritten recollections of the early days recall that he was approached by two gamblers he knew from Oklahoma in his New York real estate office, proposing to open a restaurant together, which he accepted. The origin of the name of the club is unknown; Billingsley once remarked, "Don't ask me how or why I picked the name, because I just don't remember." New York City's El Morocco had the sophistication and Toots Shor's drew the sporting crowd, but the Stork Club mixed power, money, and glamor. Unlike its competitors, the Stork stayed open on Sunday nights and during the summer.

One of the first Stork Club customers was writer Heywood Broun, who resided in the vicinity. Broun's first visit to the Stork was actually made by mistake; he believed it to be a funeral home, but he soon became a regular, and invited his celebrity friends, as the name of the club spread further afield. Before long, Billingsley's Oklahoma partners sold their shares to a man named Thomas Healy. Eventually, Healy revealed that he was a " front" for three New York mobsters. Billingsley was kidnapped and held for ransom by Mad Dog Coll, who was a rival of his mob partners. Before the ransom money could be collected by Coll, he was lured to a telephone booth, where he was shot to death. After the incident, the secret gangster partners reluctantly allowed Billingsley to buy them out for $30,000.

Another New York nightclub owner, Texas Guinan, introduced Billingsley to her friend, the entertainment and gossip columnist Walter Winchell, in 1930. In September 1930, Winchell called the Stork Club "New York's New Yorkiest place on W. 58th" in his ''New York Daily Mirror'' column. That evening, the Stork Club was filled with moneyed guests. Someone else who read Winchell's column in 1930 was singer-actress Helen Morgan, who had just finished filming a movie on Long Island. Morgan decided to hold a cast party at the Stork Club, paying the tab with two $1,000 bills. Winchell became a regular at the Stork Club; what he saw and heard there at his private Table 50 was the basis of his newspaper columns and radio broadcasts. Billingsley also kept professionals on his staff whose job was to listen to the chatter, determine fact from rumor, and then report the factual news to local columnists. The practice was seen as protective of the patrons by shielding them from unfounded reports, and also a continual source of publicity for the club. Billingsley's long-standing relationship with Ethel Merman, which began in 1939, brought the theater crowd to the Stork; there, she had a waiter assigned to her whose job was just to light her cigarettes. Billingsley later wrote that Merman had offered him $500,000 to leave his wife and that he turned down the offer.

Prohibition agents closed the original club on December 22, 1931, and Billingsley moved it to East 51st Street for three years. It was raided on August 29, 1932, at the 51st Street location after an angry patron lost a quarter in a coin machine and notified police. The police asked guests to quietly pay their checks and leave the building; this took two hours. In 1934, the Stork Club moved to 3 East 53rd Street, where it remained until it closed in October 1965. Billingsley's guest list for the 53rd Street opening consisted of people from Broadway and Park Avenue. He sent out 1,000 invitations for champagne and dinner. The women found much to like about the fresh flowers everywhere and the mirrored walls, while the men were pleased to see their favorite dishes on the club's menu, as well as many of their personal and business friends at the opening. When the Stork Club became a tenant in 1934, the building was known as the Physicians and Surgeons Building. Many of the medical tenants were unhappy about the night club moving in, but in February 1946, Billingsley purchased the seven-story building for $300,000 cash, evicting the doctors to expand the club.

By 1936, the Stork was doing well enough to have a million-dollar gross for the first time. Young debutante Brenda Frazier made her first visit to the Stork Club in the spring of 1938; she became a regular, bringing many young people from the society set with her. Billingsley welcomed young people who were not old enough to drink. He encouraged them to gather at the Stork Club by inviting debutantes to the club and holding a yearly "Glamor Girl" election. As the father of three daughters, Billingsley kept an eye on the young people, making sure they were not served alcohol and that they were able to have an enjoyable time at the Stork Club without it.

The Stork Club previously provided live entertainment, but after Billingsley realized the reason people came to the club was to watch people, he abandoned the floor shows in favor of giving expensive gifts to regular customers of the club. A live band was provided in the main dining room for dancing. Billingsley had a keen sense for business. Before he purchased the building where the Stork Club was, the yearly rent for the space it occupied was $12,000. Billingsley rented out the hat- and coat-check area to a separate concession for $27,000 a year. This paid the rent for the Stork Club, leaving $15,000 annually to cover bad checks. When Ernest Hemingway wanted to pay his bill with a $100,000 check he received for the movie rights to ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Billingsley told him he would be able to cash the check after the club closed at 4:00 am. He kept the ''Stork Club's'' name vivid in the minds of his patrons through mailing lists and a club newsletter. Billingsley was also aware of the need for a good working relationship with the press; food and drink for reporters and photographers assigned to cover the Stork Club were on the house.

Controversies

Tax raid

In early 1944, New York mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia ordered a check on the books of all major city night clubs. City tax accountants soon investigated the Stork Club, the Copacabana, and other city night spots. By July, auditors turned in a report claiming that the clubs were overcharging patrons on tax, sending the city the proper amount, and keeping the overbilled sums. One Saturday in July, city officials arrived at the Stork Club with a court order granting permission for them to seize the club's property for the amount that was claimed to be overcharged as taxes, plus penalties. The total for the Stork Club was $181,000. Billingsley, out of town with his family, was notified. The club's employees refused to turn anything over to the officials, who were intent on closing it.

Upon his return, Billingsley firmly protested that the Stork Club did not owe the city any money and was up to date on its tax payments. A compromise was reached: the club could stay open as long as a custodian for the city was allowed to be on the premises. Billingsley was eventually able to get a court order to eject the custodian, but the case dragged on for five years, costing Billingsley $100,000.

Josephine Baker

On October 19, 1951, Josephine Baker made charges of racism against the Stork Club. Baker visited the club on October 16 as the guest of Roger Rico and his wife; both entertainers were at the Stork after their theater performances. Baker said she ordered a steak and was apparently still waiting for it an hour later. The controversy grew when Baker accused Walter Winchell of being in the Cub Room at the time and not coming to her aid. Winchell was at the club; he said he had greeted Baker and vocalist Roger Rico as the two left their Cub Room table. Winchell said he was not aware of there being any problem, and left for a late screening of the film '' The Desert Fox''. The next morning, Winchell's rumored failure to assist Baker was big news, and he received countless telephone calls. The incident blew into a major scandal and was widely publicized on the radio and newspapers. Mrs. Rico, who was part of the Baker party with her husband, said that Baker's steak was waiting for her at the table after she returned from her phone call, but the entertainer chose to make a stormy exit from the Stork anyhow. News accounts show conflicting statements from the Ricos.

Walter Winchell's name, along with those of Billingsley and the Stork Club, was further tarnished by the incident. After leaving the Stork, the Baker party made contact with WMCA's Barry Gray, where the story was told as part of Gray's radio talk show. One of those who phoned Gray's program was television personality and columnist Ed Sullivan, a professional rival of Winchell's whose "home base" was the El Morocco nightclub. Sullivan's on-air remarks dealt mainly with Winchell's alleged part in the event, saying, "What Winchell has done is an insult to the United States and American newspapermen." Winchell's column of October 24, 1951, provides the same details as earlier news stories about Josephine Baker's accusations that he did not assist her at the Stork Club. Winchell also printed a letter he received from Walter White, who was the executive secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at the time, although Billingsley alleged the letter was a forgery.

The controversy prompted a fake bomb threat, as well as a NAACP protest outside the Stork Club. A New York police investigation of the matter followed the complaint made by the NAACP. The police investigation found that the Stork Club did not discriminate against Josephine Baker. The NAACP went on to say that the results of the police investigation did not provide enough evidence for the organization to pursue the incident further in criminal court. Baker filed suit against Winchell over the matter, but the suit was dismissed in 1955. Walter Winchell later said. "The Stork Club discriminates against everybody. White, black, and pink. The Stork bars all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons. But if your skin is green and you're rich and famous or you're syndicated, you'll be welcome at the club."

Bugging rumor

Because of Billingsley's long-standing friendship with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) head J. Edgar Hoover, rumors persisted that the Stork Club was bugged. During his work on the Stork Club book, author and ''New York Times'' reporter Ralph Blumenthal was contacted by Jean-Claude Baker, one of Josephine Baker's sons. Having read an article by Blumenthal about Leonard Bernstein's FBI file, he indicated that he had read his mother's FBI file and by comparing the file to the tapes, said he thought the Stork Club incident was overblown.

Union issues and closure

Hard times began for the Stork Club in 1956, when it lost money for the first time. In 1957, unions tried once again to organize the club's employees. Their major effort 10 years before had been unsuccessful; at that time, Sherman Billingsley was accused of attempting to influence his employees to stay out of the union with lavish staff parties and financial gifts. By 1957, all other similar New York clubs except the Stork Club were unionized. This met with resistance from Billingsley and many dependable employees left the Stork Club over his refusal to allow them to be represented by a union. Picket lines were set up and marched in front of the club daily for years, including the club's last day of business. The club received many threats connected to his refusal to accept unions for his workers; some of the threats involved Billingsley's family. In 1957, he was arrested for displaying a gun when some painters who were working at the Austrian Consulate next to the family's home sat on his stoop for lunch. Billingsley admitted to acting rashly because of the threats. Three months before his arrest, his secretary was assaulted as she was entering the building where she lived; her assailants made references to the union issues at the Stork Club.

As a result of the union dispute, many club patrons no longer visited the night spot. Those who were performers were informed of the possibility of fines and suspensions by their respective unions for crossing the Stork Club picket line as the issue continued. Many of Billingsley's friendships, including those of Walter Winchell and J. Edgar Hoover, were over as a result of the union problems. He began firing staff without good cause. As the dispute dragged on, a live band was also no longer in the dining room for music; members of the Musicians' Union had crossed the picket line to perform for some time. Previously, the club had no need for advertising; it was mentioned frequently in print and word of mouth without it. In 1963, the club offered a hamburger and French fries for $1.99 in a ''New York Times'' advertisement; when those in the know about the club saw it, they realized the Stork Club's days were coming to an end. In the last few months of its operation, at times, only three customers came in for the entire evening. On a good day in the mid-1940s, some 2,500 people visited the club.

When the Stork Club initially closed its doors, news stories indicated it was being shut because the building it occupied had been sold and a new location was being sought. The years of labor disputes had taken their toll on Billingsley financially. Trying to keep the Stork Club going took all of his assets and about $10 million from his three daughters' trust funds. While in the hospital recuperating from a serious illness in October 1965, Billingsley sold the building to Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), which turned the site into a park named after its founder's father. In a 1937 interview, Billingsley said, "I hope I'll be running a night club the last day I live." On October 4, 1966, Sherman Billingsley died of a heart attack at his Manhattan apartment. He was planning on re-opening the Stork Club at another location and was working on writing a book at the time of his death.

Interior

From the physical layout of the club, as described by Ed Sullivan in a 1939 column, the Stork should have been doomed to failure, since it was strangely shaped and far from roomy in places. The club's ladies' room was on the second floor of the structure and the men's room was on the third; only the dining room, bar, and later the Cub Room were on the first floor. Despite this, the club could hold 1,000 guests. A feature of the club was a solid 14-karat gold chain at its entrance; patrons were allowed entry through it by the doorman. When the East 53rd Street building came down to make way for Paley Park, one of the artifacts found in it was a still. The New York Historical Society displayed that along with other ''Stork Club'' items and memorabilia in an exhibit in 2000.

Billingsley's hospitality with food, drink, and gifts overcame the structural deficits to keep his patrons returning time after time. He maintained order through a series of hand signals; without saying a word he could order complimentary drinks and gifts for a party at any given table. Billingsley was also able to summon the club's private limousine to whisk favored customers away to a theater date or a ballgame after drinks or dining at the Stork. He changed the meaning of the hand signals frequently to avoid regular patrons' being able to read them. Guests dined on the finest wines and cuisine, and it was known for its Champagne and caviar. The club gained worldwide attention for its cocktails, made by chief barman Nathaniel "Cookie" Cook, who invented dozens of cocktails at the bar, including the signature "Stork Club Cocktail". The ornamental bar of the Stork Club was subsequently relocated to Jim Brady's Bar on Maiden Lane, which acquired the bar at auction in the mid-1970s and continued to operate until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The dining room featured live bands for dancing; the Benny Goodman orchestra were frequent performers. According to a 1960 Services Labor Report, the kitchen and dining room employees working in the Stork Club did "not enjoy the same wages, hours and working conditions" as the others, a primary factor which led the majority of them to the strike in January 1957.

Besides the Cub Room, the Main Dining Room, and the bar, the club contained a room for parties, the "Blessed Event Room", a large private room on the second floor with its own kitchen and bar, the "Loner's Room", which was just past the Cub Room and much like a men's club, and a private barber shop. When the Blessed Event Room was added to the Stork Club, its walls were entirely mirrored. Patrons who had rented the room for poker parties complained that the mirrors allowed players to see everyone's hand of cards; the mirrors were then removed from the walls.

The Cub Room

Billingsley's original plan for the Cub Room was for it to be a private place for playing gin rummy with his friends. The room was added to the club during World War II. Billingsley broke out a wall in the bar to create this private space, but it was Walter Winchell who began to call it the Cub Room. The Cub Room had no windows and was described in a Louis Sobol column as a "lopsided oval". The room was lit with pink tones. On the wood-paneled walls were paintings of beautiful women; Billingsley also had similar portraits by the same artist in the ladies' powder room. After the club's labor problems began in 1957, Billingsley redecorated the entire club, choosing emerald green for the carpet and chairs, and a pinkish-red for the banquettes. The Cub Room's wood panels were replaced by beige burlap and the portraits of beautiful women were replaced by paintings of noted 19th-century race horses. As a concession to those who wanted to have a business lunch at The Stork, the Cub Room was for men only during lunch time. The ''sanctum sanctorum'', the Cub Room ("the snub room"), was guarded by a captain called "Saint Peter" (for the saint who guards the gates of Heaven).

The most famous of the Cub Room's headwaiters was John "Jack" Spooner, who was well known to many celebrities from his previous duties at LaHiff's. Billingsley recruited him in 1934 after the death of Billy Lahiff and the subsequent closure of his club. Spooner began an autograph book for his daughter, Amelia, while working at LaHiff's. Billingsley encouraged him to bring "The Book" to the Stork Club, where stars continued to sign it. Some who were famous illustrators or cartoonists such as E. C. Segar (''Popeye''), Chic Young (''Blondie''), and Theodor Geisel ("Dr. Seuss

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