Mini-Episode 20: Jazz and Gangsters--The Cotton Club (Patreon)

Between 1923 and 1940, the Cotton Club was one of the most famous nightclubs in New York. Its importance and impact on American music and culture can’t be overstated. Many of the people who passed through its doors were legends whose names are still known about 100 years later: from its first owner (the first African American to become the heavyweight champion in boxing, Mr. Jack Johnson) to the gangsters who operated it, from musicians like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington to the celebrities who used the club as their spot for social life. The great Francis Ford Coppola (of The Godfather fame) made a movie about it. Today, I’ll tell you a bit about the history of the Cotton Club.