Opening their doors on December 18th, 1938, Cafe Society in Greenwich Village, Manhattan was home to a multitude of unique musicians and comics. The mind behind the club, Jewish shoe salesman Barney Josephson, hailed from Trenton, NJ and was a lover of jazz music.
Barney was incensed at the fact that in the Cotton Club, African-Americans were limited to the back one-third of the club. It infuriated him that even in their own neighborhood they had to deal with this treatment. Of course, in any club below Harlem, which had black entertainment, such as the Kit Kat Club, a Black person couldn’t even get in.
A few notable acts from the era that were no stranger to the venue include Art Tatum, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughn, Mary Lou Williams, Lester Young, Burl Ives, the Golden Gate Quartet, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.
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Photo: A ca. 1939 performance by Billie Holiday at Cafe Society.
