Entry from
July 12, 2005
Jungle Alley (West 133rd Street)
"Jungle Alley" was West 133rd Street in Harlem, between Lenox Avenue and Seventh Avenue. Famous clubs such as the Cotton Club, Connie's Inn and Small's Paradise were located there.
"Jungle Alley" was popular in the 1920s, but had largely diminished by the end of the 1930s.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/blues/watson.html
THE WHITE-ORIENTED TRADE CLUBS. A newcomer to Harlem would invariably start at Jungle Alley, for this strip of 133rd Street between Lenox and Seventh avenues provided the densest aggregation of nightclubs and cabarets in New York. Most of the big clubs catered to a predominantly white trade. Variety listed eleven, but the uncontested Big Three were the Cotton Club, Connie's Inn, and Small's Paradise.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/blues/where.html
Although the blues culture provided space for interracial socializing it also provided space for racial segregation. Mafia owned clubs along "Jungle Alley" (a strip of 133rd St. between Lenox and Seventh Ave.), like the Cotton Club, Small's Paradise and Connie's Inn, catered to an exclusively white clientele. Performers at these clubs, especially women were young and "high yellow," light skinned. Unlike the "rent parties" and "buffet flats," the performers did not ever socialize with the audience. Bessie Smith did not perform at these clubs, it was not "her people," and she was "too black" to be accepted there.
http://www.juneteenthlegacytheatre.com/jam_arch2.htm
Saturday, June 12th, 8 p.m.Jungle Alley Salutes Ladies of Jazz by Lillian R. Butler
Lenora, a cleaning woman, takes us on a historical journey when Harlem clubs on 139th Street off Seventh Avenue (Jungle Alley) were in vogue with live jazz bands and hot dancers. Lenora weaves magic in verse and lyric in this humorous. and honest musical tribute to Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and Josephine Baker. These pioneer artists' songs include, Gimme a Pigfoot, Mood Indigo, Strange Fruit, plus many more, which deeply influenced future generations of singers.
22 January 1935, Daily News (Frederick, MD), "In New York" by Paul Harrison, pg. 4, col. 7:
Jungle Alley (133rd street) doesn't seem in the least forbidding these nights. A few little places are running, but they're pure sepian and the appearance of a white person is considered something of an intrusion.
"Jungle Alley" was popular in the 1920s, but had largely diminished by the end of the 1930s.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/blues/watson.html
THE WHITE-ORIENTED TRADE CLUBS. A newcomer to Harlem would invariably start at Jungle Alley, for this strip of 133rd Street between Lenox and Seventh avenues provided the densest aggregation of nightclubs and cabarets in New York. Most of the big clubs catered to a predominantly white trade. Variety listed eleven, but the uncontested Big Three were the Cotton Club, Connie's Inn, and Small's Paradise.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/blues/where.html
Although the blues culture provided space for interracial socializing it also provided space for racial segregation. Mafia owned clubs along "Jungle Alley" (a strip of 133rd St. between Lenox and Seventh Ave.), like the Cotton Club, Small's Paradise and Connie's Inn, catered to an exclusively white clientele. Performers at these clubs, especially women were young and "high yellow," light skinned. Unlike the "rent parties" and "buffet flats," the performers did not ever socialize with the audience. Bessie Smith did not perform at these clubs, it was not "her people," and she was "too black" to be accepted there.
http://www.juneteenthlegacytheatre.com/jam_arch2.htm
Saturday, June 12th, 8 p.m.Jungle Alley Salutes Ladies of Jazz by Lillian R. Butler
Lenora, a cleaning woman, takes us on a historical journey when Harlem clubs on 139th Street off Seventh Avenue (Jungle Alley) were in vogue with live jazz bands and hot dancers. Lenora weaves magic in verse and lyric in this humorous. and honest musical tribute to Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and Josephine Baker. These pioneer artists' songs include, Gimme a Pigfoot, Mood Indigo, Strange Fruit, plus many more, which deeply influenced future generations of singers.
22 January 1935, Daily News (Frederick, MD), "In New York" by Paul Harrison, pg. 4, col. 7:
Jungle Alley (133rd street) doesn't seem in the least forbidding these nights. A few little places are running, but they're pure sepian and the appearance of a white person is considered something of an intrusion.