Month: December 2019

Gene Harris’ Epicure Room

Joanne Yeck

Menu Club Alabam’s Epicure Room.

In the late 1950s, proprietor Gene Harris focused on fine dining at the Club Alabam, launching his Epicure Room.

Terry Hunter reviewed the dining experience for the Chicago Sun-Times and opened by stating that nightclubs and good food didn’t always go together. In the case of Gene Harris’ restaurant, however, the name Epicure was no misnomer.

Skillful Maître d’ Jules Reiser prepared an outstanding tableside salad. Breast of chicken, served in a delicious Madeira sauce, was paired with Virginia ham “Eugenie.” Portions were generous. A plate full of Canadian walleye was big enough for two diners. The salad was “a work of art” and dessert, a Vesuvius, was ice cream topped with flaming cherry sauce, seated in dry ice, and steamed like a volcano. Dinner prices ranged from $4.50 to $6.50. The Epicure Room sat fifty patrons. Restaurant reviewer Terry Hunter advised reservations.

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If you enjoy local history, especially the world of entertainment, follow me at joannelyeck.com or on the Facebook page: The Blackest Sheep.

The Blackest Sheep: Dan Blanco, Evelyn Nesbit, Gene Harris and Chicago’s Club Alabam is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other online bookstores.

Chicago’s Chez Paree

Joanne Yeck

Chicago’s Chez Paree.

Over the decades, Gene Harris’ Club Alabam had plenty of competition, however, many of Chicago’s nightclubs, such as Chez Paree, drew a different kind of clientele. Located at 610 N. Fairbanks Court, in contrast to Rush Street’s gritty atmosphere, it was a glamorous nightclub, featuring a chorus line of Chez Paree Adorables; cigarette girls who also carried cameras to snap pictures of the patrons enjoying a night on the town; and irresistible dice girls.

Mike Fritzel (known as the “Dean of Chicago nightclub proprietors”) opened Chez Paree in December of 1932.  It operated until 1960, booking big names such as Louis Armstrong, the Andrews Sisters, Danny Thomas, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Tony Bennett.

The establishment included a Key Club located behind the bandstand which required an actual key if a customer wanted access to the back room.

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If you enjoy local history, especially the world of entertainment, follow me at joannelyeck.com or on the Facebook page: The Blackest Sheep.

The Blackest Sheep: Dan Blanco, Evelyn Nesbit, Gene Harris and Chicago’s Club Alabam is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other online bookstores.

Dan Blanco Vaudevillian

Joanne Yeck

Dan Blanco in “Birds of a Feather.”

Dan Blanco, founder of Chicago’s Club Alabam, spent many years as a performer in cabarets and in vaudeville, learning what it took to put on a good show.

In January of 1919, Blanco starred in a musical skit, “Birds of a Feather,” playing a week’s engagement at Indianapolis’ Lyric Theater where seats sold for 10, 20 and 30 cents. There, he received positive reviews in the Indianapolis Star.  The show was described as a nautical musical comedy. Dan Blanco portrayed Capt. Kidd, who is discovered on his treasure island by members of a twelve person company. Inez Bellaire, whose dimpled cheeks and blonde curls were featured on the sheet music for “The Girl You Can’t Forget” (1916), played the ingénue and the act was said to be one of the costliest then touring the vaudeville circuits. The costumes and scenery were particularly lavish and Blanco was called “a funmaker well known to devotees of musical farce.” One review noted that Blanco’s “piratical mustaches” and Bellaire’s “graceful dancing” were received with “hearty and impartial applause.”

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If you enjoy local history, especially the world of entertainment, follow me at joannelyeck.com or on the Facebook page: The Blackest Sheep.

The Blackest Sheep: Dan Blanco, Evelyn Nesbit, Gene Harris and Chicago’s Club Alabam is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other online bookstores.

 

Evelyn Nesbit & John Barrymore

Joanne Yeck

John Barrymore in My Dear Children.

In 1939, Evelyn Nesbit made her last known appearance at Chicago’s Club Alabam.  During this engagement, she was reunited with an old flame, John Barrymore.

That spring, Barrymore was appearing at Chicago’s Selwyn Theater in the comedy My Dear Children. Following one rollicking evening on stage, the tired thespian found his way to Gene Harris’ Club Alabam, to find Evelyn Nesbit on stage. The histrionic Barrymore publically declared his love for her, recalling their unrequited, youthful romance, no doubt receiving shocked applause from the Club Alabam regulars.

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If you enjoy local history, especially the world of entertainment, follow me at joannelyeck.com or on the Facebook page: The Blackest Sheep.

The Blackest Sheep: Dan Blanco, Evelyn Nesbit, Gene Harris and Chicago’s Club Alabam is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other online bookstores.