Evelyn Nesbit’s Griffons

Joanne Yeck

Evelyn Nesbit (1924).

In 1925, Evelyn Nesbit made a spectacular comeback at Chicago’s Moulin Rouge Café. She traveled with her four Belgian Griffons.  Never without a lapdog or two or three, Evelyn’s beloved Griffons even accompanied her to Panama.

“They are so much more companionable than men,” she told the press. “Dogs are honest and faithful and never deceitful. That’s more than you can say for some men.”

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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.

Gene Harris’ Fashion Club Stables

Joanne Yeck

 

In addition to owning and operating Chicago’s Club Alabam, Gene Harris loved horses and riding thoroughbreds.  In 1937, Harris’ deep Virginia roots were showing when he purchased the Fashion Club Stables, located on North Cleveland Avenue, one block west of Clark Street.

Harris’ lighthearted personality infused every business he launched and his advertisements for the stables echoed his amusing ads for Club Alabam.

Tragically, the stables burned in 1945, killing a total of eighty horses.

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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.

Shootout at the Northern Lights

Joanne Yeck 1 Comment

Dorothy Kester, showgirl at the Northern Lights.

During Prohibition, Chicago was filled with mob-driven violence.  No one was exempt from getting in the line of fire, including Club Alabam founder Dan Blanco.

In 1924, Blanco was the proprietor of a Chicago roadhouse called Northern Lights, a “gangster friendly” café. One muggy summer night it became a crime scene.

Johnny Phillips, a classic puck, roughed up one of the showgirls, Dorothy Kester. The police were summoned.  Shooting ensued.  Phillips was killed and a policeman injured.

None of this was good for business and the officials put a padlock on Northern Lights. Remarkably, Dan Blanco escaped with his reputation intact.

Eager to read the full story?  It’s detailed in my newest book, The Blackest Sheep.

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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 Wows Chicago

Joanne Yeck

Moulin Rouge Café.  416 South Wabash Ave. Courtesy Chicago Tribune.

 In 1925, Stage Manager Dan Blanco took a chance on hiring the volatile Evelyn Nesbit as the star attraction at Bill Rothstein’s Moulin Rouge Café.

Newspaper advertisements warned that this engagement was “Positively Miss Nesbit’s Last Public Appearance,” which was far from the truth but may have attracted crowds. It was quickly apparent that Bill Rothstein had a sensational hit on his hands.

In her cabaret act, Evelyn wore striking black and white gowns. She no longer danced professionally (as she had in vaudeville). Instead, songs filled her act. The cabaret pace was perfect for a middle-aged mother.

During her appearance at the Moulin Rouge, Dan Blanco and Evelyn Nesbit would cement a long-lasting relationship and, within a few years, she would grace the stage at his new establishment, Rush Street’s Club Alabam.

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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’s Chicago Comeback

Joanne Yeck

Winston-Salem Journal (31 May 1925)

Before the founding of Club Alabam, Evelyn Nesbit worked with Dan Blanco at Bill Rothstein’s Moulin Rouge Café, located at 416 South Wabash Ave. in Chicago’s Loop.

In 1925, after trying review-style shows at his café, Rothstein hired Blanco to create a cabaret-type show, with star bookings. In May, the announcement of Evelyn Nesbit’s forthcoming appearance at the Moulin Rouge became national news.

At forty, Evelyn maintained her youthful beauty.  Her famous Gibson Girl curls had long been bobbed, adding to her pert appearance.  Chicago stood ready to welcome her with open arms.

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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.

Gene Harris’ Club Alabam

Joanne Yeck

By the mid-1930s, Gene Harris was the sole proprietor of Chicago’s Club Alabam and his effervescent personality defined the popular nightspot.  His wit and charm drew a relaxed, fun-loving crowd. His snappy advertisements in local papers attracted the outgoing patrons he enjoyed.

In 1939, ad headlines like “Maybe We’re Crazy . . .” sold a lot of Flaming Crater Dinners at the reasonable price of $1.50.  Four shows nightly kept customers flowing into Harris’ club until the wee hours of the morning. Solid talent like Lil Bernard and Flo Henrie worked Club Alabam for years.

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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.

King of the Mafia

Joanne Yeck

In 1910, Dan Blanco and his Rathskellerians made headlines with a pastiche of Italian opera called “King of the Mafia.”  This musical treat gained popularity at White City amusement park.  The sketch opened with these bold lines:

I am the king of the Mafia,

When I get mad I get daffia;

I sink a stiletto right into your back,

If I don’t I’m a son of a gun.

For decades, Club Alabam founder Dan Blanco would maintain friendly relations with Chicago’s gangsters, skirting Chicago’s vice laws before, during, and after Prohibition. Rubbing shoulders with the criminal element went with the territory and gunplay (if not stilettos) sometimes ended in violent death.

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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.

White City

Joanne Yeck

Chicago’s White City.

Located at 63rd Street and South Park Avenue on Chicago’s South Side, White City employed hundreds of entertainers, including Dan Blanco, founder of Rush Street’s Club Alabam.

The $1,000,000 pleasure park opened on May 27, 1905, proving a perfect venue for Dan Blanco and his troupe of “Rathskellerians.”  They played the park’s Rathskeller for many summers and, years later, Dan Blanco continue to hire his musical friends at Club Alabam.

White City’s diverse programing included a band concert, gondola rides, a fire show (a three hundred  foot street scene, complete with police, pedestrians, and a burning building, ultimately saved by men from three fire companies!), and thrill rides that “bumped the bump.” The famous and novel infant incubators, fresh from the Saint Louis World’s Fair, were on display. Midget City was a popular feature. There was a photograph gallery, an observation wheel, and a ballroom ready to accommodate 2,400 eager dancers.

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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

Joanne Yeck

Evelyn Nesbit.

When I first began research about my great uncle Gene Harris and his legendary Chicago nightspot, Club Alabam, I wasn’t confident that there was an audience for his story. Then I discovered that the scandalous beauty Evelyn Nesbit performed at the club, becoming a friend and colleague of Dan Blanco and later Gene Harris.

If you recognize the name Evelyn Nesbit, you were likely introduced to her in the novel Ragtime, which was later made into a movie and, more recently, a Broadway musical. If you are new to Evelyn’s life story, you are bound to find it captivating.

While the details of her early life and her connection to “the crime of the century” (her husband Harry K. Thaw’s cold-blooded murder of her former lover Stanford White) had been told and retold, Evelyn’s long and fascinating life following the 1907 and 1908 trials was treated as anti-climactic.

During and after Prohibition, Evelyn supported herself and her only son, Russell Thaw, by working in cabarets and nightclubs. Criminals and powerful gangsters populated her world. Addiction to narcotics, initially used for pain relief, plagued her for decades. Her roller coaster of successes and failures, in love and in show business, was a wild ride.

My new book, The Blackest Sheep, recounts the “second half” of Evelyn’s biography, revealing her phenomenal inner strength, native intelligence, and ability to survive notoriety that would have destroyed most women.

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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 Novelty Night Club: Club Alabam

Joanne Yeck

In 1927, when Dan Blanco opened Club Alabam at 747 Rush Street in downtown Chicago, the Roaring Twenties were going strong and Prohibition still gripped the nation. Establishing a new cabaret-style nightclub without the ability to serve legal liquor was a risky move. Dan Blanco, however, was a seasoned showman who had worked steadily in saloons, amusement parks, cabarets, and on the vaudeville stage. He had mounted shows at the popular Moulin Rouge Café, located in the Loop, and had operated a notorious roadhouse called Northern Lights, frequented by Chicago’s criminal element.

Blanco was connected to the best talent in town and staged popular entertainment night after night at Club Alabam. He offered good food at reasonable prices. And, while Prohibition was still in force, there was a relaxed attitude about liquor. His headwaiter and eventual partner was my great uncle, the effervescent Gene Harris. Together, their personalities made the nightclub a Rush Street institution.

My new book, The Blackest Sheep, tells how these two men managed to juggle the law and booze-selling gangsters. Life on the margins of respectable society could be thrilling as well as dangerous!

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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.