Technically.....this really isn't the proper place for this, but when you think about it: people who lurk here would probably have interesting answers.

Although I don't have any online subscriptions to Genii or AskAlexander or anything of that ilk, members of IBM Ring 266 are lucky enough to have a "club library" generously provided by our V.P., Mark Kilsby. That being said, I've spent a lot of my life over the past several years perusing some old copies of many great magic periodicals. In light of that, a thought occurred to me recently:

What has happened to all the old (style) nightclubs? Every article you read in those old mags talks about this guy or that guy performing a "4 month run in The Twilight Room at the Drake hotel in Chicago last year"......etc. etc.

Hotels today have little bars, with karaoke and some tired guy playing a keyboard with a drum machine shuffling along......but what about those GRAND nightclubs? Where are they? Why don't they come back?

I was born too late!

The "clubs" are there, just different... for the purple hair and tattoo crowd... Lots of noise, loud music and idiotic activities.

You might want to check with Max Maven about this. He did a whole lecture on the subject of close-up magic in Chicago, and why it developed there.

I PM'ed him. Let's see if he responds.

If you yearn for the old fashioned night-club experience, link up with several caterers and/or dance bands in your area. You'll find weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, banquets of all types are being held in clubs and halls that have evolved from the restaurant-style permanent night club. The venues are still there, but their clientel have changed with the times, and you may be able to merge your magic act into the flow of food and music that they offer. Don't overlook the DJ and Karaoke crowds, either. Those guys all need a break, but you can keep the show going for them during the interim.

Good advice....thank you.

I always regretted not snapping up a book I saw in a bookstore probably 30+ years ago on "the golden age of nightclubs" with photographs of all the legendary clubs of yesterday. They are gone - along with vaudeville. Todays clubs pale by comparison.

I guess magicians of today have to settle for working raucous comedy clubs.

Would love to hear Mr. Mavens talk on the Chicago bar scene. I always enjoyed reading Frances Marshall's column about the Chicago magic scene many years ago.

I wonder whatever happened to Jon Raucherbaumer's planned book on bar magicians? I am sure I read, many years ago, that he was working on one. Maybe I just dreamed that? Wish someone would do it.

Yes, but these are private events, and the chances are that you can't crash them. And trying to find a break in a Karaoke show is futile. It's like trying to get a fifteen year old kid who has a bunch of street magic downloads to stop. I don't know whether Paul was thinking about trying to find a place to work or a place to see magic. However, there are night clubs in Chicago that still have magic shows.

David Parr, Neil Tobin and P.T. Murphy are doing things in the Chicago clubs.

As far as getting booked into the Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah venues, that's a tough market to break into. You need to contact party planners, etc. to book them.

In Chicago, you have to get union support to really do well in any of the night club venues.

The "nightclub" era evolved during Prohibition (1920-1933) when clandestine speakeasies attracted people out to have a good time and have a few drinks (illegal though they were.) Coincidentally, jazz and later swing/big band music was evolving. Also, vaudeville was on the wane at this same time and nightclubs became a new venue for live entertainers as "floor shows" were produced by clubs to attract larger crowds of drinkers and non-dancers.

The nightclub era really hit its stride after Prohibition, peaking between 1935 and 1950. Floor shows were packaged in a vaudeville format with several acts; usually an M.C./comedian, singer, novelty act (magician, etc.) and a ballroom or specialty dance act. Of course for magicians it meant most had to re-routine their acts so they could work surrounded. In most clubs where the shows were staged on the dance floor the audience was on three sides and the band was on the bandstand behind the performer. Many of the clubs were spectacular as they were attached to major hotels and became centers of entertainment in many cities. Clubs vied for the top acts and a "circuit" (just like during vaudeville) developed that could keep a good act working nightclubs across the country 52 weeks a year.

There were many great night club magicians, most with stand-up style small prop acts. Jack Gwynne was an exception, presenting a full act of illusions, which was unique at the time. Because of the nightclub era, illusions changed from being stage furniture to more portable props which involved audience members (a'la Robert Harbin.)

The nightclub era died out for several reasons, the foremost being the post-WWII "baby boom" which kept the former nightclubbing parents at home with their children, and also the development of television, which kept most everyone at home during the evenings. Also, after WWII the big band era was over as music styles had changed. Vocalists, small groups and rock came on the scene, all of which combined to effectively end the nightclub era by the early 1960's. The Playboy clubs were still using acts up through the 1980's, and the last vestiges of the nightclub era can still be found to a degree in Las Vegas, Reno and Atlantic City.

It was an amazing era for show business and for magic.

And you can bet that the nightclub magicians were all moaning about the loss of the big stages and great theatre houses of vaudeville, just as today they moan about the loss of the beautiful nightclubs. No one seems to like change and no one seems to look forward to the next evolution of the magician's venue. Instead, we always tend to glorify the past and forget that once upon a time the past was the terrifying future.

I think the that nightclubs were a "terrifying future" for many, many magicians. Just as when sound motion pictures killed the careers of many silent movie stars who could not adapt to the medium.

The big change came in audience attitude. In vaudeville, audiences knew they were going to the theater to see a SHOW and behaved as such. In nightclubs the patrons were there primarily to eat, drink and dance. The floor show was added fodder for the evening, but was not the focus of the experience. With alcohol added to the audience it created an entirely different dynamic for the performer. Many clubs were also not ideal theatrical venues with bad sightlines and audiences all on the same seating level, making it difficult to see the magician (although they could enjoy a verbal comedian or singer without seeing them, it was very hard for magicians who rely upon being seen.) This meant the magician had to fight harder to get the audience's attention and garner a reaction.

Many performers could not adapt, and those who did found it a higher-stress working environment. The stress helped contribute to the creation of many alcoholic performers; Paul Rosini and Bert Allerton come readily to mind who were "stars" in the field but found tremendous stress from working in it, which they relieved with alcohol.

I do know that Jack Gwynne never moaned about the loss of theaters, he simply looked at nightclubs as a new vehicle for performance and adapted to the medium. But it was not an easy change for most magicians.

I think television had more to do with killing the nightclubs than the baby boom did. My father was a nightclub entertainer. He worked a lot in Jackson, Mississippi and the Mississippi coast -- Biloxi, etc. His career picked up again right after WWII, and extended into the 1970's. By then he had gotten away from the "Mississippi Speakeasy Circuit" and moved on to much better things. BTW, Mississippi was the last "dry" state. Oklahoma billed itself as that, but Mississippi was still dry for another 5-10 years after Oklahoma decided to go wet. Mississippi had a bootlegger's tax. That went off the books once the Harrisson act was declared unconstitutional.

Texas was a phenomenon all to itself. Liquor by the drink (in public venues) was illegal until the 1970's. The individual clubs sold "memberships" for as little as $1.00, which gave the purchaser the right to buy booze over the counter.

There was a fairly large upsurge in building of night clubs in Texas, particularly around the Houston-Galveston area, after WW II. The most popular night club in Houston after WWII was probably the Emerald Room at the Shamrock Hotel. Del Ray worked that room, as did the Smothers Brothers, the New Crusty Nostrils, I mean, the New Christy Minstrels, and a host of other entertainers. The baby boom had little effect on this group of clubs. People who could afford to go to nightclubs could afford baby sitters. The chief source of revenue in these clubs was oilmen, lawyers and doctors.

There was also the big Comedy Club boom -- smaller stages, but still they had a tendency to book a comic as an opener, a variety artist as a middle act, and another comic as a headliner. The exceptions to these were when Harry Anderson and Harry Blackstone, Jr. worked the comedy clubs, they were headliners. I saw both of these men at the Laff Stop in Houston.

The movies took their toll as well. There were a number of vaudeville theatres that converted to movies. The Majestic was one. They still had their big stage, though. I saw Harry Blackstone Sr. at either the Majestic or the Metropolitan when I was about 6 years old. Again, that was a few years after WW II.

Posted: Jan 14, 2010 1:17pm
I should add that the "death" of any type of venue was seldom instantaneous. There was a time, for example, when vaudeville shows would feature a movie "short." WW II may have been a major contributing factor in the demise of vaudeville, as well.

By the time the war was over, the remaining vaudeville theatres had converted to movie theatres. There was also a WPA project that built movie theatres. The Bellaire theatre in Houston was one of these. The stage was basically too shallow for a regular show act. When Van Burch debuted his Sorcery show at the Bellaire theatre, there was major stage reconstruction and building that was necessary in order to make it a viable magic venue.

I think a comparison to the comedy club "boom" and "bust" would be appropriate. In the early 1980's, there were about 25 comedy clubs in the US. There were about 75 stand-up comics. Then, in a period of about 3 years, the number of comedy clubs expanded to about 3000. Almost every motel with a club room had a comedy night. There were 8 full time comedy clubs in Houston at the peak of the boom, not including other venues that were just add-ons. Unfortunately, they needed 9000 comics to work these clubs. But there weren't 9000 comics available. There were still only about 75. The rest were people who were either not very good or not very funny.

However, eventually, a crop of about 300 really good comics emerged. I watched Ellen Degeneris do a showcase in Houston. She did five minutes of outstanding material at the Laff Stop. I'm sure she hit the other clubs as well. But the stages at most of these clubs were usually no more than 8 feet deep and most had no backstage area at all. They were not easy for a magician to work.

Now most of these clubs have folded or have changed into Karaoke bars. And the 2700 bad comics are back to wearing lampshades on their heads at private parties.

There is a book, now out of print, called NIGHTCLUB NIGHTS by Susan Waggoner, with the whole story and lots of great pictures.

The good news is that there are plenty of good used copies available, in good condition, on the Advanced Book Exchange, click HERE for more info. SETH

The Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, Calif., is still going strong.

Magic Castle, Magicopolis, Magic Island Houston, Warren and Anabell's Maui.

Most of my shows are shows that I have booked. Coming from a prior music back ground, 80's hair metal, and now living in Athens, Georgia, which has a thriving music scene and is home to REM, the B52s and Wide Spread Panic, I approached magic like music; I booked myself like a band books themselves. I have eschewed the bars, as the bands play there - - and they are my biggest competition - - but I have just resorted to renting out venues like the old local theaters and some hotels.

I basically just rent the place for two nights, Friday and Saturday, and go with the show. It has been lucrative. The down side is that it confines me to North East Georgia and the Carolinas. But they have led to other shows as well and those other shows, the private parties and corporate gigs, are starting to come more and more. The whole thing kinda-sorta has that old night club vibe. It's also a lot of work but it's cool. In fact when a local theater comes back, after suffering a devestating fire, I am thinking of booking an evening of magic, mayhem and tom foolery with other magicians, mentalists (hopefully) and such.

Peace and Godspeed.

Venues do change. Today live entertainment in general is offered less than decades ago. High-end country clubs, once my best paying market, are all but gone. Today a country club is a bar with a golf course for (unemployed) people who have union cards and drive pickup trucks. They seldom own their business and are employees, if they are lucky. The audience has different wants and needs from the ones that were known fifty years ago.

Most night clubs are really only bars with recorded music. Social changes essentially put an end to the exclusive memberships that financed these better venues of yester-year. As they became less exclusive and more public they also became lower budget and with lower expectations. As an entertainer and agency owner, it is very different today from most of what was seen even into the 80s. Today perhaps "dressing to go out" for the average audience means changing underwear. Before, it was a grand deal! It was a social investment. These places offered entertainment rather than just being feeding stations and watering holes.

But the real things do still exist. They're just not near as many. Often they are also a much smaller version of what once was out there. I still prefer them. But also the only way I have ever aspired to being a free broadcast TV magician was in commercial ads as talent. There is a difference there too from what many think of as a TV magician. One size does not fit all.

In my younger days I worked enough "leap in, limp outs" to get my fill. Classy audiences dressed to go out and made reservations. I don't miss the drunks and smoke of the more public venues. They just aren't my target audience. But they are a market for someone.

Class never goes out of style but the population with it isn't growing in the USA. Venues are ultimately there to separate people from their money. Fit is important.

You don't need to know which fork to use with a pizza or cheeseburger and beer.

Bob Sanders
Magic by Sander

Magic Island has been closed since Hurricane Ike. That's more than a year.

Sorry to hear that.

Bill,

What if you were so old that the last time you played Atlantic City it was at the Steel Pier? Most people are too young to know that it even burned!

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander