The Crown Propeller Lounge
The Crown Propeller Lounge
contemporary photography
Link to the picture
(Please note copyrights )
The Crown Propeller Lounge was a nightclub on Chicago's South Side that existed from 1951 to 1959.
The Crown Propeller Lounge (868 East Sixty-third and Drexel Avenue) was one of the most famous rhythm, blues and jazz venues in Chicago in the 1950s. It was in the Woodlawn entertainment district by Cottage Grove; the address was 868 East 63rd Street; Nearby were well-known venues such as Club DeLisa , Compass Tavern, Cadillac Lounge, Cotton Club and Bee Hive , but also the Pershing Lounge . After the club had already existed in the first half of the 1940s, it was under new management on August 3, 1951 with performances by singer Ethel Duncan and the trio of jazz violinist Leon Abbey opened.
In the following years, u. a. Artists like Ernestine "Tiny" Davis, Paul Bascomb , Wynonie Harris , Stomp Gordon , Jo Jo Adams , Big Maybelle , Ray Charles , Andy Tibbs , Danny Overbea , Nellie Lutcher , Amos Milburn , Johnny Hodges , Big Joe Turner , Sonny Stitt , Jimmy Rushing , Al Hibbler , T-Bone Walker , Dizzy Gillespie , Arthur Prysock , Bill Doggett , Valaida Snow , Sax Mallard , Roy Milton , Rudy Green and Illinois Jacquet , as well as R&B and doo-wop groups like The Ravens , The Orioles , The El Torros, The Rhythm Aces (who recorded in the club), The Flamingos and The Moonglows . LaVern Baker appeared there in 1951 as Little Miss Sharecropper , based on the Little Miss Cornshucks, then popular in Chicago . The Miles Davis Quintet with John Coltrane also had an engagement here from December 21 to 27, 1956.
The Crown Propeller Lounge
contemporary night shot of the facade
Link to the picture
(Please note copyrights )
The owners were Mildred "Mitzi" Schlossberg (1916–2016) and Norman Schlossberg. Amateur competitions for vocal groups were also held regularly in the club; in it took u. a. 1954 the The Five Chances participated. The attraction of the Crown Propeller in the early years was a 500 gallon illuminated aquarium in which a young woman named “Atlantis” swam in a mermaid costume.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Janet Coleman: The Compass: The Improvisational Theater that Revolutionized American Comedy 1991, p. 191 and John Gagnon in Bennett M. Berger (ed.): Authors of Their Own Lives: Intellectual Autobiographies by Twenty American Sociologists 1992, p. 221
- ^ A b c Robert Pruter: Doowop: The Chicago Scene Chicago 1997, p. 14
- ↑ St. Sukie de la Croix: Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago before Stonewall , p. 153
- ↑ < Jumpin 'at Smalls (portrait)
- ↑ The Ravens Band Portrait
- ^ Marv Goldberg: Band portrait
- ↑ The Rhythm Aces at Allmusic (English)
- ↑ Chicago Jazz Archive: Jazz in Hyde Park
- ^ Lewis Porter: John Coltrane: His Life and Music , p. 355
- ^ Peter Losin: Miles Ahead session details
- ↑ Two Nights at the Crown Propeller Lounge (2016)
- ↑ Crown Propeller Blog
- ↑ The Five Chances at Allmusic (English)