Eblon Theater

The Eblon Theater was constructed in 1922 as a venue for vaudeville and motion pictures. Designed by architect Paul L. Anthony, the structure seated 1,000 people and was faced with a Spanish Colonial façade. At its opening in 1923, the Kansas City Call remarked that “Nothing has been spared to make this the finest motion picture house for colored people in this part of the country,” and innovative amenities included restrooms, uniformed ushers, and an overhead cooling system.

The Eblon Orchestra broadcast each week from the theater on local radio stations, and Bill (later known as Count) Basie was the house organist for silent films. Basie, who had come to Kansas City on the black vaudeville circuit, was left stranded in 1927 when the act that had brought him was disbanded. He became closely associated with the space in the following years.

Chez Paree

In Sherry Lamb Schirmer’s “A City Divided,” Schirmer reports that during times of excessive police force during the 1940s and 1950s in Kansas City, Chez Paree hosted a weekly jam session with black and white musicians called the Hot Club. Schirmer states that the police began stopping white patrons and musicians who tried to enter the Hot Club. “According to [Police] Chief Anderson, the action was merely an example of crime prevention, since violations of the law were certain to occur wherever liquor, hot jazz, and interracial dancing were found. If the club was a breeding ground of lawlessness, countered the Urban League’s Dorothy Davis in a meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners, then police out to bar blacks from attending as well. In fact, the police did just that in bars that whites patronized.” states Schirmer.

Schirmer goes on to write that, “The Hot Club case raised considerable alarm among black leaders because it appeared to jeopardize interracial cooperation.”

Cherry Blossom club

On April 1933, located at the old Elbon Theater building on 1822 Vine Street, the Cherry Blossom Club had its grand opening. “The finest nightclub ever opened for Negroes in this city.” Ananias Buford, the designer and also the manager of the Club, commented to a newspaper, The Call, with confidence. Kansas City jazz relished its heydays in the nightclub. It was where great Count Basie and Bennie Moten honed and performed their untrammeled Moten Swing songs. It was also where two fabulous saxophonists, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, left a legendary but mysterious story of their all-night lasted jazz battle.

In the early 1930s, the impact of the Great Depression hit African Americans hard in Kansas City. Also, the growing power of underworld figures, such as Tom Pendergast, over the nightlife and changing musical tastes caused a transition in Kansas City dance halls from the semi-formal ballroom style venues toward nightclubs. In nightclubs for white patrons, black performers still acted out the old stereotypes that associated their race with crime and sexual disorder. However, started in the transition, the Cherry Blossom Club provided an opportunity for African Americans to enjoy jazz music in a safe space.

Ananias Buford, the manager of the Club, reported to the Call that the Cherry Blossom Club “intend[s] to offer the best in floor attractions, foods and music for local amusement-seekers. No if[’s] and and[’s] about it.” Unlike any other nightclubs that catered to African Americans, the Cherry Blossom Club offered a very unique but compelling vibe to its customers. It was decorated in a Japanese style and had a dancing area and an orchestra platform. A large Japanese God made out of plaster was the focal piece of the Club. The musicians’ area was concealed behind pictures describing famous rolling hills of Japan. Dragon emblems and other Japanese monsters decorated in the platform and pictures of oriental landscapes on the wall all would marvel whoever visited the nightclub.

The Call highlighted the fever from the grand opening of the Cherry Blossom Club on April 8th, 1933. “At 9 o’clock Saturday night, persons began forming a line in front of the club, which quickly lengthened until it stretched half a block away … Approximately 1,100 paid their way into Cherry Blossom. That many more were turned away.” Famous George E. Lee and his orchestra performed on the luxurious platform that night while L. C. “Speedy” Huggins demonstrated his excellency of tap dancing. Many representative artists of the Kansas City Jazz era performed at the Cherry Blossom Club. George E, Lee’s band played for the first few months of the nightclub. Bennie Moten and his orchestra succeeded the position after them. However, by September 1933, trouble within Moten’s band led them to kick out their leader and invite someone else. The orchestra’s new leader was a pianist who called himself Count: the legendary Count Basie. It was the beginning of Count Basie and his Cherry Blossom Orchestra.

Bibliography

“1176 Attend Opening of New Cherry Blossom Club.” The Call, April 14, 1933. Marr Sound Archives. Chuck Haddix's Private File.

Burke, Diane Mutti, Jason Roe, and John Herron, eds. Wide-Open Town : Kansas City in the Pendergast Era. University Press of Kansas, 2018.

“Gala Opening For Cherry Blossom Soon.” The Call, March 17, 1933. Marr Sound Archives. Chuck Haddix's Private File.

The Pendergast Years. “L.C. ‘Speedy’ Huggins,” February 22, 2018. https://pendergastkc.org/article/biography/l-c-speedy-huggins.

Schirmer, Sherry Lamb. A City Divided : The Racial Landscape of Kansas City, 1900-1960. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2002.

Simonson, John. Prohibition in Kansas City, Missouri: Highballs, Spooners & Crooked Dice. Arcadia Publishing, 2018.

Content Provided by:

Jisung Lee, student at the University of Missouri Kansas City as part of Dr. Sandra Enriquez’s Urban History Class.

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