Club Harlem
*Club Harlem was a nightclub that opened on this date in 1935, at 32 North Kentucky Avenue in the Northside neighborhood of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Leroy "Pop" Williams founded it, and it became the city's premier club for Black jazz performers. Like its Harlem counterpart, the Cotton Club, many of Club Harlem's guests were white, wealthy, and eager to experience a night of Black entertainment. An elaborate all-Black revue called Smart Affairs, produced by Larry Steele and headquartered at the club from 1946 to 1971, featured 40 to 50 acts and was on a par with Broadway productions.
Performers at the club included Sammy Davis Jr., Dick Gregory, Dinah Washington, Bootsie Barnes, Gladys Knight, Teddy Pendergrass, Hot Lips Page, and Wild Bill Davis. Club Harlem had seven bars, two lounges, and a main showroom with more than 900 people. A cocktail lounge had room for 400 guests with continuous entertainment available.
Club Harlem was the site of the 1972 Easter morning assassination of the Black Mafia's "Fat" Tyrone Palmer in full view of a show audience. Four rival operatives entered the club and shot Palmer in the face after the featured singer, Billy Paul, finished his opening song. Palmer's bodyguard and three women were killed in the melee that ensued, and 20 people were injured. Business dropped off after that.
The club went into a steep decline between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s as the introduction of casino gambling on the Atlantic City Boardwalk pulled business away from Club Harlem and other streetside nightspots. In the winter of 1986, it was purchased by a developer for $200,000 and shuttered; it had last opened for two weeks in the summer of 1986; it was the last of Atlantic City's major golden age nightclubs still in operation.
The club was demolished in 1992. Since 2010, mementos salvaged from the club have been part of a traveling exhibition in Atlantic City and other locales.
