A Canadian Family

All That Jazz – The Top Hat Cafe in the City of Sin (Montreal,Quebec)

Matchbook Cover

In my post Neon Signs/Modern Times, I analyzed a vintage postcard of Ste-Catherine Street, and one of the enlarged details showed a neon sign shaped like a  top hat and cane. This turned out to be the famous Top Hat Cafe – a well-known 1940s/50s hotspot from Montreal’s nightclub scene. The Top Hat and the Bellevue Casino were two of the nightclubs that my parents frequented as a young couple. My parents loved Big Band style jazz (they were avid dancers) and my father loved Lili St. Cyr (which is not fodder for this blog!) so the post WWII years were great for them.

Today I’m sharing a vintage matchbook cover from the Top Hat Cafe, and an excerpt from Collet Tracey‘s article Montreal: Its Role in the Beginnings of Modernism in Canada, describing how Montreal came to be known as Canada’s city of sin (whereas our “rival” was Toronto the Good!)

“….. In addition to these more sordid details, prohibition was in place in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s so leading gangsters, such as Al Capone, frequented Montreal. Even though it was illegal to drink alcoholic beverages in public places in Canada, Montreal boasted at least fifteen major nightclubs and twenty-five or more smaller lounges, all of which served liquor along with flamboyant floor shows. Most of these establishments were located on or near Montreal’s main strip, St. Catherine Street, and they included the Venetian Gardens, the Pagoda, the Jardin de Danse, the Palais de Danse, the Brass Rail on Drummond Street, and the Frolics on St. Lawrence Main.

During the 1940s new owners replaced the old names with the Latin Quarter, the Esquire, the Maroon Club, the Samovar, the Copacabana, the Top Hat, the Tic Toc, and the Normandie Roof. Big Band and Dixieland Jazz came first to Montreal where it was in full swing by the 1940s, and could be danced to at the Palais d’Or, the Verdun Pavilian, the Black Sheep Room at Ruby Foo’s, the Bellevue Casino, and Dagwood’s. It was at the Chez Maurice Danceland, however, above Dinty Moore’s restaurant on St. Catherine Street, that the great big bands played, including Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Cab Calloway and Stan Kenton.

In Westmount, at Victoria Hall, Johnny Holmes and his orchestra played on Saturday nights, attracting large crowds and beginning the careers of such legendary musicians as trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, and pianist and trumpeter Oscar Peterson, who grew up in St. Henri, and attended Montreal High School. The most famous of all the clubs, however, was the El Morocco, which was where Lili St. Cyr most often performed…..”

Note: In coming months I’ll also be sharing paper ephemera from the Bellevue Casino (post WWII).

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Related Posts:

Vintage Postcards of Quebec including Montreal’s St.Catherine St. Read more »

August 12, 2009 Posted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault | . | Cab Calloway, Glenn Miller, jazz, Johnny Holmes, Montreal, nightclub, Stan Kenton, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman | 21 Comments