In 1934, brothers Leon and Louis Prima started their club-owning partnership by opening Prima’s, “New Orleans’ Smartest Nite Club,” at 229 Bourbon Street. Prima’s was an immediate success. Dancing, dining, and drinking were accentuated by three nightly floor shows (at 11:15 p.m., 2:15 a.m. and 4:15 a.m.) and kept the crowd at capacity all night. While the floor show, featuring comedians, singers, magicians, variety acts and dancers – including sultry “hot cha artists” like Dimples Dalton – were popular, the big draw was Louis, known then as America’s hottest trumpeter.
A year later, the club was renovated, redecorated and reopened for the 1935 season with a new name: Prima’s Shim Sham Club. The glamorous, modern redesign featured a 3-foot-high raised half-moon shaped dance floor that had space for the musicians, the entertainers and dancing customers. While Louis had since found musical fame in NYC, he came back for a five-day run at the new club during opening week.
The Shim Sham, like its predecessor, put on nightly variety acts and was an instant hit with the late-night set, but it had something new: its own dance chorus of six girls called the Shim Shamettes, described by one writer as “something luscious to glimpse.”
In the fall of 1937, the club underwent another renovation and reopened for the winter season called simply: Prima’s. The new décor included an improved dance floor and furnishings, and the entertainment lineup featured Leon’s 10-piece orchestra. And as usual, with the start of a new season and a new club name, Louis spent a week there in between his other engagements.
In its final iteration of a Prima club, the space reopened in March of 1938 as The Swing Club, featuring swing music and low prices. By mid-July, it had shut down for good, and all the contents were auctioned off.
Following the liquidation sale, 229 Bourbon Street was first reopened as short-lived Alexander’s Ragtime Club, and then spent two years as Marty Burke’s boxing gym and nightclub. Leon Prima went on to open and operate famed burlesque nightspot Prima’s 500 Club, at 441 Bourbon St.
Photo appears courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection, Charles L. Franck / Franck-Bertacci Photographers Collection, 1979.325.2009[/caption]
In 1934, brothers Leon and Louis Prima started their club-owning partnership by opening Prima’s, “New Orleans’ Smartest Nite Club,” at 229 Bourbon Street. Prima’s was an immediate success. Dancing, dining, and drinking were accentuated by three nightly floor shows (at 11:15 p.m., 2:15 a.m. and 4:15 a.m.) and kept the crowd at capacity all night. While the floor show, featuring comedians, singers, magicians, variety acts and dancers – including sultry “hot cha artists” like Dimples Dalton – were popular, the big draw was Louis, known then as America’s hottest trumpeter.
A year later, the club was renovated, redecorated and reopened for the 1935 season with a new name: Prima’s Shim Sham Club. The glamorous, modern redesign featured a 3-foot-high raised half-moon shaped dance floor that had space for the musicians, the entertainers and dancing customers. While Louis had since found musical fame in NYC, he came back for a five-day run at the new club during opening week.
The Shim Sham, like its predecessor, put on nightly variety acts and was an instant hit with the late-night set, but it had something new: its own dance chorus of six girls called the Shim Shamettes, described by one writer as “something luscious to glimpse.”