Showboat at the Douglass Hotel

The Douglass Hotel is a Green Book site. The Green Book was a travel guide for Black Americans during the era of segregation, listing businesses that were safe and welcoming for them. The marker states that Billie Holiday often stayed here at the Douglass, but the hotel also housed a club in the basement. In the 1950s, it was the Rendez-vous Club, where Sidney Bechet recorded an album. In the 50s and 60s, under new ownership it became Showboat Jazz Theatr tripling its seating capacity to accommodate audiences jazz luminaries such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley, Philly Joe Jones, and Dinah Washington. John Coltrane recorded a live album here. Later it would become the Bijou Cafe in the 1970s, where Grover Washington recorded a live album.

1940 issue of the Green Book listing the Douglas Hotel

Ride without discrimination

Ad for a jazz performance at Showboat

You can experience the ambiance of the Showboat through a private recording by Alan Sukoenig capturing Coltrane's performance in 1963.

Citations

Mehr, Rick. 2016. All That Philly Jazz. All That Philly Jazz. June 20, 2016. https://phillyjazz.us/2016/06/20/showboat/.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. The Negro Motorist Green-Book: 1940.New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 22, 2024.