Palladium Ballroom
Encyclopedia
The Palladium Ballroom was a second-floor dancehall on 53rd Street
and Broadway
in New York City which became famous for its excellent Latin music from 1948 until its closing in 1966.
Most of the Latin bands were scheduled for the matinee session, many of which were used as relief bands for the big society bands of the time. Latin bands for the most part played at nightclubs such as: The Conga, The China Doll, The Park Place, and The Park Plaza, located in Spanish Harlem
.
The Palladium needed capital to survive, so it opened its doors to blacks, Puerto Ricans and Cubans.
The Big Three grew tremendously in popularity on the strength of their bookings at the Palladium.
The Big Three were turning out mambo hit after mambo hit. These were a few of the hits that were popular:
In those days there were no DJs who filled spots between band sets. The music was relentless. It was a sight to be seen with the Big Three trying to outdo one another. Machito would play one set, then Puente would step in not missing a beat, and Rodriguez would blend right in so you couldn't tell when one dropped off and the other began.
craze that eventually spread across the United States began at the Palladium. At the height of its popularity, the Palladium attracted Hollywood and Broadway
stars, especially on Wednesday nights, which included a free dance lesson. Dance instructors such as "Killer Joe" Piro
- who briefly served as master of ceremonies the Palladium - and Carmen Marie Padilla (later the poet Carmen M. Pursifull
), would offer mass dance lessons for the huge crowds. Club-goers of the era report seeing Marlon Brando
, George Hamilton
and others there.
The popularity of Perez Prado's Mambo No. 5
(1952) was taking everyone by storm.
, took the Mambo
to unimaginable heights.
The Palladium also became a showcase for many new dance rhythms such as the cha-cha-cha
, the merengue and the pachanga. They became just as popular with the masses as the mambo.
The Palladium was in close proximity to the jazz clubs on West 52nd Street
: Birdland, The Onyx and CuBop City. Jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter
, who lived in the NYC area during the heyday of the Palladium Ballroom, composed a piece during the 1970s called "Palladium" while a member of the seminal jazz-fusion group Weather Report
. The song appears on their Heavy Weather (album)
and features a driving Latin Rhythm among other delights.
The Palladium closed its doors in the spring of 1966 (two dates reported are April 15 and May 1 of that year). Dancers' and music fans' enthusiasm for the music was not diminished; many mention
as the places "the scene" went next.
and Antonio Banderas
, in which Tito Puente played himself and Desi Arnaz Jr. played Desi Arnaz Sr. The movie's band, the Mambo Kings Band, also featured Ralph Irizarry, Machito's son Mario Grillo, and others.
53rd Street (Manhattan)
53rd Street is a midtown cross street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, that contains buildings such as the Citicorp Building. It is 1.83 miles long. The street runs westbound from Sutton Place across most of the island's width, ending at DeWitt Clinton Park at Eleventh Avenue...
and Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
in New York City which became famous for its excellent Latin music from 1948 until its closing in 1966.
Opening of Palladium
When the Palladium opened as a dance studio and dance hall, it had a racially restrictive policy and did not maintain the level of funding needed to operate it. It had a dance floor that could hold a thousand couples dancing at once but had fallen into decline by 1947.Most of the Latin bands were scheduled for the matinee session, many of which were used as relief bands for the big society bands of the time. Latin bands for the most part played at nightclubs such as: The Conga, The China Doll, The Park Place, and The Park Plaza, located in Spanish Harlem
Spanish Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem and El Barrio, is a section of Harlem in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Harlem is one of the largest predominantly Latino communities in New York City. It includes the area formerly known as Italian Harlem, in which...
.
The Palladium needed capital to survive, so it opened its doors to blacks, Puerto Ricans and Cubans.
Palladium starts featuring Latin music
In 1948, music promoter Federico Pagani approached Palladium owner Max Hyman about booking Latin music there. Palladium was the first to start a Latin matinee in a downtown dance hall on a Sunday. The first booking, on a Sunday afternoon, was reportedly a huge success, quickly prompting the club to fill its schedule with Latin music:- The band of Arsenio RodríguezArsenio RodríguezArsenio Rodríguez was a Cuban musician who played the tres , reorganized the conjunto and developed the son montuno, and other Afro-Cuban rhythms in the 1940s and 50s...
, whose band members included Arsenio's bassist Alfonso "El Panameno" JosephAlfonso JosephAlfonso "El Panameno" Joseph was born in the Republic of Panama, and immigrated to New York at 11 years of age, where he studied music and became one of the forefront bassists of Cuban legend Arsenio Rodríguez...
. One of the most popular bands to perform at the Palladium. - MachitoMachitoMachito , born as Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, was an influential Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music...
(born Frank Grillo), already an established New York act, played there frequently. - The new Tito PuenteTito PuenteTito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
orchestra, - The orchestra of singer/bandleader Tito Rodríguez (born Pablo) (listen to: Tito Rodríguez Live at the Palladium)
- Singer Celia CruzCelia CruzCelia Cruz was a Cuban-American salsa singer, and was one of the most successful Salsa performers of the 20th century, having earned twenty-three gold albums...
, - La Sonora MatanceraSonora MatanceraLa Sonora Matancera is a long-time band. Led by guitarist and vocalist Rogelio Martínez, La Sonora Matancera has been called, by the Guinness Book of World Records, "the group with the longest duration."...
, - Beny Moré and his orchestra,
- La LupeLa LupeLa Lupe , was a Cuban-American singer of several musical genres: boleros, guarachas and Latin soul in particular...
, - Daniel SantosDaniel Santos (singer)Daniel Santos was a singer and composer of boleros, and an overall performer of multiple Caribbean music genres, including guaracha, plena and rumba...
and - Miguelito ValdésMiguelito ValdésMiguelito Valdés, born Miguel Ángel Eugenio Lázaro Zacarias Izquierdo Valdés Hernández , also called Mr. Babalú, was a Cuban popular singer of high quality...
(the latter sometimes called "Mr. Babalu" and known for his friendly rivalry with Desi ArnazDesi ArnazDesi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...
). - Noro Morales,
- Jose Curbelo,
- Joseito Mateo,
- Marcelino Guerra
- Jose Fajardo,
- Orchestra Aragon,
- Cortijo and Ismael Rivera,
- Cesar Concepciõn
New York Latin clubs
Very soon, Latino New Yorkers could be very proud of a highly visible night spot of their own in the heart of midtown, in addition to clubs such as- In Manhattan:
- El Club Caborrojeño far north on Broadway at 145th Street,
- Broadway Casino in Washington HeightsWashington Heights, ManhattanWashington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the...
, - El Cubanacán (114th and Lenox),
- Park Palace and Park Plaza (upstairs and downstairs in the same catering hall on 110th Street110th Street (Manhattan)110th Street is a street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is commonly known as the boundary between Harlem and Central Park, along which it is known as Central Park North. In the west, it is also known as Cathedral Parkway....
and Fifth AvenueFifth Avenue (Manhattan)Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The section of Fifth Avenue that crosses Midtown Manhattan, especially that between 49th Street and 60th Street, is lined with prestigious shops and is consistently ranked among...
), - Gloria Palace on 86th Street86th Street (Manhattan)86th Street is a major two-way street in the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan.On the West Side its continuous cliff-wall of apartment blocks includng The Belnord is broken by two contrasting landmarked churches at prominent corner sites, the Tuscan...
and Third Avenue, - Havana-Madrid Club on 1650 Broadway at 51st Street.
- In the Bronx, Bronx night spots
- Tropicana (915 Westchester Avenue and 163rd Street),
- Tropicola (Homewood and Southern),
- Hunt's Point Palace (Southern and 163rd Street),
- La Campana (149th Street and Third Avenue), and
- the Tropicoro (on Longwood Avenue).
The Big Three
In 1950, the Palladium gained in stature because of the Big Three:- Tito Puente
- Tito Rodríguez
- Machito.
The Big Three grew tremendously in popularity on the strength of their bookings at the Palladium.
The Big Three were turning out mambo hit after mambo hit. These were a few of the hits that were popular:
- Puente with "Picadillo" and "Ran Kan Kan,"
- Rodriguez with "Mambo Mona (Mama Guela)" and "Joe Lustig Mambo";
- Machito with "Asia Minor" and "Babarabatiri."
In those days there were no DJs who filled spots between band sets. The music was relentless. It was a sight to be seen with the Big Three trying to outdo one another. Machito would play one set, then Puente would step in not missing a beat, and Rodriguez would blend right in so you couldn't tell when one dropped off and the other began.
Mambo craze
The year 1950, started the mamboMambo (dance)
Mambo .In the late 1940s, Perez Prado came up with the dance for the mambo music and became the first person to market his music as "mambo". After Havana, Prado moved his music to Mexico, where his music and the dance was adopted. The original mambo dance was characterized by freedom and...
craze that eventually spread across the United States began at the Palladium. At the height of its popularity, the Palladium attracted Hollywood and Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
stars, especially on Wednesday nights, which included a free dance lesson. Dance instructors such as "Killer Joe" Piro
Killer Joe Piro
Frank "Killer Joe" Piro was a dance instructor to high society and popularized steps of the discotheque era of the 1960s and 1970s.- Early life :...
- who briefly served as master of ceremonies the Palladium - and Carmen Marie Padilla (later the poet Carmen M. Pursifull
Carmen M. Pursifull
Carmen M. Pursifull is a former New York City Latin dance and Latin American music figure of the 1950s, and since 1970 in Illinois, is an English-language free verse poet who was a top ten finalist nominee for Poet Laureate of that state in 2003...
), would offer mass dance lessons for the huge crowds. Club-goers of the era report seeing Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
, George Hamilton
George Hamilton (actor)
George Stevens Hamilton is an American film and television actor.-Early life:Hamilton was the youngest son of bandleader George "Spike" Hamilton and his first wife, Ann Stevens . He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived in Blytheville, Arkansas...
and others there.
The popularity of Perez Prado's Mambo No. 5
Mambo No. 5
"Mambo No. 5" is a mambo and jive dance song originally recorded and composed by Pérez Prado in 1949.The song's popularity was renewed by Lou Bega's sampling of the original, released under the same name on Bega's 1999 debut album A Little Bit of Mambo....
(1952) was taking everyone by storm.
Popular dances and dancers at the Palladium
The Palladium was known not only for its music but for the exceptionally high quality and innovation of its dancers, fueled by weekly dance competitions. Ability to dance, not class or color, was the social currency inside the club. Palladium's top star-performers, Augie & Margo RodriguezAugie & Margo Rodriguez
Augie and Margo Rodriguez were both their stage names and birth names. They opened shows for Sammy Davis, Jr. and other stars of the 1950s and 1960s throughout North America, Europe and the world...
, took the Mambo
Mambo (dance)
Mambo .In the late 1940s, Perez Prado came up with the dance for the mambo music and became the first person to market his music as "mambo". After Havana, Prado moved his music to Mexico, where his music and the dance was adopted. The original mambo dance was characterized by freedom and...
to unimaginable heights.
The Palladium also became a showcase for many new dance rhythms such as the cha-cha-cha
Cha-cha-cha (dance)
The Cha-cha-cha is the name of a dance of Cuban origin.It is danced to the music of the same name introduced by Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrín in 1953...
, the merengue and the pachanga. They became just as popular with the masses as the mambo.
Contests
Wednesday was Showcase Night. They held different contests, from pie-eating to skirt-raising showdowns and Mambo dancing eliminations.Jazz musicians, celebrities and Latin bands
The Palladium became the place to be seen at. Different jazz musicians and celebrities would sit in and play with the Latin bands:- Dizzy GillespieDizzy GillespieJohn Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, - George ShearingGeorge ShearingSir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...
, - Cal TjaderCal TjaderCallen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his...
, - Marlon BrandoMarlon BrandoMarlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
and - Sammy Davis Jr.
The Palladium was in close proximity to the jazz clubs on West 52nd Street
52nd Street (Manhattan)
52nd Street is a long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.-Jazz center:The blocks of 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue were renowned in the mid-20th century for the abundance of jazz clubs and lively street life...
: Birdland, The Onyx and CuBop City. Jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
, who lived in the NYC area during the heyday of the Palladium Ballroom, composed a piece during the 1970s called "Palladium" while a member of the seminal jazz-fusion group Weather Report
Weather Report
Weather Report was an American jazz-rock band of the 1970s and early 1980s. The band was co-led by the Austrian-born keyboard player Joe Zawinul and the American saxophonist Wayne Shorter...
. The song appears on their Heavy Weather (album)
Heavy Weather (album)
The album received positive reviews since its publication. American music journalist Richard Ginell gave the album the maximum rating, five stars out of five, and concluded his review for Allmusic by stating that, "[r]eleased just as the jazz-rock movement began to run out of steam, this landmark...
and features a driving Latin Rhythm among other delights.
Mambo losing popularity
By the early 1960s, tastes had shifted somewhat and it was clear a new sound was on the horizon. Suggested listening:- Mongo Santamaría 's 1963 cover of Herbie HancockHerbie HancockHerbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
's "Watermelon Man", as well as, - Joe Cuba 's 1966 El Pito, featuring a riff from Dizzy Gillespie, the catchy line, never go back to Georgia.
The Palladium closed its doors in the spring of 1966 (two dates reported are April 15 and May 1 of that year). Dancers' and music fans' enthusiasm for the music was not diminished; many mention
- El Corso (near Gloria Palace on 86th Street and Third Avenue) and
- the Cheetah (52nd Street and Eighth Avenue)
as the places "the scene" went next.
Palladium in Mambo Kings movie
The dance floor and bandstand of the Palladium was lovingly recreated in the feature film Mambo Kings, starring Armand AssanteArmand Assante
-Personal life:Assante was born in New York City and raised in Cornwall, New York, the son of Katherine , a music teacher and poet, and Armand Anthony Assante, Sr., a painter and artist. His father was Italian and his mother was Irish, and was raised in a devoutly Roman Catholic family...
and Antonio Banderas
Antonio Banderas
José Antonio Domínguez Banderas , better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer...
, in which Tito Puente played himself and Desi Arnaz Jr. played Desi Arnaz Sr. The movie's band, the Mambo Kings Band, also featured Ralph Irizarry, Machito's son Mario Grillo, and others.
Further reading
- Conzo, Joe, "The Palladium Ballroom, home of the mambo and cha-cha", Times Herald-RecordTimes Herald-RecordThe Times Herald-Record, often referred to as The Record or Middletown Record in its coverage area, is a daily newspaper published in Middletown, New York, covering the northwest suburbs of New York City. It covers Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties in New York; Pike County in Pennsylvania; and...
, October 9, 2004 - García, David F., Arsenio Rodríguez and the transnational flows of latin popular music, Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2006. Cf. p. 64 and various (see book index).
- Garcia, David F., "Contesting that Damned Mambo: Arsenio Rodriguez, Authenticity, and the People of El Barrio and the Bronx in the 1950's", Centro Journal, Spring, vol XVI(001), pp.154-175, 2004, City University of New York, Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos.
- Hutchinson, Sydney. "Mambo On 2: The birth of a new form of dance in New York City.” 2004. CENTRO Journal 16(2):109-137.
- Rondón, César Miguel, The Book of Salsa: A Chronicle of Urban Music from the Caribbean to New York City, translated by Frances R. Aparicio with Jackie White, University of North Carolina Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0807858592. Cf. pp. 1–6 and various (see book index)
- Public Broadcasting ServicePublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, "Mambonicks: The Palladium & its Dancers", Hour 1, Chapter 5 in the documentary TV series Latin Music USA, October 2009.