Club Samoa, New York, NY (restaurant) - Locating Tiki

C creativenative Tiki Socialite Drifting on my outrigger canoe Joined: Feb 17, 2012 Posts: 353	C creativenative Posted posted on Thu, Feb 8, 2018 1:13 AM Researching the film short "Samoa" by Disney, I ran into this tiny piece of film data in IMDB "52nd Street (1937) AKA Samoa" Uwhaat? IMBD did not explain the connection. What does a famous NYC street have in common with an island in the middle of the Pacific? With little research I tied the relationship together with Club Samoa, one of the famous joints of that era on that street. And I knew this research would lead me eventually to TIKI CENTRAL so here I write. I am really interested in pre-tiki locations and dates, so I was trying to figure out when Club Samoa opened. The earliest recorded date was 1940 and closed by 1946 by a NY Times article but this film was shot in the late 1936 or early 1937 and apparently the club was already established at that time. For such an established joint it must of opened longer than 6 years. Anybody have better dates? We know it closed as a strip joint and earlier it was a burlesque joint which puts it in the 40s but was it ever a Jazz club in the 30s or a speakeasy in the 20s when 52nd street was permitted to go commercial? P.S. I got to see this film. [ Edited by: creativenative 2018-02-08 01:15 ]

Researching the film short "Samoa" by Disney, I ran into this tiny piece of film data in IMDB "52nd Street (1937) AKA Samoa" Uwhaat? IMBD did not explain the connection. What does a famous NYC street have in common with an island in the middle of the Pacific? With little research I tied the relationship together with Club Samoa, one of the famous joints of that era on that street. And I knew this research would lead me eventually to TIKI CENTRAL so here I write.

I am really interested in pre-tiki locations and dates, so I was trying to figure out when Club Samoa opened. The earliest recorded date was 1940 and closed by 1946 by a NY Times article but this film was shot in the late 1936 or early 1937 and apparently the club was already established at that time. For such an established joint it must of opened longer than 6 years. Anybody have better dates? We know it closed as a strip joint and earlier it was a burlesque joint which puts it in the 40s but was it ever a Jazz club in the 30s or a speakeasy in the 20s when 52nd street was permitted to go commercial?

P.S. I got to see this film.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2018-02-08 01:15 ]

Post #783746 by creativenative on Thu, Feb 8, 2018 1:13 AM