The Stork Club: American's Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Cafe Society

by Ralph Blumenthal

Book Overview

The enthralling, definitive account -- with guns, diamonds, and champagne that never stops -- of the world's most storied nightspot, where starlets stalked millionaires, where Jack wooed Jackie, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316105317
• ISBN13: 9780316105316
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.6"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

Everything you want to know about the Stork Club...

The stork club was "pre-me" but I loved reading about it because many family members used to go there... You really get a sense of what it was like and the stories are fantastic... The manager runs the restaurant like a col. in the army... A very good book to read

Bring the past into the present!

I have always been a big fan of history, historical events, places, etc. but I never really thought about the age of the nightclub.This book brings the past to life. Telling the story of poor Sherman Billingsly who brings to life a dream, to own his own nightclub. Seeing him rise to almost superstar status and to see the dream slip away with the changing of the times.When I bought this book I figured it would be a read it on and off type book....I read it cover to cover in one sitting. I lost almost an entire day, but it was well worth it.Hearing the stories about the stork and it patrons....Ethel Merman, Walter Winchell, John F Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe. Picturing the gangster behind the scenes waiting for a cut of the auction. The people who ran the club and just learning about the legendary club.This one is well worth it! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!

a lost world --

A good mixologist should be able to so skillfully blend together a bunch of seemingly disparate items into one smooth whole that identification of those individual items becomes nearly impossible. This book is the result of one such very skillful blending process. Once upon a time, there was an 'alternate world' known as 'cafe society'. It was very glamorous--on the outside. The major habitat of the folks who comprised this society was nightclubs; the majority of the world's accumulation of these places were in New York City, between approximately 1920 and 1970. Reasons for this phenomenon were many, although they primarily grew from the Prohibition era, which seemed to have prohibited almost nothing, especially the sale of alcohol and the possibly resultant rise of gangsterism. New York City with its many glittering facets--theatre, dining, drinking, and gambling among them--drew not only the many immigrants, adding their national cultures to the above mix, but also the 'beautiful people' who enjoyed the seemingly unlimited benefits of such a cosmopolitan setting. Thus, at the beginning of the mass-media explosion, radio and movies, plus more and more magazines and newspapers, the art of 'celebrity' was born into this new world. The Stork Club was but one of many of its kind, and this fascinating book touches on all these elements. One entire section details the genealogy of Sherman Billingsley, the larger-than-life owner of the Club, and whose name was synonymous with the era he embraced so whole-heartedly. Anyone who was anyone (and most of them were) was to be found in the lush atmosphere of the Stork Club, where a variety of tastes could easily be accomodated. If you can remember this time at all--a really truly, kinder and gentler one--at least on the surface, you'll enjoy this trip backward in time. If you're too young to remember when celebrities were fêted and treated with respect for who they were, rather than hounded and heckled and attacked for what they are in today's world, you'll appreciate the diligence of the author in unveiling yesterday. On the other hand, if you want to read about the under-belly of society at that time--the Mob 'stars'--Dutch Schultz, Frank Costello and others, you'll find them all here. In many ways, it brings back memories of the Untouchables in Chicago, only in this case, many of New York's untouchables were the elected politicians, law enforcement officials and judges. Granted, it wasn't always nice, but if we're to learn from our mistakes, then this lavishly-illustrated and well-researched book also provides an assortment of lessons. It must have been one of those fortuitous coincidences that brought Sherman Billingsley to New York at just the right time to take advantage of the birth of cafe society and the onset of prohibition. He became one of those 'bigger-than-life' personalities whose outer shell seemed to be made of teflon, even before that substance was invented. There is also a comprehensive bib

The Rise and Fall of a New York City Legend

An engrossing account of the golden age of "Cafe Society" and the New York City nightclub scene in the 1930's-1950's focused on the most notable of it's legends, Sherman Billingsley.

Great book about a Great NYC Club

This book is extremely informative for anyone looking to go back in time to the great supper clubs of the 40's. It also provides amazing true stories, and should be a great read for anyone! My high reccommendation