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Stork Club: America's Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Cafe Society
An 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 where Walter Winchell snubbed the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2000
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August 15, 2023
In NYC during the period from before the 1930s into the 1960s, if you wanted to be noticed by the paparazzi or your competitors or the public in general, you asked for a table at the Stork Club. If Sherman Billingsley liked you, you might get a “good” table.
Blumenthal chronicles the fates of those associated with the Stork Club more as an enthusiast than as an unbiased observer. But, he does take the reader beyond the keyhole into the Club to see how it worked and the friendships and fights that happened within its confines (or on the street in front of it).
Yes, they all came, including J. Edgar Hoover, Joe DiMaggio, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Humphrey Bogart and Damon Runyon. And there were the scribes from Louella Parsons (not a regular) to Walter Winchell (a fixture) who made sure that the rest of the world knew what was happening there.
A lot of the book chronicles Billingsley’s challenges in making his club the “place” to be. The demise of the Club marked the end of an era…there were other places to gather but none with the same “vibe.”
Blumenthal writes well and the gangsters and celebrities keep it interesting. I found his portrait of Runyon spending time there as he was dying, very touching.
Blumenthal chronicles the fates of those associated with the Stork Club more as an enthusiast than as an unbiased observer. But, he does take the reader beyond the keyhole into the Club to see how it worked and the friendships and fights that happened within its confines (or on the street in front of it).
Yes, they all came, including J. Edgar Hoover, Joe DiMaggio, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Humphrey Bogart and Damon Runyon. And there were the scribes from Louella Parsons (not a regular) to Walter Winchell (a fixture) who made sure that the rest of the world knew what was happening there.
A lot of the book chronicles Billingsley’s challenges in making his club the “place” to be. The demise of the Club marked the end of an era…there were other places to gather but none with the same “vibe.”
Blumenthal writes well and the gangsters and celebrities keep it interesting. I found his portrait of Runyon spending time there as he was dying, very touching.
September 1, 2018
The Stork Club existed only a little more than three decades, but those decades, the 1930s through the 1950s, were the halcyon days of New York City modernity and glamor, and the fabled nightspot cut a swath through that heady era and left its mark in Gotham lore.
The establishment began as a Prohibition-era speakeasy and after its hardnosed but charming Okie-transplanted proprietor Sherman Billingsley struggled mightily to extricate himself from the clutches of gangster partners and "protectors" like Owney Madden, Frenchy De Mange, and Bill Dwyer, the club went on to become the legit post-Prohibition place-to-be-seen to the celebrities and high-rollers of golden age New York, USA. Anybody who was anybody (Orson Welles, Ernest Hemingway, the toasts of Hollywood, Broadway and the Titans of Capital, etc.) dined and partied there, lavished with gifts and free champagne by Billingsley as part of his policy of customer goodwill, actions which did not prevent patrons from stealing the club's iconic ashtrays bearing the restaurant's name (such theft was factored into the club's operating expenses). The Stork Club was an exclusive destination in the most snobbish sense, and business was so good in its heyday that Billingsley could turn away or even ban famous patrons on bizarre whims. Perpetually scrawled in chalk on the club's kitchen chalkboard was a reminder to the staff about the exclusivity of the clientele: "If you know them, they don't belong in the Stork Club."
This ambitiously well-research book by Ralph Blumenthal deconstructs the legend of the club as much as it celebrates it, and it's as good a mix as one imagines a prime-time Stork Club cocktail might have been. The book is undermined by some poor editing, however. A number of the anecdotes are told without sufficient context, background information or sensible resolution and just left me scratching my head at times. Cumulatively, though, the book is a valuable addition to the archeology of New York City, especially as no comprehensive book about the history of the club had ever been published prior.
The book is just as much a biography of its flamboyant and irascible owner, Billingsley, as it is of the club. Billingsley and his brothers were products of a hardscrabble life, descendents of Okie settlers of the Oklahoma land rush, and the future club owner and his pugnacious brothers started their lives as con artists, bootleggers and entrepreneurs in myriad shady enterprises. Despite criminal records the Billingsley brothers all went on to success, some even legally, but it was Sherman who gained the most fame as the face of America's most famous eatery (Billingsley was a semi-genius marketer), and also as the host of the Stork Club TV show on CBS in the early 1950s--a kind of celebrity gawk-fest televised from a studio reconstruction of his club. Some of the stories about how bad the show was, and Billingsley's ineptitude and many faux pas as host, are laugh-out-loud funny.
So, too, are many of the anecdotes about the fights, mix-ups and other apocrypha that took place at the actual legendary nightspot. Billingsley, who often did a poor job of hiding his racism, had an unspoken policy against blacks being admitted as patrons. When comedian Georgie Jessel showed up at the door with black singer Josephine Baker, the two were asked with disdain as to who had made their reservation. Jessel replied, "Abraham Lincoln." (The story also is said to have occurred at Club 21).
Despite his material generosity with favored patrons and longtime pals and his white-teethed courtesies, Billingsley was a harsh despot in the eyes of many of his workers, which came back to bite him during the labor troubles that beset him for virtually the entire history of the club. His relentless uncompromising war with labor activists, workers and organizers, who picketed him for the entirety of the 1950s, became vicious and marked by sabotage, threats and bad behavior by both sides, and eventually ground him and the finances of the club downward until its ignomimious demise in 1965, by which time the club had also become a victim of changing times and tastes. The glamor and glory days were gone. It was the time of Vietnam, not World War II, but Billingsley, who drained his daughters' $10-milllion trust funds to keep the club afloat, did not want to listen, doddering around in near senility, barking orders to no one and talking on the phone to celebrity patrons who were no longer there. The reporter, Walter Winchell, once a fixture at the club for years, had had a long falling out with Billingsley, but finally returned as a regular shortly before the club's demise. By then, nobody cared. Winchell and the club were as passe as the famous ashtrays. In 1963, the club that once served the finest lobster and foods imported from all over the world, was advertising $1.95 burgers and fries in the paper. It was over.
Among the juicy bits uncovered in the book are Billingsley's chummy relationship with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (which led to the Stork proprietor's constant abuse of agency time in frivolous investigations of his rivals), and further confirmation of Hoover's night-life with his gay partner, Clyde Tolson (both regular patrons). Broadway star Ethel Merman and Grace Kelly are among the many women who allegedly were shagging the married Billingsley on the side. One-way mirrors, microphones in the table flowers, and "accidental" openings of employees' mail allowed the increasingly paranoid Billingsley to keep tabs on everything going on in the club. Billingsley's despotic arrogance grew to the point that he would ban people who dared to eat or drink at rival clubs. He forbade the club musicians from playing the song "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" simply because it made reference to competitor Club 21.
Billingsley, despite his rants in which he derided all the "cocksuckers who are out to ruin me" and behavior that might brand him as the original soup nazi, could be a decent man when the spirit moved. His hypocrisies, contradictions, biases and complexities are typical of the workaholic American man of his time, and Blumenthal's treatment of him is fair and even-handed. Billingsley played a hard game in a hard world with hard men--including some of New York's most notorious gangsters--so his ruthlessness seems understandable.
Despite the flaws aforementioned, I found this book fascinating and recommendable to anyone into juicy celebrity gossip, New York lore, retro glam funkiness and deconstructive American history.
It also is recommendable for those keeping tabs on how many history books contain cameo appearances by Ernest Hemingway. I've come across so many of them (the guy GOT AROUND) that I've started a new Goodreads bookshelf dedicated to "Hemingway's ubiquitous cameos."
The establishment began as a Prohibition-era speakeasy and after its hardnosed but charming Okie-transplanted proprietor Sherman Billingsley struggled mightily to extricate himself from the clutches of gangster partners and "protectors" like Owney Madden, Frenchy De Mange, and Bill Dwyer, the club went on to become the legit post-Prohibition place-to-be-seen to the celebrities and high-rollers of golden age New York, USA. Anybody who was anybody (Orson Welles, Ernest Hemingway, the toasts of Hollywood, Broadway and the Titans of Capital, etc.) dined and partied there, lavished with gifts and free champagne by Billingsley as part of his policy of customer goodwill, actions which did not prevent patrons from stealing the club's iconic ashtrays bearing the restaurant's name (such theft was factored into the club's operating expenses). The Stork Club was an exclusive destination in the most snobbish sense, and business was so good in its heyday that Billingsley could turn away or even ban famous patrons on bizarre whims. Perpetually scrawled in chalk on the club's kitchen chalkboard was a reminder to the staff about the exclusivity of the clientele: "If you know them, they don't belong in the Stork Club."
This ambitiously well-research book by Ralph Blumenthal deconstructs the legend of the club as much as it celebrates it, and it's as good a mix as one imagines a prime-time Stork Club cocktail might have been. The book is undermined by some poor editing, however. A number of the anecdotes are told without sufficient context, background information or sensible resolution and just left me scratching my head at times. Cumulatively, though, the book is a valuable addition to the archeology of New York City, especially as no comprehensive book about the history of the club had ever been published prior.
The book is just as much a biography of its flamboyant and irascible owner, Billingsley, as it is of the club. Billingsley and his brothers were products of a hardscrabble life, descendents of Okie settlers of the Oklahoma land rush, and the future club owner and his pugnacious brothers started their lives as con artists, bootleggers and entrepreneurs in myriad shady enterprises. Despite criminal records the Billingsley brothers all went on to success, some even legally, but it was Sherman who gained the most fame as the face of America's most famous eatery (Billingsley was a semi-genius marketer), and also as the host of the Stork Club TV show on CBS in the early 1950s--a kind of celebrity gawk-fest televised from a studio reconstruction of his club. Some of the stories about how bad the show was, and Billingsley's ineptitude and many faux pas as host, are laugh-out-loud funny.
So, too, are many of the anecdotes about the fights, mix-ups and other apocrypha that took place at the actual legendary nightspot. Billingsley, who often did a poor job of hiding his racism, had an unspoken policy against blacks being admitted as patrons. When comedian Georgie Jessel showed up at the door with black singer Josephine Baker, the two were asked with disdain as to who had made their reservation. Jessel replied, "Abraham Lincoln." (The story also is said to have occurred at Club 21).
Despite his material generosity with favored patrons and longtime pals and his white-teethed courtesies, Billingsley was a harsh despot in the eyes of many of his workers, which came back to bite him during the labor troubles that beset him for virtually the entire history of the club. His relentless uncompromising war with labor activists, workers and organizers, who picketed him for the entirety of the 1950s, became vicious and marked by sabotage, threats and bad behavior by both sides, and eventually ground him and the finances of the club downward until its ignomimious demise in 1965, by which time the club had also become a victim of changing times and tastes. The glamor and glory days were gone. It was the time of Vietnam, not World War II, but Billingsley, who drained his daughters' $10-milllion trust funds to keep the club afloat, did not want to listen, doddering around in near senility, barking orders to no one and talking on the phone to celebrity patrons who were no longer there. The reporter, Walter Winchell, once a fixture at the club for years, had had a long falling out with Billingsley, but finally returned as a regular shortly before the club's demise. By then, nobody cared. Winchell and the club were as passe as the famous ashtrays. In 1963, the club that once served the finest lobster and foods imported from all over the world, was advertising $1.95 burgers and fries in the paper. It was over.
Among the juicy bits uncovered in the book are Billingsley's chummy relationship with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (which led to the Stork proprietor's constant abuse of agency time in frivolous investigations of his rivals), and further confirmation of Hoover's night-life with his gay partner, Clyde Tolson (both regular patrons). Broadway star Ethel Merman and Grace Kelly are among the many women who allegedly were shagging the married Billingsley on the side. One-way mirrors, microphones in the table flowers, and "accidental" openings of employees' mail allowed the increasingly paranoid Billingsley to keep tabs on everything going on in the club. Billingsley's despotic arrogance grew to the point that he would ban people who dared to eat or drink at rival clubs. He forbade the club musicians from playing the song "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" simply because it made reference to competitor Club 21.
Billingsley, despite his rants in which he derided all the "cocksuckers who are out to ruin me" and behavior that might brand him as the original soup nazi, could be a decent man when the spirit moved. His hypocrisies, contradictions, biases and complexities are typical of the workaholic American man of his time, and Blumenthal's treatment of him is fair and even-handed. Billingsley played a hard game in a hard world with hard men--including some of New York's most notorious gangsters--so his ruthlessness seems understandable.
Despite the flaws aforementioned, I found this book fascinating and recommendable to anyone into juicy celebrity gossip, New York lore, retro glam funkiness and deconstructive American history.
It also is recommendable for those keeping tabs on how many history books contain cameo appearances by Ernest Hemingway. I've come across so many of them (the guy GOT AROUND) that I've started a new Goodreads bookshelf dedicated to "Hemingway's ubiquitous cameos."
September 25, 2012
I had more than a passing interest in reading about Sherman Billingsley. He was my great-uncle, and my family lore was full of him, the good, the bad, the even worse.
The Billingsley family was large, and mostly boys, and that meant that during the Depression, most of its progeny would have to be highly creative to earn a living. Bootlegging was a common way to make a quick buck, but it was dangerous and required those who made it and sold it to be quick and smart in order to stay out of jail. For Sherman, that meant a steady and continuous move from the West Coast to every major city he found until he landed in New York. In New York, he soon learned, it was not necessary to be constantly on the run from police; for the right price, they would manage not to see anything amiss. Sherman was home.
For all of his unfortunate choices and lack of social conscience, Sherman was extremely loyal toward his family. My mother (his niece) lived with my father, fresh from the Air Force after World War II, in a third floor apartment over the Stork Club (Sherman owned the building). My grandmother, Lottie, did not marry entirely happily, and her brothers, mainly Sherman and Logan (who would later become famous as a philanthropist) took care to see that their little sister had only the best. I have the title to a Ford Motor Car that was purchased for her by Sherman, and shipped to her in Oklahoma, where she lived. My sisters tell me that he sent her the latest New York fashions, and when her husband had gone to work, she would carefully take a seam-ripper, open the linings of the coats, and pull out a tremendous amount of money, then hide it. She would never have to stay with her husband if she didn't want to.
It is true that he was bigoted and intolerant. However, the reviewer who mentioned Sherman's turning Lena Horne away is (I'm pretty sure)partially wrong; there was an instance in which a Black celebrity was turned away, but I believe it was Josephine Baker.
In the end, my father decided that (as a middle manager) he could no longer, in good conscience, work for the man. He became angry over the senseless firing of a hat-check girl and quit. Consequently, I never knew great-uncle Sherman myself, but that's all right.
If you have a strong interest in the period involving prohibition, organized crime (by force more than choice), then this book is well paced, includes lots of interesting photographs, and leaves the reader with a satisfyingly moral ending: Sherman died broke and his club went under, though not from disrepute, I think, so much as that it had simply gone out of style. The writer's version of Sherman certainly lines up well with family legend, and indeed, he relied heavily upon Sherman's daughters as his sources.
If you are going to read one book on this topic, this is the one I would trust.
The Billingsley family was large, and mostly boys, and that meant that during the Depression, most of its progeny would have to be highly creative to earn a living. Bootlegging was a common way to make a quick buck, but it was dangerous and required those who made it and sold it to be quick and smart in order to stay out of jail. For Sherman, that meant a steady and continuous move from the West Coast to every major city he found until he landed in New York. In New York, he soon learned, it was not necessary to be constantly on the run from police; for the right price, they would manage not to see anything amiss. Sherman was home.
For all of his unfortunate choices and lack of social conscience, Sherman was extremely loyal toward his family. My mother (his niece) lived with my father, fresh from the Air Force after World War II, in a third floor apartment over the Stork Club (Sherman owned the building). My grandmother, Lottie, did not marry entirely happily, and her brothers, mainly Sherman and Logan (who would later become famous as a philanthropist) took care to see that their little sister had only the best. I have the title to a Ford Motor Car that was purchased for her by Sherman, and shipped to her in Oklahoma, where she lived. My sisters tell me that he sent her the latest New York fashions, and when her husband had gone to work, she would carefully take a seam-ripper, open the linings of the coats, and pull out a tremendous amount of money, then hide it. She would never have to stay with her husband if she didn't want to.
It is true that he was bigoted and intolerant. However, the reviewer who mentioned Sherman's turning Lena Horne away is (I'm pretty sure)partially wrong; there was an instance in which a Black celebrity was turned away, but I believe it was Josephine Baker.
In the end, my father decided that (as a middle manager) he could no longer, in good conscience, work for the man. He became angry over the senseless firing of a hat-check girl and quit. Consequently, I never knew great-uncle Sherman myself, but that's all right.
If you have a strong interest in the period involving prohibition, organized crime (by force more than choice), then this book is well paced, includes lots of interesting photographs, and leaves the reader with a satisfyingly moral ending: Sherman died broke and his club went under, though not from disrepute, I think, so much as that it had simply gone out of style. The writer's version of Sherman certainly lines up well with family legend, and indeed, he relied heavily upon Sherman's daughters as his sources.
If you are going to read one book on this topic, this is the one I would trust.
May 12, 2010
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Errol Flynn, Rita Hayworth, Ernest Hemingway, Helen Keller, Marilyn Monroe, John and Jacqueline Kennedy, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor--the list of regulars who patronized New York's exclusive Stork Club is a who's who of early- to mid-20th century society. But this lively, resonant account from Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Blumenthal (Once Through the Heart, etc.) of the club's rise and fall is more than an exercise in name-dropping. At its heart, it's the story of Sherman Billingsley, the Oklahoma bootlegger who opened the Stork during Prohibition and spent the next four decades keeping gangsters and unions at bay while coddling every rich, influential and famous person he could, plying them with gifts ranging from pure-bred puppies to perfume (called Cigogne, French for "stork").
Billingsley, who served time in Leavenworth for bootlegging, wound up in New York on the heels of one of his convict brothers. There he continued bootlegging (hiding behind his legit business as a drugstore owner) and made a name in real estate before opening the Stork. Media savvy and skilled at mar-keting, Billingsley had a knack for befriending the right people, among them gossip columnist Walter Winchell, who held court at the club for years. The Stork flourished during pre- and postwar years--an era captured vividly by Blumenthal (and well illustrated with a rich supply of period photos).
The disillusionment that blanketed the U.S. after the Kennedy assassination, however, heralded the end of those heady times, which Blumenthal colorfully brings back to life in all their glamour. But the pleasant haze of nostalgia he creates (in telling details such as the 14-karat gold chain inside the club's door) doesn't obscure the ugly union-busting actions that helped bring the club down.
Billingsley, who served time in Leavenworth for bootlegging, wound up in New York on the heels of one of his convict brothers. There he continued bootlegging (hiding behind his legit business as a drugstore owner) and made a name in real estate before opening the Stork. Media savvy and skilled at mar-keting, Billingsley had a knack for befriending the right people, among them gossip columnist Walter Winchell, who held court at the club for years. The Stork flourished during pre- and postwar years--an era captured vividly by Blumenthal (and well illustrated with a rich supply of period photos).
The disillusionment that blanketed the U.S. after the Kennedy assassination, however, heralded the end of those heady times, which Blumenthal colorfully brings back to life in all their glamour. But the pleasant haze of nostalgia he creates (in telling details such as the 14-karat gold chain inside the club's door) doesn't obscure the ugly union-busting actions that helped bring the club down.
October 11, 2021
"The Stork Club" is a double biography, the life stories of the club itself and its founder Sherman Billingsley. If you enjoy stories about Prohibition, speakeasies and celebrity café society, this will keep you turning the pages.
May 25, 2018
If you have any interest at all in prohibition, celebrities, Cafe Society, the history of New York, this is the book for you.
If you've never had any in any of those topics, this is the book for you.
The story of Sherman Billingsley and the Stork Club reads like a wild riding fairy tale with many a bump and bruise along the way. I have always been interested in the glamour of that period - the people who inhabited the world where places like the Stork Club played center stage. While other little girls played dolls and mommy I fantasized I was sitting in the smoke and music of places like the Stork Club and the Copacabana with every famous person in the world. And though the Stork Club closed before I was of age to enter those doors, "The Stork Club: American's Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Cafe Society" brought me there to enjoy everything I'd missed...including the dirt on the charming Sherman Billingsley.
And, if you'd like a little more background on Sherman, please see The Stork Club: American's Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Cafe Society scroll down to read the review by Donna Davis.
See you at our favourite table
If you've never had any in any of those topics, this is the book for you.
The story of Sherman Billingsley and the Stork Club reads like a wild riding fairy tale with many a bump and bruise along the way. I have always been interested in the glamour of that period - the people who inhabited the world where places like the Stork Club played center stage. While other little girls played dolls and mommy I fantasized I was sitting in the smoke and music of places like the Stork Club and the Copacabana with every famous person in the world. And though the Stork Club closed before I was of age to enter those doors, "The Stork Club: American's Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Cafe Society" brought me there to enjoy everything I'd missed...including the dirt on the charming Sherman Billingsley.
And, if you'd like a little more background on Sherman, please see The Stork Club: American's Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Cafe Society scroll down to read the review by Donna Davis.
See you at our favourite table
February 11, 2008
I love anything about New York, and this book was no exception. The heyday of the Stork Club, the story of Billingsley and the scene in New York during some very difficult times in US History, all combine to make a great story.
September 14, 2025
This is less about "Cafe Society" in New York in the 30s and 40s, and the Stork Club, and more about the guy who ran it, Sherman Billingsley.
His club was well known for catering to the elite, celebrities, and gangsters - and he may have been (probably was) connected.
It's a story that begins way too far back, at his birth, and finally gets into the meat of the story much later.
The club was a product of its time, which is not to forgive but to explain the racism - and which led to the most famous story, and the incident that eventually cost him the club and his health.
In what seems to have been a setup by the legendary black entertainer Josephine Baker, she came in with a party, ordered food and then complained that she wasn't served promptly. Though the club attempted to fix the situation, she wouldn't have it and apparently immediately called her lawyer and began a messy lawsuit to break Billingsley.
Billingsley also had to fight mob-connected unions for years, with more lawsuits and trouble.
I would have liked more about the scene and the era, but that wasn't this book
His club was well known for catering to the elite, celebrities, and gangsters - and he may have been (probably was) connected.
It's a story that begins way too far back, at his birth, and finally gets into the meat of the story much later.
The club was a product of its time, which is not to forgive but to explain the racism - and which led to the most famous story, and the incident that eventually cost him the club and his health.
In what seems to have been a setup by the legendary black entertainer Josephine Baker, she came in with a party, ordered food and then complained that she wasn't served promptly. Though the club attempted to fix the situation, she wouldn't have it and apparently immediately called her lawyer and began a messy lawsuit to break Billingsley.
Billingsley also had to fight mob-connected unions for years, with more lawsuits and trouble.
I would have liked more about the scene and the era, but that wasn't this book
bailed
May 9, 2023Why did I bail? Flipped through it and didn't see anything interesting. Looked at the pictures. Good enough.
August 27, 2025
Honestly. The book start off great. Couple of chapters. It start getting off the subject.
June 28, 2017
**#65 of 120 books pledged to read during 2017**
June 1, 2008
I felt mildly let down by this book. It may just be that the Stork Club's owner, Sherman Billingsley, was not a very compelling figure. It seemed to have a fine-grained focus on Billingley's various battles over the years (mobsters, unions, Josephine Baker, sticky-fingered employees) without giving much insight on either the man or the broader "café society" in which the Stork Club operated. At least he spent a few years banging Ethel Merman.
December 3, 2009
Boy, was Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley an SOB! Racist, homophobic, xenophobic - you name it - he ruled New York nightlife during the early to middle 20th century, but ended up broke in the 1960s, sleeping in his car. In my opinion, Blumenthal lets Billingsley off too easily, but this is still an interesting read.
November 17, 2009
A lot of fun, particularly the opening chapters. I don't feel like I got much of a glimpse of the cafe society that the title promised, though. Unless "cafe society" is code for "gangster," because there sure were a lot of them. Fascinating.
October 7, 2009
Completely fascinating bit of New York City history. Not very well written or put together, but interesting nonetheless.
December 30, 2017
Fun book about a bygone era. Lots of frequently hilarious anecdotes about Sherman Billingsley, the club's colorful owner.
July 28, 2016
Satisfyingly detailed and dishy. One of the better Cafe Society books.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews