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Intimate Nights: The Golden Age of New York Cabaret
• Fully revised updated and expanded edition
of an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award winner
that sold more than 10,000 copies
• Cultural history plus celebrity anecdotes
• Up-to-the-minute look at the current
New York cabaret scene
Intimate Nights is the definitive history of cabaret as it evolved in New York City in the years after World War II. But that doesn’t mean it's dry and academic. Good heavens, no! Settle in for racy tales of nightlife, revealed in interviews with dozens of the people who lived Bobby Short, Eartha Kitt, Mabel Mercer, Bette Midler, and many more. Author James Gavin has tracked down rare, early stories about the legends who came out of New York nightclubs—and that means Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Nichols and May, Johnny Mathis, Carol Burnett, Lenny Bruce, among others. Part cultural history, part celebrity gossip, Intimate Nights offers an intimate look at the creatures of the nightclubs.
of an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award winner
that sold more than 10,000 copies
• Cultural history plus celebrity anecdotes
• Up-to-the-minute look at the current
New York cabaret scene
Intimate Nights is the definitive history of cabaret as it evolved in New York City in the years after World War II. But that doesn’t mean it's dry and academic. Good heavens, no! Settle in for racy tales of nightlife, revealed in interviews with dozens of the people who lived Bobby Short, Eartha Kitt, Mabel Mercer, Bette Midler, and many more. Author James Gavin has tracked down rare, early stories about the legends who came out of New York nightclubs—and that means Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Nichols and May, Johnny Mathis, Carol Burnett, Lenny Bruce, among others. Part cultural history, part celebrity gossip, Intimate Nights offers an intimate look at the creatures of the nightclubs.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
480 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 9, 2025
James Gavin's "Intimate Nights: The Golden Age of New York Cabaret" aims to be comprehensive history of cabaret in New York. So, the reader gets copious details about a multitude of clubs and the people who worked at these clubs. Gavin clearly did his research as the book is full of quotes about the happenings at these clubs.
Like the rest of us, Gavin has his favorites. Mabel Mercer and Julie Wilson receive glowing notices for being both humble and smart in their interpretations of the American songbook. I used to go and see Colleen McHugh at the Duplex and whenever I was there, Julie Wilson was a guest. Gavin writes of Wilson supporting young singers in cabaret, and she clearly was a fan of Colleen's.
Gavin accuses my former neighbor Ellie Ellsworth of being a charlatan and a religious obsessive at her school where she and others ostensibly trained cabaret singers. I have no idea about her being a charlatan, but she certainly proselytized when I saw her in the building.
These kinds of capsule characterizations occupy the book, and some are successful and some aren't. I particularly loved the Streisand and Midler sections, two genuine superstars who got their starts in cabaret. Gavin's descriptions of them ring true since he doesn't simply gush or only trash.
His fact checker made a mistake early in the text when Gavin writes that Senator McCarthy was the head of HUAC. That isn't true. Both McCarthy and HUAC used publicity to ruin people's lives in their supposed search for Communists, but McCarthy was the chairman of the Subcommittee of Permanent Investigations. This kind of mistake can make a reader doubt an author's writing in other ways.
All in all, if you love cabaret, you will want to read this one, whatever its flaws.
Like the rest of us, Gavin has his favorites. Mabel Mercer and Julie Wilson receive glowing notices for being both humble and smart in their interpretations of the American songbook. I used to go and see Colleen McHugh at the Duplex and whenever I was there, Julie Wilson was a guest. Gavin writes of Wilson supporting young singers in cabaret, and she clearly was a fan of Colleen's.
Gavin accuses my former neighbor Ellie Ellsworth of being a charlatan and a religious obsessive at her school where she and others ostensibly trained cabaret singers. I have no idea about her being a charlatan, but she certainly proselytized when I saw her in the building.
These kinds of capsule characterizations occupy the book, and some are successful and some aren't. I particularly loved the Streisand and Midler sections, two genuine superstars who got their starts in cabaret. Gavin's descriptions of them ring true since he doesn't simply gush or only trash.
His fact checker made a mistake early in the text when Gavin writes that Senator McCarthy was the head of HUAC. That isn't true. Both McCarthy and HUAC used publicity to ruin people's lives in their supposed search for Communists, but McCarthy was the chairman of the Subcommittee of Permanent Investigations. This kind of mistake can make a reader doubt an author's writing in other ways.
All in all, if you love cabaret, you will want to read this one, whatever its flaws.
February 19, 2023
Each chapter of this wonderful history feels like its own capsule of a few venues or a few years, highlighting a performer’s debut or an owner’s opening night and closing with a recap of career highlights and sometimes a wistful remembrance. The descriptions are so wonderfully detailed that the text easily transports the reader into those places and times and certainly makes this New Yorker’s heart ache for all the nooks and crannies of performance space homes.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews