Title: Signed menu from the Onyx Jazz Club, 52nd St., New York, “where Swing was born”. Author: Place: NY Publisher: Grinthal Press Date: 1937 Description: Menu, The Onyx [Jazz Club] / “The Cradle of Swing” / 62 West 52nd Street / New York / Where Radio Artists are Entertained by their Entertainers. (Grinthal Press, NY [1937]) 4pp. Covers of stiff Art Deco silver foil-type reflective paper. Front cover with musical drawings. Rear cover with full page of facsimile “Signatures of the original Onyx Customers – July 27, 1930”,. Two inner pages are the “Onyx Wine List” (including mixed drinks and cocktails) and “Supper Suggestions”, including “Caviar a la Onyx” ($1.50). Ink inscription at top of inner pages by someone who went to the club on Oct. 23, 1937. Immortalized in Arnold Shaw’s book, “52nd St., The Street of Jazz”, the Onyx was a speakeasy during Prohibition where Jazz musicians began to congregate for jam sessions, merely to entertain one other. By the time this Menu appeared, it had become the premier Jazz Club in Manhattan, where musicians, Black and white, rubbed elbows – literally, as the floor space was so small – with rich Ivy League boys, high society millionaires and gangsters. It was at the Onyx that the Swing style of Jazz was born. There is no explanation on the menu of why so many musicians assembled on July 27, 1930, nor does the date appear in Shaw’s book as significant in Onyx history. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to decipher some of the signatures collected on that July night: Jack Teagarden, Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Red Norvo, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Roy Bargy, Harry Bluestone, Joe Venuti, Kurt Dieterle, Claude Thornhill, Mischa Russell, Milton Yaner, Jerry Colonna, Chester Hazlett, Dick McDonough, Red Norvo, Billy McVay, Peggy Healy, Freddie Rich, George King Raudenbush, Del Staigers, Harry Breuer Noel Kilgen – a largely white crowd, to be sure, in speakeasy days, though by 1937, when this menu was printed and the liquor flowed freely, the audience was bi-racial, and many of the most popular headliners, like Art Tatum, were Black. Rare and appealing Jazz memorabilia. Lot Amendments Condition: very good Item number: 248059
Title: Signed menu from the Onyx Jazz Club, 52nd St., New York, “where Swing was born”. Author: Place: NY Publisher: Grinthal Press Date: 1937 Description: Menu, The Onyx [Jazz Club] / “The Cradle of Swing” / 62 West 52nd Street / New York / Where Radio Artists are Entertained by their Entertainers. (Grinthal Press, NY [1937]) 4pp. Covers of stiff Art Deco silver foil-type reflective paper. Front cover with musical drawings. Rear cover with full page of facsimile “Signatures of the original Onyx Customers – July 27, 1930”,. Two inner pages are the “Onyx Wine List” (including mixed drinks and cocktails) and “Supper Suggestions”, including “Caviar a la Onyx” ($1.50). Ink inscription at top of inner pages by someone who went to the club on Oct. 23, 1937. Immortalized in Arnold Shaw’s book, “52nd St., The Street of Jazz”, the Onyx was a speakeasy during Prohibition where Jazz musicians began to congregate for jam sessions, merely to entertain one other. By the time this Menu appeared, it had become the premier Jazz Club in Manhattan, where musicians, Black and white, rubbed elbows – literally, as the floor space was so small – with rich Ivy League boys, high society millionaires and gangsters. It was at the Onyx that the Swing style of Jazz was born. There is no explanation on the menu of why so many musicians assembled on July 27, 1930, nor does the date appear in Shaw’s book as significant in Onyx history. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to decipher some of the signatures collected on that July night: Jack Teagarden, Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Red Norvo, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Roy Bargy, Harry Bluestone, Joe Venuti, Kurt Dieterle, Claude Thornhill, Mischa Russell, Milton Yaner, Jerry Colonna, Chester Hazlett, Dick McDonough, Red Norvo, Billy McVay, Peggy Healy, Freddie Rich, George King Raudenbush, Del Staigers, Harry Breuer Noel Kilgen – a largely white crowd, to be sure, in speakeasy days, though by 1937, when this menu was printed and the liquor flowed freely, the audience was bi-racial, and many of the most popular headliners, like Art Tatum, were Black. Rare and appealing Jazz memorabilia. Lot Amendments Condition: very good Item number: 248059
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