HAVANA
Nightlife - Gambling
[REF:
Cabaret Quarterly, Special Resort Number, Volume Five,
poss 1956, p43]
HAVANA
By: JAY
MALLIN
[To see a full size
photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
HAVANA at night is a glit-back velvet of the
Caribbean. She is a
seductive sorceress exuding an essence of warmth and
idolence and
delicious lethargy. Her streets throb with a dark and
pulsating
beat. The air is a heavy, aphrodisiacal wine that
dissolves the
inhibitions and dissipates restraint. The tourist is
caught in a
heady torrent of rich laughter and swept along in swirling
freshets of
gaiety. The music is everywhere. Time is an
endless round
of dark rum and rhumba, light rum and marimbas, for Havana
is the
mistress of pleasure, the lush and opulent goddess of
delights.
Page 44
[To see a full
size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Roulette tables are tourist attraction at
casinos
in big hotels, at Tropicana and Montmartre clubs.
GAMBLING IS A NATIONAL SPORT
YOU SIT at the sidewalk cafes near the Capitolio sipping
your daiquiri
and the crowd flows by; the Spanish beauties with their soft
black eyes
in camelia pale faces, the Cuban men in light tropical
linens, the
young mulatto girls like bright flowers in their dresses of
crimson
silk with impudent breasts arched high and forward, and the
pale
tourists from the north, free of care, seeking the
diversions of the
tropical night.
Havana has many diversions and gambling is one of them.
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] National lottery
pays fantastic prices. Pellets
containing numerals are whirled within steel cages.
A quarter of a century ago Havana was a winter gathering
place for
heavy spenders. In the years that followed, however,
other
Caribbean areas spent lavish sums to attract American
tourists.
Shortsighted tourist officials and hotel owners in Havana
did not do
the same, and the tourist trade languished.
Then in 1952-1953, the gambling business in Cuba hit bottom
following
the famed "razzle-dazzle" scandal. Several Havana
nightclubs
installed razzle-dazzle, a tricky dice game in which
customers have
virtually no chance of winning–but can, and usually do, lose
heavily. With this game the nightclubs were milking
tourists of
hundreds of thousands of dollars weekly, until finally the
Cuban
government banned the game. A dozen unscrupulous
American
gamblers who had been operating it were deported.
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Lottery has been a national sport for many
years.
Back in 1946, venders used to peddle huge numerals.
Soon afterwards, with the golden flood now halted, the big
Casino
Nacional closed because it was losing more than it took
in. (Once
the most famous nightclub in Latin America, it was torn down
this year
to make way for a golf course.) Sans Souci, another
big nightclub,
Page 45
[To see a full size photo, right click and
VIEW IMAGE]
Betting has become way of life in Cuba. At left windows take
bets on jai alai matches.
Below, bookie at cockfight shouts bets.
was able to stay open only at intervals. By 1955 there
remained
only two big nightclubs with gambling facilities: Tropicana
and
Montmartre.
In the meantime, however, hit by an economic recession, the
Cuban
government set about to recapture the tourist trade. A
major move
was the enactment of a law permitting hotels worth over
$1,000,000 to
install gambling. Gambling devices were also to be
permitted in
other places deemed suitable by the official Tourist
Institute.
Enactment of the law in 1955 set off a chain reaction of
activity.
Wilbur Clark, who runs Las Vegas' Desert Inn, secured the
concession to
open a casino in the Hotel Nacional, the country's largest
hotel.
The casino, the first in a Havana hotel, opened in January
of
1956. The casino is divided into the Casino Parisien
(dining and
dancing), the International Casino (gambling) and the
Starlight Terrace
(bar).
Sans Souci was remodeled at a cost of about one million
dollars by an
American group. It reopened in time for the 1956
tourist season,
and has not closed since. The nightclub has all the
usual
gambling facilities–roulette, craps, slot machines,
blackjack and
chemin de fer. In addition, Sans Souci has two
novelties: bingo,
with $1,000 prizes, and a "money crap game," in which
bettors bet
against each other instead of against the house which simply
collects a
percentage.
Page 46
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Called most
beautiful club in world. Tropicana's decor is
ultra-modern -- club accommodates 1,750.
TROPICANA WORLD'S BIGGEST CLUB
IS MONUMENT TO FUN AT NIGHT
In any tour of Havana there is one "must" that should be on
any pleasure seeker's list–a visit to the fabulous
Tropicana.
Known as "the most beautiful nightclub in the world," it is
also the
world's largest. Located on what was once a private
estate, its
grounds cover a total of 36,000 square meters of which the
nightclub
occupies 8,000, the rest is a huge and beautifully kept
garden.
Tropicana has a total seating capacity of 1,750 in outdoor
and indoor
areas. The shows are large colorful productions that
rival the
scope of Hollywood musicals.
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Latin comics are
intermixed with Cuban beauties.
For the grandeur of the place prices are extremely
reasonable.
There is a $2.00 minimum per person to enter the
Tropicana. The
minimum per person at the tables is $4.50 week nights and
$5.00 on
Saturday nights and it takes $4.50 to buy a solid
meal. A
highball is tabbed
Page 47
at a dollar. Sitting at the bar and tables around it
the customer pays only for what he drinks.
A unique feature initiated by the Tropicana to draw the
Florida crowd
has no parallel anywhere in the night club world. It's
a
round-trip flight from Miami, an hour away. The
Tropicana special
takes off every Thursday night and returns to Miami at four
a.m.
From the minute the customer steps aboard the plane in Miami
the
evening is under way. Drinks are served and there is
even a small
floor show during the flight to Havana. The lavish
part of the
evening of course is at the Tropicana with the big show and
choice
tables. Everything is included in the package deal:
the flight,
the drinks, the eats, the show. The tab at the end of
the evening
$70.00.
[To see a full size
photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Lavish production
numbers with chorus lines
made up of American and Cuban girls are spectacular
entertainment
feature. New gimmick in promoting tourists is
special round-trip
flight from Miami.
In the plush clubs, Tropicana, Montmartre, and Sans Souci
the showgirl comes into her own in the glittering
productions.
Page 48
The Cuban standard of beauty prevails. The ideal woman
to the
Cuban is a plump and saucy creature. They like
their girls
to look like girls and the Cuban girls meet the
specifications
marvelously.
[To see a full
size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Men make passes at these girls with glasses:
Jennie Leon and Isa Reynolds.
[caption] Cuban chorus girl
displays latest in a-peeling attire.
[caption] Latin look-alikes
from "Bahionado" show: Gladys Roban, Nancy Quesada.
[caption] Mixed chorus of
American and Latin types attract trade.
[caption] Cuban Bombshell, Olga Chaviano, was Havana hit.
Though many bounteous displays of gorgeous gals can be found
in the
revues at the big clubs, the stripper, whose stock in trade
is a net
bra and a G-string, is a relative rarity in Havana.
While
"exotics" such as Betty Howard and Bubbles Darlene have
played clubs
there the strip acts have been mostly confined to infrequent
appearances in variety shows at the legit theatres like the
Compoamor
and the Marti. Whether influence of big-time U.S.
operators will
mean importation of big names in the peel profession as it
did in Las
Vegas is still a matter for speculation. U.S.
operators in the
past have been responsible for importing other big names in
the bistro
business.
Page 49
STARS ARE BIG AND BRIGHT
WHEN GAMBLING became the center of interest in the big clubs
name
talent was a scarcity in Havana and it has become an axiom
of the
business that the big names draw the crowd so plans to
remedy the
situation quickly got under way.
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Star performer Dorothy Dandridge sang at Sans
Souci in line with policy of big name talent.
Since then changes have been made. Name talent has
become a
standard attraction and there is strong competition among
the big clubs
to land the biggest acts in show business.
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Immortal
Frenchman Maurice Chevalier drew big crowds for operators
of plush Montmartre club.
Sans Souci featured Denise Darcel, Edith Piaf, Ilona Massey,
Cab Calloway, Dorothy Dandridge, Tony Martin and Ginny
Simms.
Continental chanteuse Edith Piaf
enchanted assemblage at Sans Souci as
did countrywoman Denise Darcel
with special acts. Crowds came for
show, stayed to gamble.
The Casino Parisien had Eartha Kitt, Toni Arden, Teddy and
Phyllis
Rodriguez, Constance Towers, the De Marco Sisters, Vicente
Escudero and
his Group, the De Castro Sisters and Chiquita and Johnson.
Montmartre showcased Dorothy Lamour, Maurice Chavalier and
Jacqueline Francois.
At the Tropicana names like Johnny Puleo and the Harmonica
Gang, Billy Daniels and Nat "King" Cole drew the customers
in.
Page 50
SHANGHAI SELLS SEX
STAG FILMS AND BURLESQUE RUN WIDE OPEN AT CUBAN THEATRE
ONE OF HAVANA'S notable attractions is its least publicized
one.
This is the Shanghai Theatre–the naughtiest theatre in the
world.
The Shanghai offers three-sided sex: risque plays,
altogether naked
women and pornographic movies generally never seen outside
the smoke
filled rooms of stag parties. The Shanghai is the only
theatre of
its type in Havana–and perhaps anywhere in the world.
It does not
operate behind secret doors or even in private: you pay your
admission
$1.25 for good seats– and you walk right in.
[To see a full size photo, right click and
VIEW IMAGE]
Admission to Shanghai is gained for mere $1.25.
Program consists
of risque plays, raw burlesque and stag movies.
Proprietor Jose
Orozco
Garcia, top, can see nothing wrong in showing stag
films: "These
films were made in New York and Paris," he says.
There have been other burlesque houses in Havana, but poor
business and
reform efforts have wiped them out. The Shanghai, by
keeping
publicity to a minimum, has managed to escape the attention
of the
law. No cameras are permitted inside, although Cabaret
photographers have managed to take some pictures. (One
of these
is now featured in the lobby of the theatre.)
The Shanghai is an old theatre, and it shows its age.
It is hot,
uncomfortable and usually smelly. It seats 750
persons, and on a
Saturday night is packed.
There are two shows nightly, and a matinee on Sundays.
The shows
consists of the three aforementioned parts. It starts
out with
the first scene of a risque play. Then follows a
musical
"review," in which half a dozen or so women wind up
completely
nude. For about an hour and a half the scenes of the
play
alternate with the reviews, with an occasional single act
thrown
in. These "singles" consist of singers and comedians,
most of
whom have been at the Shanghai for years–and haven't changed
their acts
in all that time.
After the live show, the theatre is darkened, and movies are
shown.
Page 51
[To see a full size
photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
Despite an ordinance forbidding cameras, Cabaret
photographer obtained
exclusive pictures of stage show. One picture from
series is now
featured in lobby of theater. Orozco's biggest
problem is not law
but scarcity of talent: "Ours is a small country and there
are not many
girls who consent to strip."
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