The Dew Drop Inn, at 2836 LaSalle Street, in the Faubourg Delassize section of Central City neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a former hotel and nightclub that operated between 1939 and 1970, and is noted as "the most important and influential club" in the development of rhythm and blues music in the city in the post-war period. The venue primarily served the African-American population i
- Venue
- Dew Drop Inn (New Orleans, Louisiana)
- Address
- 2836 LaSalle Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70115
- Town
- New Orleans, US
The Dew Drop Inn, at 2836 LaSalle Street, in the Faubourg Delassize section of Central City neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a former hotel and nightclub that operated between 1939 and 1970, and is noted as "the most important and influential club" in the development of rhythm and blues music in the city in the post-war period. The venue primarily served the African-American population in the then heavily segregated Southern United States. Frank G. Painia (1907-1972) established a barbershop on LaSalle Street in the late 1930s. He began selling refreshments to workers at the nearby Magnolia Housing Project, and then expanded his premises to include a bar and hotel, which opened as the Dew Drop Inn in April 1939. During World War II, Painia also started booking bands for concerts in the city, and frequently had the musicians staying at his hotel. He started putting on entertainment in the hotel lounge, before developing it further into a dancehall, which opened in 1945. Nicknamed "the Groove Room", the Dew Drop Inn was reported in October 1945 by the Louisiana Weekly to be "New Orleans' swankiest nightclub", and began featuring visiting musicians such as Joe Turner, the Sweethearts of Rhythm, Amos Milburn, Lollypop Jones, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Ivory Joe Hunter, Chubby Newsom, The Ravens, Dinah Washington, Big Maybelle, and Cecil Gant. The resident bandleaders were local musicians Dave Bartholomew and Edgar Blanchard, and Painia discovered and helped establish local stars including Larry Darnell, Tommy Ridgley, Earl King, Huey "Piano" Smith, and Allen Toussaint. In November 1952, Frank Painia, together with Hollywood film actor Zachary Scott and his friends, were arrested and charged with disturbing the peace, following a complaint to the New Orleans Police Department that "Negroes and whites were being served together," which was technically illegal at the time. The charges were later dismissed, and Painia continued to challenge the constitutionality