The Palladium Ballroom

Overview

'The Home of the Mambo', the midtown Broadway ballroom where the 'Big Three' orchestras of Tito Puente, Machito, and Tito Rodríguez gained prominence in 1948 (Wikipedia), on a floor where Wikipedia describes ability to dance, not class or color, as the social currency.

The Palladium Ballroom stood on the northeast corner of Broadway and 53rd Street, on the second floor. Wikipedia dates its opening to March 15, 1946 (citing the New York Post of March 14, 1946); the Bowery Boys give 1947, and sources differ. The street number is given as 1698 Broadway by the Palladium Mambo history site, a University of Washington dance historian's oral-history project, and the other sources read give only the corner. It was owned by Maxwell Hyman, according to the Bowery Boys and the Palladium Mambo history site; Wikipedia's Tito Puente entry says Tommy Morton converted the room into a nightclub in 1946, and the record does not reconcile this with Hyman. Latin Sundays began there in 1947, according to the Palladium Mambo history site; La Época credits promoter Federico Pagani with promoting live Latin music at the room from 1945. Accounts differ on the dates, and the record does not settle them. By 1948 the three orchestras later called the 'Big Three' (Machito and His Afro-Cubans, the Tito Puente Orchestra, and the Tito Rodríguez Orchestra) had gained prominence there (Wikipedia), and live Latin orchestras played Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights (La Época; Palladium Mambo). La Época uses the term 'Palladium era'. The Bowery Boys describe a rivalry between Puente and Rodríguez on the Palladium stage. Wednesday nights featured live orchestras and dance shows (La Época) and weekly dance competitions (Wikipedia). Wikipedia lists a free dance lesson, weekly dance competitions, pie contests and a Female Best Leg Contest, and says the night drew Hollywood and Broadway stars. Dancers named in the sources include Killer Joe Piro, who later became master of ceremonies and gave mass lessons (Wikipedia, Killer Joe Piro; the Palladium entry says he briefly filled in as master of ceremonies); Pedro 'Cuban Pete' Aguilar (La Época; Bowery Boys); and Augie and Margo Rodriguez, described by Wikipedia as a popular adagio dance team at the Palladium. Wikipedia lists Marlon Brando, Bing Crosby, Dizzy Gillespie and Sammy Davis Jr. among the patrons. Wikipedia and La Época describe a floor where ability to dance, not class or color, was the social currency. The record does not claim more than that about who shared the floor. A 1961 drug raid led to the loss of the ballroom's liquor license (Wikipedia; Palladium Mambo). The Palladium Mambo history site's bibliography cites a New York Times report of April 9, 1961 whose headline, as given there, reports 13 arrested in a ballroom raid with narcotics, a pistol and a razor found among 800 dancers; the Times article itself was not read for this record, and no other source read gives details of the raid. La Época ties the end of the room to a police drug raid in spring 1966 and the other sources give 1966; the day of the closing is not given in the sources read for this record. The Bowery Boys write that nothing is left of this Palladium; the sources read do not say what replaced the room. A later, unrelated Palladium nightclub stood at 14th Street and Third Avenue (Bowery Boys). La Época says Pagani went on to start Latin nights at El Corso and the Village Gate after the closing. Tito Puente died on May 31, 2000, at age 77 (Wikipedia).