The "greatest generation" goes night-clubbing

I found this photo in my dad's ephemera treasure trove. In this World War II picture, my mother and father are among the nightclub patrons sitting around the table, drinking cocktails.  I can imagine the "photo girl''s" coming to the table and shooting this image with one of those big old Speed Graflex press cameras.

My mother and father are the second and third from the left, respectively. Dad's in his navy uniform, and Mom has her peroxide-blond hair in a 1940s-style pompadour. They're in a San Francisco night club, which means that this was shot at a time Dad was stationed at Treasure Island.They moved to San Francisco from my father's previous posting in Utah when Mom was seven months pregnant. So I assume this was shot after I was born, some time in 1944. (Who was taking care of me, I wonder?)

All the guys are in uniform, and I notice one of the women is wearing a corsage. I wonder if this was for a birthday or anniversary or if it was just something her husband did to make her feel special? According to the names written on the back of the photo folder, all four couples were married. I don't recognize any of the names other than my parents' so maybe these were just wartime friends they never saw again after everyone was out of the service.

Here's the front of the photo folder. It's from a now-defunct San Francisco nightclub, the Bal Tabarin.

I did a little web search and learned that the original Bal Tabarin was a caberet in Paris famous for its stage shows and tango dancing. Here's a painting  of a scene at that Bal Tabarin by cubist painter Gino Severini that's now part of the Museum of Modern Art collection. Famed jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt frequently performed at the Paris Bal Tabarin. (There's also a  1932 crime thriller film by that name set in Paris).

San Francisco's Bal Tabarin was in North Beach at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Chestnut Street. Today Bimbo's 365 Club occupies the space. This photo folder presently for sale on eBay has a drawing of the front of the Bal Tabarin's moderne facade. (The building was designed by well-known San Francisco architect Timothy Pfleuger, who also designed the Top of the Mark and the Castro Theater).   Bal Tabarin was a pricey place for the times, with $3 sirloin steaks, 40-cent martinis and "Asti rouge Champagne" (I shudder to think of what this might have been) for $3 per quart.

The restaurant was owned by jazz violinist Tom Gerun (Gerunovich), whose claim to fame was his Roof Garden Orchestra, seen in this photo.  Click on this link and scroll down to "Sentimental Gentleman from Georgia," and click on that name to hear Tom Gerun's band in performance. I wonder if my parents ever heard this number?

In the early days, the NBC radio network had a policy that no records were to be played on the air. After NBC opened a San Francisco outlet, musicians from Bal Tabarin were frequently heard on the nationwide radio hookup, performing live.

My parents were not all that worldly. Mom had grown up on a an Eastern Washington cattle ranch, and received her science training at Maryhurst College, a small women's college in a Portland, Oregon suburb. Dad, a Norwegian immigrant who had grown up on a wheat farm in Washington State's Palouse country, had worked briefly for the Boeing company before enlisting in the navy.  I would suppose that this was one of their very first visits to an actual night club.

I wonder if they danced? (Dad grew up in a non-dancing, non-drinking, non-smoking evangelical Lutheran sect). I notice his inevitable pack of cigarettes peeking from the pocket of his dress blue jumper, and I'm sure that's not just lemonade in the glass in front of him. I can imagine a Glenn Miller tune in the background, like maybe "In the Mood," or "Moonlight Serenade." 

I know, of course, that my father came home from the war. I wonder, though, about the fates of the other men at the table. Don't they all look so young? My mom's been dead some 35 years already, and anyone else who is in the photo would have to be nearly 90 years old.

nightclub San+Francisco wartime greatest+generation Navy jazz uniforms moderne architecture

Comments

[Thomas Wm. Hamilton]

I recently discovered a photo of my parents at the Bal Tabarin also, from August 1940, my mother's 27th birthday. I was a bit over a year old, and not invited, apparently, but several couples, all unknown to me, are with them.
I very much appreciated the info about the restaurant that you posted.
My mother was also Lutheran, never smoked, and rarely drank, altho from choice, not religious conviction. My father was a very worldly type, but he died of injuries received in France in WWI less than a year after the picture at Bal Tabarin was taken.
Again, much appreciate the info.

[Jeff Fleckenstein]

I recently found a 1936 publication entitled, "San Francisco Hotel Association's Official Hotel and Shopping Guide". Inside the back flap is an ad for the Bal Tabarin with a fantastic photo of the Champagne Fountain Cocktail Room (I believe). The text reads as follows, "Unique among the world's dining and dancing centers. So unusual in design, architects of all nations have come to see it. Its amusing murals of San Francisco life are among the things discussed everywhere, and are an attraction of the Champagne Fountain Cocktail Room. 2 Dance Bands, Several Floor Shows. Dinner $1.50, Saturday $2.00. No Cover Charge. ORdway 3030, Columbus at Chestnut".