It was situated in the back room of a Victorian house at 1690 Post Street, in the Western Addition district.

[4] In the late 1940s, however, new clubs emerged in the Tenderloin and North Beach districts, which changed the music scene in the city.

Gaillard moved to Los Angeles, leaving the venue to Charles Sullivan, an African-American entrepreneur.

The San Francisco club opened in late March 1949, with a concert by the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra and Sarah Vaughan.

Pony Poindexter described the scene: One night, or should I say one morning, Art Tatum was honored with a special party at Bop City.

[10] The saxophonist John Handy, who later played with Charles Mingus, began here his career as a house musician and jammed with Benny Bailey, Kenny Dorham, and Paul Gonsalves.

The first musicians to play at Bop City included Jimmy Heath, Milt Jackson, Roy Porter, Sonny Criss, and Hampton Hawes.

The painter and film maker Harry Everett Smith painted the walls with abstract motifs and created a light show that ran to the music of Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk.

[17] Admission was only $1, and musicians came in for free, but Jimbo Edwards always chose who he let in and who he did not: We don't allow no squares in Bop City.

[6]The singer Mary Stallings commented on the atmosphere from the African-American perspective: It's such a spiritual music, it really binds people together.