They debuted in the 24th edition of the "Cotton Club Parade" in spring 1934, a period at the beginning of the swing era, the post-Harlem Renaissance, a year after Prohibition, and the trough of the Great Depression.
[1] Some Cotton Club Boys alumni went on to become major influences in American arts and culture.
The Cotton Club first opened in 1923 in Harlem on the 2nd floor of a building at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue, close to Sugar Hill.
Walter Brooks,[3] who brought Shuffle Along to Broadway in 1921, was the front, or nominal owner.
[5] The new Cotton Club opened September 24, 1936, at Broadway and 48th Street, in the Great White Way section of the Theater District near Times Square.
The last show at the Cotton Club ran Saturday night, May 15, 1940, just before Madden left New York.
[6] Another likely impetus for the closing were the demands of Local 802, the New York chapter of the American Federation of Musicians, for back pay, especially salaries owed to Andy Kirk's band.