A symbol of café society, the wealthy elite, including movie stars, celebrities, showgirls, and aristocrats all mixed in the VIP 'Cub' Room.

After an incident when Billingsley was kidnapped and held for ransom by Mad Dog Coll, a rival of his mobster partners, he became the sole owner of the Stork Club.

Until World War II, the club consisted of a dining room and bar with restrooms on upper floors with many mirrors and fresh flowers throughout.

A head waiter known as "Saint Peter" determined who was allowed entry to the Cub Room, where Walter Winchell wrote his columns and broadcast his radio programs from Table 50.

[3][4] Billingsley's handwritten recollections of the early days recall that he was approached by two gamblers he knew from Oklahoma in his New York real estate office, proposing to open a restaurant together, which he accepted.

"[3][5] New York City's El Morocco had the sophistication and Toots Shor's drew the sporting crowd, but the Stork Club mixed power, money, and glamor.

Broun's first visit to the Stork was actually made by mistake; he believed it to be a funeral home, but he soon became a regular, and invited his celebrity friends, as the name of the club spread further afield.

[20] Billingsley's long-standing relationship with Ethel Merman, which began in 1939, brought the theater crowd to the Stork; there, she had a waiter assigned to her whose job was just to light her cigarettes.

The women found much to like about the fresh flowers everywhere and the mirrored walls, while the men were pleased to see their favorite dishes on the club's menu, as well as many of their personal and business friends at the opening.

[36][39] Billingsley was also aware of the need for a good working relationship with the press; food and drink for reporters and photographers assigned to cover the Stork Club were on the house.

By July, auditors turned in a report claiming that the clubs were overcharging patrons on tax, sending the city the proper amount, and keeping the overbilled sums.

One of those who phoned Gray's program was television personality and columnist Ed Sullivan, a professional rival of Winchell's whose "home base" was the El Morocco nightclub.

"[48] Winchell's column of October 24, 1951, provides the same details as earlier news stories about Josephine Baker's accusations that he did not assist her at the Stork Club.

"[55] Because of Billingsley's long-standing friendship with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) head J. Edgar Hoover, rumors persisted that the Stork Club was bugged.

Their major effort 10 years before had been unsuccessful; at that time, Sherman Billingsley was accused of attempting to influence his employees to stay out of the union with lavish staff parties and financial gifts.

[63] Three months before his arrest, his secretary was assaulted as she was entering the building where she lived; her assailants made references to the union issues at the Stork Club.

Those who were performers were informed of the possibility of fines and suspensions by their respective unions for crossing the Stork Club picket line as the issue continued.

As the dispute dragged on, a live band was also no longer in the dining room for music; members of the Musicians' Union had crossed the picket line to perform for some time.

[15] While in the hospital recuperating from a serious illness in October 1965, Billingsley sold the building to Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS),[8][71] which turned the site into a park named after its founder's father.

[84][85] Billingsley was also able to summon the club's private limousine to whisk favored customers away to a theater date or a ballgame after drinks or dining at the Stork.

[109] Mark Bernardo, author of Mad Men's Manhattan: The Insider's Guide, has said: "In some ways, the Stork Club was ahead of its time—courting celebrities by picking up their tabs, hiring a house photographer who sent candid shots of guests to the tabloids, and offering a private enclave called the Cub Room, where stars could huddle away from the prying eyes of fans, all hallmarks of modern clubs that cater to boldface names".

[111] Notable guests through the years included Lucille Ball, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Blondell,[112] Charlie Chaplin, Frank Costello, Bing Crosby, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Brenda Frazier, Ava Gardner, Artie Shaw, Dorothy Frooks, Carmen Miranda, Dana Andrews, Michael O'Shea, Judy Garland, the Harrimans, Ernest Hemingway, Judy Holliday, J. Edgar Hoover, Grace Kelly, the Kennedys, Dorothy Kilgallen, Dorothy Lamour, Robert M. McBride, Vincent Price, Marilyn Monroe, the Nordstrom Sisters, Erik Rhodes, the Roosevelts, Elaine Stritch, Ramón Rivero, J. D. Salinger, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Tierney, Mike Todd,[112] and Gloria Vanderbilt.

Billingsley had planned an engagement party for Roosevelt and his girlfriend, vocalist Gigi Durston, on the basis of the couple's friends' statements that they were going to be married.

[129] Billingsley convinced Arthur Godfrey, Morton Downey, and his own assistant, Steve Hannigan, to form an investment group with him to obtain the United States distributorship of the fragrance.

[36][128] Each contained a number and a drawing would be held for the prizes, which ranged from charms for bracelets to automobiles; there were also at least three $100 bills folded and placed randomly in the balloons.

Billingsley commissioned Tiffany & Co. to produce sterling silver Stork Club logo Victory pins as gifts for their crew members.

[144] The program began on CBS Television with the network having built a replica of the Cub Room on the Stork Club's sixth floor to serve as the set for the show.

[148] The television show was an adaptation of Vera Caspary's 1946 mystery novel, The Murder in the Stork Club, where the action took place in and around the famous nightclub, with Sherman Billingsley and other real-life characters appearing in the plot.

[27] In All About Eve (1950), the characters played by Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Anne Baxter and George Sanders are shown in the Cub Room of the Stork Club.

The Alfred Hitchcock film The Wrong Man (1957) starred Henry Fonda as real-life Stork Club bassist Christopher Emanuel Balestrero ("Manny"), who was falsely accused of committing robberies around New York City.