Of Billy Reed and His Little Club

A few words on Billy “Zoot” Reed (1913-1974) and Billy Reed’s Little Club (1947-1965). I first learned about this long gone Manhattan institution in writing about the magician Harry Lorayne, and about the gent himself from this ad for a burlesque act with Jean Carroll. Lorayne was far from the only famous entertainer who played the Little Club or gave the joint his custom, but as you see, it lasted for less than two decades, it was bound to be forgotten.

Reed was a guy from Waterbury who ran away from home as a teenager to perform in minstrel shows, burlesque, and vaudeville. For a time, he danced with trios like Gordon, Reed, and King, and Jackson, Irving, and Reed. By the early ’30s he had made the Big Time and played the Palace, and he was in the 1929 Broadway show Fifty Million Frenchman. It is also claimed that he danced with Ann Pennington in the 1929 film Gold Diggers of Broadway, although he is uncredited, and only a portion of that movie survives. But Reed did dance and kid around in the movie shorts Rush Hour Rhapsody (1936), Shoes with Rhythm (1937), The Knight is Young (1938), Gay Nineties (1942), and A Knife, A Fork and a Spoon (1942). In the latter he demonstrated his specialty of playing dishes and utensils as percussion instruments. He also danced in the 1942 feature Syncopation. In the early ’40s Reed was the dance director at the Copacabana. Described as “bald and toothless”, he was a comedian as much as he was a hoofer, and he is credited with writing gag material for Bob Hope, Ben Bernie, Al Jolson and Ed Wynn.

Service in World War Two inspired Reed to start his own intimate venue modeled on a Parisian cabaret. Reed’s 125 capacity Little Club on 55th Street featured a striped awning specially designed by Russell Paterson and made the columns right away with their inaugural singer-in-residence, Doris Day. Another regular performer there in early days was Cy Coleman. The Little Club was especially prized by show biz folks who came there to hang out following their own performances, sometimes as late as 3:30am. Regulars included Frank Sinatra,Judy Garland,Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall, Julie Andrews, Dan Dailey,Ernie Kovacs, Robert Q. Lewis, and Sidney Chaplin. During this period of fame Reed appeared on television on The Ed Sullivan Show and The All Star Revue, and in the films Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) and The Cardinal (1963).

The Little Club had a reputation for being the first American joint to serve Caesar salad. Julie Andrews’ favorite specialty was recorded as a boiled potato sandwich, but that has the whiff of p.r. to me, the sort of thing a flack would cook up to get his client in the columns. Mostly (like most places at the time) it was known for its steaks.

Reed closed the Little Club abruptly in 1965, amid promises to start a new one, perhaps a larger one, or one in Las Vegas. What he ended up doing was managing other clubs, all of which closed in rapid succession: The Barberry, El Morocco, and Dinty Moore’s. He also operated a salon called the House of Revlon at the Gotham Hotel.

For more on show biz history,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, and stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.