New Orleans History -- Lake Pontchartrain
Friday, April 26, 2024
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Blue Room at the Roosevelt Hotel


'On October 31, 1923, the former Gruenwald hotel (built in 1893)was renamed
The Roosevelt in honor of Theodore Rosevelt who had died in 1919. In 1927, The
Roosevelt became campaign headquarters for Louisiana's most colorful politician,
Governor (later Senator) Huey Long who lived in a suite in the hotel. Long held
sway with his political cronies in what is now known as The Sazerac Bar, named
for The Sazerac, claimed to be the world's first cocktail invented in New
Orleans in 1859.

During this era, the hotel became famous nationwide for The Blue Room, the city's premier supper club, offering fine dining and the world's top entertainment, among them, Marlene Dietrich, Jimmy Durante, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. The Blue Room was located above what was believed to be the first nightclub in America. It was called The Cave and opened in 1908 offering lavish revues with Ziegfeld-style chorus girls and live Dixieland bands in a setting of stalactites and waterfalls.'
Source: http://www.fairmontneworleans.com/news2.html
Submitted by Henry Harmison
See below photos of 'The Cave'.


 
 


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LakeviewGal
Blue Room
Fri Jan 3 2003 1:08:47 pm

When I was growing up, it was a popular night spot - not really for the young crowd, more for their parents' generation. The entrance was from the lobby of the old Roosevelt Hotel. Leon Kelner's orchestra played there, and they had fairly big names as headliners.