Seattle's Jackson Street jazz clubs flourished from World War II up until the early 1960s, when the Civil Rights movement broke down barriers barring African Americans from living and working in the larger community. Seattle-born photographer Albert J. "Al" Smith, Sr. (1916-2008) was a familiar figure in the clubs, often taking pictures of patrons and friends, then returning the following week to sell the prints housed in the souvenir folders he had made for the occasion. According to his family, Mr. Smith had the printer put "Seattle's Oldest Nite Club" on the Black & Tan Club folder in a nod to the club's origin in 1922 as the Alhambra, owned by E. Russell "Noodles" Smith (1884-1952), no relation. Located on Twelfth Avenue South and South Jackson Street, in about 1932 the club began to be known as the Black & Tan, a generic name for clubs where it was acceptable for people of color and whites to mix socially. The Black & Tan hosted locally and nationally popular entertainers such as Eubie Blake, Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, Lena Horne, Ernestine Anderson, Ray Charles, Count Basie, and Charlie Parker. The club thrived until the mid-1960s, having been a major factor in the popularity of jazz and later rhythm and blues in Seattle.
At the time the folder was printed, probably in the mid-1940s, The Black and Tan Club was managed by Louis Sir Bertrand Todd (1891-1951), who listed his employer on his WWII draft registration card as the Colored Waiters, Porters, and Cooks Club, another nickname for The Black & Tan Club, since it served as a social club for railroad personnel. The keepsake folder holds a photograph of seven people, with party hats and noisemakers, around a table at the Black & Tan, possibly for a New Year's Eve celebration.
Caption information source: "Al Smith Sr., photographer, historian - Central District resident captured '40s jazz scene," The Seattle Times, September 4, 2008, p. B7. Caption information source: https://blackpast.org/aaw/black-and-tan-club-1922-1966 Caption information source: "Ask MOHAI: Was Seattle ever a jazz city?" The Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog, September 3, 2010.
