No, not Irene.  This Hurricane was a hot night club on the northwest corner of 49th & Broadway from about 1940 through 1944.  It filled the second floor of the Brill Building, a historic landmark famous for nurturing the popular music industry from the 1950s into the 1970s; anyone who was anyone in the music industry at the time was seen there.

Most notably, Duke Ellington headlined at the Hurricane in 1943, much in demand after his debut at Carnegie Hall that January.  His show ran for an unprecedented 25 weeks, including a live national broadcast six nights a week.  According to Duke Ellington’s America by Harvey G. Cohen, the Ellington band actually lost money on the Hurricane engagement, but the radio exposure increased their popularity so much that when the band went back on the road they could charge five to ten times what they could before their Hurricane gig.

According to Ellington, it was at the Hurricane that night club audiences first began to be integrated:

“The Negro in Harlem, who sought entertainment, why, of course, they were closed out of their entertainment in Harlem [because of the Great Depression and fallout from prewar Harlem riots], so they started coming downtown and getting turned away from various places on Broadway until 1943, [when] we were playing at the Hurricane, 49th and Broadway.  And Dave Wolper was the owner of the place, and I found that I had to go to him one day, and say “Dave, you know, some of my friends have been coming here, and the head waiter is telling them that the place is sold out, there’s no reservations.  And if this continues, I can’t stay here, because I’m embarrassed before my neighbors.”  And so with that Dave went to the door and raised hell with the head waiter, and the head waiter says “Oh I certainly did not.”  He said “Well it happened 2 or 3 times.”  So we actually caught him doing it, and this was the beginning of Broadway opening up, as far as nightclubs on Broadway was concerned.  This was the absolute beginning of it.  Shows how simple these things can be accomplished.”

According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission report of March 2010, the Hurricane evoked the Pacific Ocean island of Tahiti with its decor of palm trees and tropical flora and fauna  In its heyday the Hurricane was operated by lawyer David J. Wolper (not to be confused with his nephew, David L. Wolper, show biz producer of Roots fame) and the story of his tenure as owner and operator is as colorful as the club itself.

In Producer: a memor by the nephew David L. Wolper, he recounts that gangster Mickey Cohen’s moll, Virginia Hill, was among his uncle’s clients, and she gave him the club to settle a 1942 legal bill.  That’s the innocent version of the story.  According to Bugsy’s Baby: the Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill, Wolper was simply the front man for a money-laundering scheme for the mob; Virginia, Bugsy Siegel’s girlfriend, was in charge of arranging the deal.

Whatever the arrangement, by the end of 1943, the Hurricane was a success and Wolper, still running the club, was also involved in producing a Broadway play, Follow the Girls, starring Jackie Gleason, which went on to be a hit.  In February 1944, flush with his success, Wolper took out a 5 year lease on a property in Miami, announcing his intention to open a Hurricane club there as well.  Back in New York, however, things didn’t appear to be going so well.  By July the club had closed and there were rumors that it wouldn’t re-open.  Wolper denied this, setting August 3 as the date to reopen with an ice show and two orchestras.  August 3 came and went.  The ice show was scrapped and the reopening was pushed to September 3, the delay attributed to extensive redecoration.  Wolper also announced that he was seeking a partner to run the restaurant end of the business while he devoted himself to the production of the shows.  Shortly thereafter, Ed Sullivan’s column in The News reported that the Hurricane “went back to the mortgagee”.  Wolper denied it, conceding that he did have a mortgage but that he was meeting his obligations and the club was in no danger of being taken over.  You can see where this is going, right?

On September 9, Billboard announced:

“For probably the first time in the history of the local night club industry an actively operating club has decided to move from one location to another.

Deal involved the turning-’em-away Zanzibar and the shuttered Hurricane across the street.  Dave Wolper, owner of the Hurricane, had been looking for a buyer since early summer.  Originally he intended to reopen with an ice show but building renovations made this prohibitive.  Later various groups began dickering.  But what with one thing and another each deal fell thru.

On Wednesday (30) Joe Howard and Carl Erbe, Zanzibar ops, huddled with Wolper and the deal was closed.  Sale involved an amount said to be over $50,000, most of which was in cash, the rest in installments.  Spot will be operated under Zanzibar name with the present Zanzibar above the Winter Garden to shutter until Howard and Erbe decided on new policy for reopening old spot.  New Zanzibar site will bring a rental of $27,000 for the first three years and $30,000 for the next three years.  Howard and Erbe plan to shell out about $35,000 for redecorating the old Hurricane.

Talent policy at new spot will continue on Zanzibar lines.  Sepia talent will prevail.  Erbe says he’ll buy Lena Horne or anybody else who can draw.

The name Hurricane now belongs to the Zanzibar.  Wolper says he is out of the nitery biz.  He intends to stick to the legit showbiz.”

The Winter Garden mentioned above is the very same Winter Garden theatre on the southeast corner of Broadway and 50th.

As for Dave Wolper, nine months later he announced plans to re-enter the “nitery biz” and was said to be giving Broadway locations “the once-over”.

Photography of Duke Ellington at the Hurricane, April 1943, by Gordon Parks, Library of Congress