Louis Prima Pins and Buttons

Buona Sera Louis Prima

Fan art of one and only Louis Prima

A wonderful design for swing king, Louis Prima. Trumpet play, jump jive and jail!

"To eat good food is to be close to God." - Primo Big Night is the best food movie of all time. At the heart of this 1996 film is Louis Prima, as brothers Primo & Secondo prepare an after-show meal for the musician and his band after a show... in what they hope will be the biggest night of their small restaurant's life. Art by Laura Sanders.

Jimmy Ryan's was a jazz club in New York City, USA, located at 53 West 52nd Street from 1934 to 1962 and 154 West 54th Street from 1962–1983. It was a venue for performances of Dixieland jazz. The location at 52nd Street was one of a row of brownstones with clubs operating in basements. As the last surviving jazz club on 52nd Street, its brownstone — along with all the other brownstones on the north side of the street — were demolished in 1962 to make way for construction of the new CBS Building. CBS had given Jimmy Ryan $9,000 to relocate. The club was owned by partners Matthew C. Walsh (1914–2006) and Jimmy Ryan (1911–1963). Walsh, Ryan's brother-in-law, continued ownership following Ryan's death in July 1963 at the French Hospital.

The Wildest!

Most popular during World War II, Leon & Eddie's (said, but not in the club's signage, with an apostrophe S) was beloved by servicemen. Sailors and soldiers, along with civilians, were invited onstage to play "Boomps-A-Daisy" with the chorus girls, butting their hips together for a cheap thrill. In 1939, Time magazine said of the place, "Its ferocious Apache dance is the next thing to murder, but the crowd really goes to hear Proprietor Eddie Davis, whose smutty jokes and songs like Myrtle Isn't Fertile Any More are subtle as a burglar alarm."