BOURBON ST. 30'S TO 50'S

Bourbon St, 30’s 40’s and 50’s
The Depression affected all of the world in the 30’s and certainly Bourbon St was no exception. With the coming of radio, and movies the power and money of the entertainment business became more centered in both New York and in California. This took many of the musicians and performers away from Bourbon St. The hard times also helped create the entertainment that was to dominate Bourbon St the “Stripper”.
The vaudeville shows of the past had turned to “Strippers” or exotic dancers when the movies began to eat into their audience. When liquor and beer became legal again and the musicians left, Bourbon St turned to strippers as the main attraction. The port and the steady stream of men who worked on the ships made this a popular form of entertainment for the men on shore leave. The dancers were backed in most cases by live music and this gave many young New Orleans musicians the work they needed to develop their skills.
The times were still hard for the club owners however and there was little development of Bourbon St until the second World War. WW II brought Bourbon St into a new golden era. The war itself was the factor that brought the country out of the Depression. With the creation of the shipyards and the shipping of equipment, men and supplies, the Port of New Orleans and the area began to boom. The thousands of service men that were being moved around brought Bourbon St a steady supply of single men with time on their hands and money in their pockets. The morals of the day made sex the forbidden fruit that the strippers thrived upon. This became the period that Bourbon St made it’s mark on the American society. From all over the nation men and women were shipped out of New Orleans and the stories and tales about the “wild street” began to find there way back to the cities and towns of America. Strippers began to be stars and become famous. The influx of people and money into Bourbon St created the opening of many new clubs and bars. The building on Bourbon St were all built as homes for families and were not designed for entertainment so many small or “hole in the wall” clubs developed. The larger places featured the name stars and the music while the small clubs catered to more of the “back room” entertainment. La. Politics has been know for a long time as the best government that money can buy and the health department, building inspectors and police all took their share of the profits and looked the other way. Business was great on Bourbon St and the times were good.
By the end of the war Bourbon St was established in the American culture as the place to go to have a good time. The lack of law enforcement let the street and French Quarter in general run wild. Much of the money that was made was re-invested back into new clubs and the “strip “ was born.
The Bourbon St strip was a five block section of the street where the clubs were just one after another. Bourbon St starts at Canal St which is and was the main street in the city of New Orleans. Unlike a lot of US cities New Orleans street are named one thing on the upriver side of Canal and another on the downriver side. Bourbon St is called Corondellet on the up river side, so Bourbon starts with at Canal and runs down river away from the central business district. The entertainment part of the street started in the two hundred block with the first block from Canal being taken by the retail business of Canal street. The 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 blocks of Bourbon these five blocks became the “Strip” Here is where all the action and entertainment took place. With its live and let live attitude and acceptance of drinking hard liquor as a way of life New Orleans became one of the few places in Am where drinking in public and indeed walking down a street or even driving with drinks were common place and attracted no attention from the police . During this area the “go cup” was introduced where the customer wanted to hit several spots and would ask for a “go cup” so they could take their drink from one club to another. There was not the party on the street during this time the Bourbon St was open to traffic and the doors to the clubs were for the most part kept closed. Barkers worked each door opening and closing them as they worked the crowds. The side walks were filled with the people spilling into the streets and bumping into cars. The cars came in a never ending stream as the tourist and locals cruised down Bourbon St to glimpse at the strippers on the stage. The conseritive values of the 50’s were fine for the club owners on Bourbon St . they were happy to supply the cheap thrills and adult entertainment that was not available in Maintown America. A booming port and oil money came into New Orleans and a lot of it flowed to Bourbon St. Everything was going well at the start of the 60’s when a number of things begin to happen that was to send Bourbon Street into a hard time .