Drugs

In Smack: Heroin and the American City, Eric C. Schneider wrote that drug dealing and drug use were a big problem for the jazz clubs in the Forties, particularly the ones on 52nd Street. It went along with the be-bop, hipster culture. Schneider wrote that four clubs- the Onyx, the Downbeat, the Three Deuces and the Spotlight- temporarily lost their cabaret lessons in 1945 over drug dealing on the premises. Schneider also cited a witness who testified in a 1951 investigation that three heroin dealers were discretely dealing from tables in the China Doll. Proprietors hired bouncers to spot the transactions which they preferred handling themselves for fear of losing their licenses or bad publicity if there was a raid or court action.