The Village had become a popular destination for its speakeasies during Prohibition. A number of clubs featuring jazz musicians or folk singers were in operation during the Forties. Some were run by the mob. Some catered illicitly to gays in violation of liquor control laws. The latter, despite payoffs to local precincts, would be subject to periodic vice sweeps by the DA's office.
Folk singer Josh White (later to be caught in the crossfire between the idiot Right and idiot Left, denounced by both as a traitor) was headlining at the Café Society Downtown on Sheridan Square. Café Society would also come under a cloud of suspicion during the Red Scare of the fifties over the source of its financing and the loyalties of its owner.
Irish tenor Vaughan Confort was the featured attraction at Jimmy Kelly's, at 181 Sullivan Street. It had been a fashionable speakeasy during Prohibition.