Small's Paradise

Harlem jazz nightclub opened by Ed Small on 22 October 1925 and active until 1986. In its heydays, from the 1920s to the 1940s, Small's Paradise was considered one of the Big Three nightgclubs in Harlem, along with the Cotton Club and Connie's Inn. But unlike the other clubs, Small's was always integrated, drawing an audience of local blacks as well as well-to-do whites from downtown. The club large basement featured a big band and floor shows and could accommodate 1,500 patrons. Charlie Johnson & His Orchestra was the house band for the first decade. A young Malcolm X, then simply Malcolm Little, worked there as a waiter in 1943. In the 1964, basketball great Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain bought Small's and dubbed the club Big Wilt's Small's Paradise.