Among its owners was Anthony Greco and various members of the Bortolotti family. Anthony, who lived in a plush apartment inside the club, learned the business from his father who in addition to owning a bunch of land around 42nd and Center also opened The Ritz Nightclub starting in The son went off to serve in World War II before returning home and helping pops with the club. By the Greco family would sell its last east of 42nd and Center for construction of The Center Mall.
Within the mall father and son would open a swanky new jazz club called The Panther Room. Fast forward nine years later and Greco the younger was ready to open a club of his own.
At Farnam Street, Anthony found a lot on which to build his club. Either way, its location on The Strip was perfect. The Strip, by the way, is what they called 72nd Street from Dodge to Center back in the day. The exterior had large backlit murals of stars from the era including Charlie Chaplin and Al Jolson.
In the parking lot and at the entrances there were the original lamp posts obtained from the Omaha Public Power District. Inside there was a glass-enclosed telephone booth that appeared to have been sprayed with machine gun fire in addition to a faux building that had a sexy mannequin leg hanging out of a window.
It also featured singing bartenders and waitresses. Anthony sought out a wide variety of entertainments acts which he personally auditioned by traveling to other cities to catch their acts. They included cabaret performers, comedians, puppet shows, melodrama and musical theater. Back to that puppet show for a minute. It apparently was a sort of Las Vegas-type revue that featured six topless dancers playing marionettes. The club even employed the Hal Pryor Band as its full-time house band.
