At the mention of “night clubs,” one thinks perhaps of New York City and other metropolitan areas, but not usually of smaller communities like ours. The definition of a night club is a place that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment, often including food service. So, yes, we’ve had a few of those in Clark County.
Joyland Casino
Joyland functioned as a night club, not as a place to gamble, and it is the earliest one I’ve found in Winchester. The owner, Reuben Evans, purchased the old Hippodrome—a skating rink for black youth—on Oliver Street and turned it into Joyland. It was first mentioned in the Winchester Sun in 1926.
Entertainment featured nationally known African American performers, including the Wesley Helvey Orchestra out of Cincinnati (1927), Horace Henderson’s Dance Orchestra of New York City (1931), and Lloyd Byrd and his California Premier Orchestra (1932). Regional bands also played there regularly: Kentucky Melody Lads, Seven Brown Skin Bacons, and Smoke Richardson. Unverified sources have reported that Ray Charles and Tina Turner performed there. Joyland had a concession stand but did not sell alcoholic beverages. In later years, the dances became less frequent as Joyland hosted club meetings, banquets, and talent contests.
Sombrero Tavern
In spite of the Tavern (place serving food and drinks) in its name, the Sombrero began life as a very classy night club and road house (a place of entertainment on a country road). In the summer of 1936, Stoner Ogden and Ike Smith erected a clubhouse and seven tourist cabins. The name came from Smith, who owned a ranch in Wyoming with his brother Jake, and was “the constant wearer of a sombrero.” Ogden was a Winchester city commissioner.
The clubhouse, located six miles from Winchester on Lexington Road, was built out of lumber reclaimed from the old Kentucky Association racetrack in Lexington. The Sombrero opened its restaurant that fall and the dance pavilion in December. The music featured Andy Anderson’s fifteen-piece orchestra, a prominent band of the 1930s. Regular bands included Smoke Richardson and Bob Burch and his Nine Kings.
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The restaurant had a good reputation, and the dance venue drew large crowds from Lexington. Unfortunately for the Sombrero, Clark County’s local option election banned liquor and beer sales in the summer of 1938. Nick Domino purchased the tavern in 1939, and William P. Keith operated the club in 1940. That summer, the sheriff raided the Sombrero, confiscating eight slot machines, a dice table, a poker table, and a quantity of beer and whiskey. Judge Joe Lindsay sentenced Keith to thirty days in jail plus a $350 fine and revoked the Sombrero’s entertainment license.
That fall Domino got his license renewed and leased the club to Eli Couch of Hazard. Two weeks after reopening, the club burned with a loss of nearly $10,000. On the same site, Domino rebuilt the club using native stone. The new tavern opened in 1942 under the management of W. J. and Polly Kennedy. The local option banning alcohol sales had been repealed in 1941.
In 1946, Brooks Puckett and Romeo Norton purchased the club from Domino. George and Loretta Osborne took over management. By this time, the venue had evolved into a bar and restaurant, open seven days a week from 11 AM to 11:30 PM, with bands sometimes playing on weekends.
In 1953, Puckett and Norton put the business up for sale, and the Osbornes opened the Steak House on Lexington Avenue. A fortune teller, Madam Maria, operated on the property through much of the fifties. The Sombrero continued with a revolving door of new owners and operators. Entertainment and dancing were back in the late fifties, which also saw occasional problems with the law. Shootings at the Sombrero in 1959 and 1967 put the club on a downward spiral. Emillee Gipson lost her beer license after the last shooting. I could not find mention of the Sombrero in newspaper accounts after 1971.
