The Boulevards of Paris Night Club was located at 1100 W. University Ave. near the Coliseum Ballroom in St. Paul.

It was operated by John J. Lane, and was described as a “well-known Prohibition spot” (Strib June 3, 1952) – don’t know what that means, but Lane was a Detective in the St. Paul Police Department, and a Ramsey County Commissioner from 1926 to 1934.

“Peg About Town” in the Minneapolis Tribune gave it a rave review when it opened in September 1929.  The Northwest’s Smartest Night Club featured a complete dinner for $1.50.

 

 

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The place was known to be very elegant, and provided top-name entertainment to its patrons, such as:

• Fats Waller
• Benny Goodman
• Louis Armstrong
• Ben Pollack’s band made a lengthy appearance in the late 1920s and early ’30s with Jack Teagarden.
• McKinney’s Cotton Pickers
• With the end of Prohibition, Norvy Mulligan’s band played there frequently.  (But that doesn’t make sense because it was out of business six months after beer was made legal…)

 

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VANITY FAIR

For about a week (or maybe not at all) the night club was known as the Vanity Fair – This was at the end of September, beginning of October 1933.

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SILVER DIME

Its next iteration was the Silver Dime, which was advertised between September 1934 and mid-June 1935.  Whether there was something in between the Vanity Fair and the Silver Dime is unclear, but the the Silver Dime is advertised as “Formerly the Boulevards of Paris.”

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By 1949, 1100 W. University Ave. was the site of a National Food Store.