Paul, this is the very best of all the photos I have seen so far. It is fabulous because of the breadth of the photo of the front dining room of the Trocadero. If you look to the arched doorway in the rear, where the waiter is coming out, that leads to the large formal dining room, dance floor, orchestra stage where most of the late evening supper events took place. Inside there is where the Detroit Tigers and the Cincinnati Reds would come to dine and be entertained during Spring Training in Florida.
Somewhere there exists a large photo showing my uncle Sam Ferrara Sr. (who loved baseball) posing with the whole team in that large dining room. My dad is also in the photo. My uncle Joe, my father's brother and Dionigi both were bartenders at the bar on the left.
The cigarette girl was truly a symbol of a "first class" nightclub since only the best clubs in the country at the time employed girls to walk around selling cigarettes and cigars. I am not aware of any other establishments in Tampa that had that. You can see my father standing to the right of the large column. Unfortunately the column blocks the view of my mother, the cashier directly behind where the column is.
This is the front room when you enter from 7th avenue (Broadway) in Ybor City. I was 6 years old at this time and spent many days in this room next to my father and mother. "Mr. Frank" the head chef my dad hired from New York used to always make me a special lunch and I would sit at a table near the cash register, with my mom and eat my lunch. I was in this very room when the United States declared war on Nazi Germany. It came over the radio. My dad put the radio up loud so every one in the restaurant could hear President Roosevelt. I also remember being in this room when my dad became extremely upset with some labor union representative who was trying to organize the Trocadero waiters and my dad threatened him with a knife and he left.
My grandfather had little hands on management of the Trocadero and basically put most all control in my father. Right next door to the backside of this bar was a liquor package store that uncle Joe mostly managed. It belonged to the Trocadero.
Two doors down going toward 18th street was a barber shop operated by the three Monte Brothers. My dad took me there for my first haircut when I was two or three and I screamed bloody murder and the barber had to quit cutting my hair. My mom got mad at my dad for taking me to cut off my curly locks that had grown long.
Before my grandfather died he was planning a gambling casino with dice tables and blackjack upstairs. Once, my cousin Sammie Ferrara Jr. and me went up there nosying around and we broke something and got hollered at by my dad real bad! Once my dad and uncle Joe were indicted in Kansas City the business went downhill from their absence and preoccupation with the case. My uncle Sam Ferrara Sr. tried to keep it going as best as he could but poor uncle Sam didn't have the skills to operate a fancy supper club like this. The business was eventually sold to a Mr. Corces who turned it into an ordinary Ybor City spanish restaurant and called it the "Morro Castle".
Now here is the rest of the story regarding this photograph! On the bottom right you can see the name of the photography studio "Robertson". It was my destiny that in 1962 I would be hired by this most famous of all photographers in Tampa to defend him on a murder charge. This was Tampa's cause celebre, and was widely known as the Red Robertson Murder Case!. Paul Johnson was the prosecutor and I won an acquittal for Red. The notoriety of the case would later catapult me into a political race against Johnson for the State Attorney's office which I won in 1964. Ted Lewis the famous Hollywood actor and singer performed at the Trocadero.
There is a great photo of my dad with Ted Lewis standing behind the bar and Nanu is pretending to mix a drink in the shaker. Ted lewis's famous song that swept the country is called "Me and my Shadow" which he performed throughout the country on stage with a little black boy that mimicked his dance movements as his "shadow". I have seen this done on Hollywood film movies. The 1920's and 30's were an exciting time to have lived in America. I would like my brother Ronnie, and all the family to read this account of memories stirred up by looking at this photograph.
There are so many stories and things that happened around the Trocadero. I forgot to mention to you how the nightclub got its name. My father used to travel regularly to France and Italy on behalf of grandfather Ignazio. One of his favorite clubs in Paris was the "Trocadero". He tried to memorize all of its features and layout and then convinced my grandfather to open up a similar club in Tampa and call it the Trocadero.
Grandfather Nanu had tight connections with Florida's governor Dave Scholtz, and of course the local Sheriff, State Attorney and Police Chief Bush. These people regularly came over to our home at 704 Braddock and my grandmother Angelina would cook them dinner. I have a photo of Governor Scholtz holding me in his arms at 704 Braddock. The Governor gave Nanu Ignazio carte blanche secret permission to open a gambling casino at the Trocadero. There was a lot of jealously in Tampa among other families who did not have these connections. Nanu was becoming too powerful and he was not sharing this with others in Tampa I won't name. His death resulted in eventual collapse for the family.
I should tell you the story of the "Moulin Rouge" nightclub owned by my dad and his Jewish partner Cohen, in 1933-35. It was on 22nd Street causeway a half mile east of the current Seabreeze Restaurant on the left hand side. It was Tampa's hottest club. On November 26th 1934 the orchestra was playing, people were dancing and drinking and Nanna Rose was at the Centro Asturiano hospital giving birth to me! My dad got the call, climbed up on the stage, stopped the music and announced that he was the proud father of a baby boy. Everyone started cheering and toasting a drink to the newborn (me). The band played something and the evening went on. This was before the days of television and air conditioning. Florida was warm most of the time. My dad devised a cooling system for the Moulin Rouge by having the Ice Company place large blocks of ice in the attic area and by using large fans and a duct system leading into the dance and bar area. It worked. It cooled the place down. A year or so later the Moulin Rouge burned down under suspicious circumstances and the insurance money was used to help get the Trocadero started.
- Paul Jr.
January 2002
He also did the same ice trick in our old Ford but he used dry ice. There was an access panel to the fresh air vents under the hood and he got the idea that if he placed a block of dry ice in it, he could cool the interior of the car. Dry ice melts more slowly that normal ice. It worked great from the driveway of our house on Sevilla St all the way to the corner of Manhattan and Sevilla. By then it had melted although that was a good thing because I believe the gases are toxic!
- Ron Sr.
See the USF Robertson Fresh Photograph Collection website in Tampa.
ID: 16094
Date: 1941 Nov 28
Description: The El Trocadero Club.
Display picture and full description
ID: 16258
Date: 1942 Mar 10
Description: The Bar at the El Trocadero Club.
Display picture and full description