Palladium Ballroom - Opening of Palladium

Opening of Palladium

When the Palladium opened as a dance studio and dance hall, it had a racially restrictive policy and did not maintain the level of funding needed to operate it. It had a dance floor that could hold a thousand couples dancing at once but had fallen into decline by 1947.

Most of the Latin bands were scheduled for the matinee session, many of which were used as relief bands for the big society bands of the time. Latin bands for the most part played at nightclubs such as: The Conga, The China Doll, The Park Place, and The Park Plaza, located in Spanish Harlem. The Palladium needed capital to survive, so it opened its doors to blacks, Puerto Ricans and Cubans.