Frolics Cabaret (Montreal)
Opened in late 1929 on the second floor of 1417 Saint-Laurent Boulevard, the Frolics quickly became one of Montreal’s most prominent cabarets. With large-scale revues, a house orchestra, a dance floor and New York attractions such as Texas Guinan, it helped launch the golden age of cabarets on the Main during the final years of American Prohibition.
1. Overview
The Frolics Cabaret occupies an important place in the history of Montreal nightlife. Located on the second floor of 1417 Saint-Laurent Boulevard, it emerged at a time when the Main was becoming one of the city’s principal entertainment districts.
The Frolics stood out for the scale of its design and for a formula strongly inspired by major American nightclubs: a large dance floor, a house orchestra, a master of ceremonies, variety revues, elaborate lighting and several shows during the course of a single evening.
A retrospective published by The Gazette in 1963 summarized its importance with a particularly evocative phrase: “The Frolics started Main’s golden era.” More than simply a fashionable establishment, the Frolics helped establish on Saint-Laurent Boulevard a model of cabaret that would influence numerous Montreal venues.
Historical clarification — 1929 or 1930?
Several historical accounts date the opening of the Frolics to 1930, particularly because of Texas Guinan’s highly publicized appearance that year. A contemporary source, however, helps refine the chronology: on December 5, 1930, the Montreal Star announced the Frolics’ first anniversary. The establishment was therefore already operating by late 1929.
2. Montreal and Prohibition
The Frolics was born in a context particularly favourable to the growth of Montreal nightlife. In the United States, Prohibition, in force since 1920, legally restricted the manufacture and sale of alcohol. In Quebec, alcohol remained available within a regulated system.
This difference helped attract American visitors as well as performers and entertainment professionals to Montreal. The city already had musical restaurants, cafés-concerts, dance halls and nightclubs, but the late 1920s saw a growing number of establishments more directly inspired by American models.
The Frolics was very much part of this transformation. Its formula combined performance, dancing, drinking and nightlife in a setting deliberately designed to create a spectacular experience.
The Frolics was not Montreal’s first cabaret
It would be excessive to describe the Frolics as Montreal’s first cabaret. Cafés-concerts and other cabaret-style establishments already existed, including the Blue Bird Café as early as 1920. The Frolics’ importance lies instead in its role as a major modern nightclub on the Main and in the influence it exerted on Saint-Laurent Boulevard nightlife.
3. The Hill Brothers and the Birth of the Frolics
The project was associated with the Hill brothers — Eli, Cecil, Victor and Louis — as well as Charles Bordoff. According to historical sources, approximately $50,000 was invested to transform a former fur warehouse on Saint-Laurent Boulevard into a modern nightclub.
For the Hill brothers, the Frolics marked the beginning of a long career in Montreal dining and entertainment. They later operated other well-known establishments, including El Chico and the Chic-N-Coop.
Their later trajectory demonstrates the Frolics’ importance as the Hills’ first major venture into Montreal nightlife. The venue, however, quickly developed an identity extending well beyond its owners and became an attraction on the Main in its own right.
4. 1417 Saint-Laurent Boulevard
The Frolics occupied the second floor of 1417 Saint-Laurent Boulevard, immediately north of Sainte-Catherine Street. The former industrial space was transformed into a large room devoted to dancing and live entertainment.
Historical descriptions evoke luxurious surroundings, including silk draperies, a large dance floor and a lighting system considered particularly elaborate for the period. The stage could accommodate an orchestra of approximately fifteen musicians.
Programming was intensive: generally two shows per evening on weekdays and three on Saturdays. Patrons could dance between performances, making the Frolics as much a social and nightlife destination as a performance venue.
Historical accounts also noted the surprisingly limited drinks selection: champagne and beer appear to have been the principal choices, with champagne selling for approximately $15 a bottle and beer for $1 a glass.
5. Texas Guinan
The figure most closely associated with the history of the Frolics is Texas Guinan, one of the great personalities of New York nightlife during the 1920s.
An actress, singer and above all a master of ceremonies, Guinan became famous in New York speakeasies for her exuberant style and her direct interaction with audiences. Her celebrated “Hello, suckers!” became inseparable from her public persona.
Her appearance in Montreal in 1930 brought exceptional visibility to the Frolics. The presence of a personality so strongly identified with New York nightlife reinforced Montreal’s image as an entertainment destination during the final years of Prohibition.
“Hello, suckers!”
Guinan should not, however, be regarded as the founder of the Frolics. She was instead its signature star attraction, the personality whose presence did the most to secure the cabaret’s place in Montreal’s popular imagination.
6. Revues and Performers
The Frolics’ programming was built primarily around the variety revue. Singers, dancers, comedians, acrobats and other performers followed one another throughout the evening, accompanied by the house orchestra.
An advertisement published for Halloween 1930 provides a good sense of the program’s diversity. It announced specialty dancer Grayce Scobell, the duo Byrnes & Swanson, whose act included modern, classical, eccentric and acrobatic dancing, as well as singers Lillian Daly and Ray Moore.
This programming clearly illustrates the nature of the Frolics: it was not a venue devoted to a single musical genre, but a variety cabaret where music, dancing, comedy and entertainment were combined within the same evening.
7. Billy Munro and Larry Vincent
Two figures played an essential role in the Frolics’ everyday identity: bandleader Billy Munro and master of ceremonies Larry Vincent.
Munro directed the house orchestra, described in the press as a lively ensemble playing the popular hits and dance music of the day. The orchestra also accompanied the various performers appearing onstage.
Larry Vincent served as master of ceremonies. He introduced the attractions, managed the transitions and maintained continuous interaction with the audience. Within the nightclub formula of the period, the master of ceremonies was essential: he determined the rhythm and character of the evening.
Together, Munro and Vincent helped give the Frolics a consistent identity despite the frequent turnover of featured acts.
8. The Frolics on the Radio
The Frolics reached audiences far beyond those physically present on Saint-Laurent Boulevard. Beginning in 1930, its name appeared regularly in the program schedules of Montreal radio station CFCF.
The Gazette of April 15, 1930, listed a segment titled “Frolics Cabaret” at 9 p.m. On December 6 of the same year, Le Devoir listed “Danse du cabaret Frolics” at 10 p.m. in CFCF’s schedule.
These broadcasts gave the cabaret visibility well beyond its immediate clientele. The music and atmosphere of the Frolics could now enter Montreal homes directly through radio.
A claim that requires caution
Some sources describe a Frolics broadcast as the first Canadian radio program transmitted from a nightclub. Contemporary program schedules clearly confirm Frolics broadcasts on CFCF as early as 1930. However, the claim of Canadian primacy requires additional documentation before it can be stated as an established fact.
9. Harry Davis and the World of the Main
The history of the Frolics also intersects with that of Harry Davis, a figure associated with Montreal’s underworld. Several studies describe him, depending on the source, as either an associate or co-owner of the Frolics at some point in its history.
This connection should be understood within the broader context of Montreal’s Red Light district, where the boundaries between entertainment businesses, illegal gambling and other underworld activities could sometimes be porous.
It is nevertheless important to distinguish the cultural history of the Frolics from Davis’s later criminal career. The sources support his association with the cabaret milieu, but they do not justify explaining the entire operation of the Frolics through the lens of organized crime.
10. The End of the Frolics
The context that had favoured the rise of the Frolics changed significantly during the early 1930s. The economic crisis reduced disposable income, while the end of American Prohibition in 1933 removed one of the advantages that had helped attract American visitors and entertainers to Montreal.
The Frolics ceased operating under that name in 1933. Unlike many vanished venues, however, the space did not lose its entertainment function.
11. Connie’s Inn
On June 15, 1933, 1417 Saint-Laurent Boulevard adopted a new identity: Connie’s Inn. Its programming became more strongly oriented toward jazz.
Shortly after its opening, Montreal bandleader Mynie Sutton and his Canadian Ambassadors appeared at Connie’s Inn. The ensemble holds an important place in the history of Canadian jazz and in the growing visibility of Black musicians on Montreal stages.
The transition from the Frolics to Connie’s Inn therefore represented more than a simple change of name: it illustrated the rapid evolution of tastes and Montreal nightlife in the aftermath of Prohibition.
12. The Later History of 1417 Saint-Laurent
The Frolics inaugurated a remarkable succession of entertainment establishments at 1417 Saint-Laurent Boulevard. After Connie’s Inn, the space changed names and functions several times.
These later establishments included the Val d’Or Grill, followed by the Casino de Parée. The Val d’Or later returned before another particularly important chapter in Montreal cultural history began in 1947 with Au Faisan Doré.
The Faisan Doré became one of the essential stages of postwar French-language song in Montreal. Beginning in 1951, the address continued its entertainment tradition under the name Cabaret Montmartre.
From the Frolics to the Faisan Doré
This was not a single establishment that simply changed names, but rather a succession of different cabarets under different management occupying the same space. That continuity nevertheless makes 1417 Saint-Laurent an especially important address in the history of Montreal entertainment.
13. Historical Significance
The Frolics was not important because it invented the cabaret in Montreal. The city already possessed a developed nightlife before its opening. Its significance lies instead in the new scale it brought to nightclub entertainment on the Main.
With its elaborate décor, large dance floor, orchestra, revues, master of ceremonies, American performers and radio presence, the Frolics brought together many of the defining characteristics of the modern large-scale cabaret.
Texas Guinan’s presence also gave the venue international visibility and symbolized the particularly intense cultural exchanges between Montreal and New York during Prohibition.
Above all, the Frolics helped establish Saint-Laurent Boulevard as a major centre of Montreal nightlife. Decades of cabarets would follow at the same address and elsewhere along the Main, making the district one of the city’s most historically important territories of live entertainment.
The Beginning of the Main’s Golden Age
Rather than describing the Frolics as Montreal’s “first cabaret,” it is historically more accurate to regard it as one of the establishments that established the emergence of the large modern nightclub on Saint-Laurent Boulevard. Its brief existence, from late 1929 to 1933, had an influence that extended well beyond its few years of operation.
14. Timeline
15. Notes and Sources
- “The Frolics started Main’s golden era,” The Gazette, January 26, 1963. Retrospective on the Frolics, its location at 1417 Saint-Laurent Boulevard and its role in the rise of cabaret culture on the Main.
- André-G. Bourassa and Jean-Marc Larrue, Les nuits de la Main : Cent ans de spectacles sur le boulevard Saint-Laurent (1891–1991), Montreal, VLB éditeur, 1993.
- “Frolics Cabaret Will Celebrate The First Anniversary Tonight,” The Montreal Star, December 5, 1930. Announcement of the Frolics’ first anniversary, featuring Larry Vincent and Billy Munro’s orchestra.
- “Attractive Program At The Frolics Tonight To Celebrate Hallowe’en,” The Montreal Star, October 31, 1930. Program featuring Grayce Scobell, Byrnes & Swanson, Lillian Daly, Ray Moore, Billy Munro and Larry Vincent.
- “Today’s Radio Programmes,” The Gazette, April 15, 1930. CFCF schedule listing “Frolics Cabaret” at 9 p.m.
- CFCF program schedule, Le Devoir, December 6, 1930. Listing of “Danse du cabaret Frolics” at 10 p.m.
- Aline Gubbay, A Street Called The Main, Meridian Press, Montreal, 1989.
- Magaly Brodeur, Vice et corruption à Montréal, 1892–1970, Presses de l’Université du Québec.
- Pierre de Champlain, Le crime organisé à Montréal, 1940–1980, Éditions Asticou.
- William Weintraub, City Unique: Montreal Days and Nights in the 1940s and ’50s, McClelland & Stewart.
- Ville de Montréal, Mémoires des Montréalais, « Harry Davis, roi de la pègre montréalaise ».
- John Gilmore, “Montreal jazz great Sutton dies — and an era ends,” The Gazette, June 22, 1982. Retrospective on Mynie Sutton and mention of the Canadian Ambassadors at Connie’s Inn in 1933.
- Nick Auf der Maur, “Montreal nightlife is old as the Hills,” The Gazette, March 23, 1981. Retrospective on the Hill brothers and their Montreal establishments.
