This Day in History, 1957: Lights out for Vancouver nightclub legend Sandy De Santis

Sandy De Santis was hyped as Vancouver’s “King Of Swing” in the 1930s and ’40s for his popular jazz band.

But his real claim to fame was that he ran the Palomar, one of Vancouver’s most successful nightclubs, in the 1940s and ’50s.

As a promoter, he brought some of the biggest names in show business to the Palomar, including Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday.

Vancouver was a rough place at the time, and on at least two occasions De Santis was robbed at gunpoint. In 1952, he was shot through the hip by a lone gunman.

“The gunman, who shot first and then spoke his demands, also threatened to shoot two girls,” said a Vancouver Sun story. “He got more than $200 from De Santis and a visiting salesman.”

Being shot may have had long-term consequences — De Santis was in and out of hospital for the rest of his life.

He entered St. Paul’s Hospital for an ulcer operation in Sept., 1957, but didn’t come out, dying at 3 a.m. on Oct. 11, 1957. His marriage certificate would have made him 55, but his death certificate said he was 47.

The Sun’s “saloon columnist” Jack Wasserman regularly featured De Santis in his columns.

“My friend Sandy De Santis went up against the big crap table for the last time — and ‘sevened out,” Wasserman wrote the day De Santis died.

“Before you shake a disapproving finger about the reference to dice when a man has died, remember, as far as Sandy was concerned, all of life was a crap game.

“You won, you lost, but you scraped up whatever you could to cover the action on the next roll, and you never cried.

“Sandy was a gambler and a showman. He was a raconteur of the first order and his funniest stories were always on himself.

“When his luck was high he was a big winner, and when his luck was out, he went for broke. But he never stopped playing.”

Wasserman wasn’t just being nostalgic. The nightclub business was up and down, and the Palomar would boom and bust — on a couple of occasions it closed and relaunched with new ownership.

It was a bottle club, where patrons snuck liquor under the table and the club made money selling mix and food, as well as by charging admission.

Selling hard liquor in clubs was illegal until cocktail lounges were introduced in 1954, and even then the restrictions were so stringent most nightspots didn’t have a liquor licence until the late 1960s.

The police “dry squad” busted De Santis several times for having illicit booze on the premises.

According to a 1937 Sun cartoon “Introducing Sandy De Santis, Vancouver’s Swing King,” he was born in New Jersey, but his marriage certificate said it was New York City.

“He often goes into a dance while directing (his band). Although his poundage is near 200, dancers gawk at his nimble versatility.”