Heat Wave was a music club inside the Majestic Hotel at East 55th and Central Avenue. Majestic Hotel was one of the most popular African American hotels in Cleveland in the mid-20th century. Heat Wave was just one name by which the hotel’s nightclub was known over the years. Originally called the Furnace Room when it opened in 1931, two years later it renamed the Heat Wave, and this was the name that made it into the 1938 Green Book. Then in 1944, the club became The Rose Room and operated until the closure of the Majestic Hotel in 1967.
In 1944 Heat Wave had changed its name and reopened as The Rose Room. According to Cleveland’s Call & Post, “The Rose Room is available for club meetings, dinners, dances, parties, committee meetings, and other gatherings.” The Rose Room acted more like an event center of a hotel at the time opposed to just a nightclub. In 1950 Rose Room was remodeled. The Rose Room under management of Ted Blackmon , who had experience managing other popular Cleveland nightclubs sought after a more modernized approach to the remodel of The Rose Room. Call & Post called The Rose Room “One of Cleveland’s most beautiful places.” According to John E. Fuster of the Call & Post, “The decorators have finished an estimated $12,000 worth of remodeling and beautification will have transformed the room into a swank and modern mecca for lovers and after dark entertainment.” Many individuals throughout the years would remember The Rose Room for its “Blue Monday” jazz sessions. Ultimately, the closure of the Majestic Hotel in 1966 brought the venue’s run to an end, consigning its energetic, music-filled nights to the realm of memory.
Green Book Details
Heat Wave appears in the 1938 Green Book at 2291 E. 55th St. under the category Night Clubs.
Resources
- Alger, Dean. The Original Guitar Hero and the Power of MusicThe Legendary Lonnie Johnson, Music, and Civil Rights. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2014. 162.
- Freeman, Jeanetta. “Majestic Hotel Joins America’s Top Negro Social Centers: Determination of Three Local Businessmen Makes Hotel One of America’s Finest.” Call & Post. Apr 27, 1946.
- Fuster, John. “Central-55th Brightens As Majestic Hotel Sets Up Swank New Nitery.” Call & Post. August 5, 1950.
- Hotel Majestic Rose Room to be One of Cleveland’s most Beautiful Places.” Call & Post. August 12, 1950.