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Great dance floors of old Shanghai
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The Paramount
The most famous of all dance venues was the grand Art Deco Paramount ballroom opened in 1933 at 218 Yuyuan Rd. Known in Chinese as Bai Le Men or Gate of 100 Pleasures, it was one of the largest, most glamorous, and, by many accounts the most notorious ballroom in the decadent era before 1949.
At first it had been a meeting place of the city’s elite, but it went bankrupt in 1936. One year later it was converted into a taxi dance hall featuring Chinese dance hostesses, which it remained until 1949. It then became a cinema and its famous sprung floor was removed and destroyed around 1970.
In 1992, a Hong Kong businessman renovated and expanded the venue, hoping to recapture its past glory.
Today it is again under renovation.
Ciro’s Club
One of the fanciest and most expensive clubs in the 1930s and 40s, Ciro’s was opened in 1936 on Nanjing Road W., near the famous Paramount.
It was built by the real estate tycoon Victor Sassoon (1881-1961) and was one of the few venues, and the only dance club, with central air-conditioning.
It’s said that Sassoon once took his friends to the Paramount and asked for the best table. The waiter didn’t recognize him and assumed he wouldn’t want to dance — Sassoon walked with two canes because of a war injury.
Sassoon complained, but the smug waiter told him he should open his own private club if he wanted the best table. So he did, and he built Ciro’s, complete with a garden, fish pond and fountain and a wide driveway especially designed for cars.
The club soon attracted the city’s wealthiest and most powerful people, including infamous gang leader Du Yuesheng. The club remained open after 1949, but like many such venues, it soon went bankrupt and was turned into a storytelling theater in 1953.
In 1960, it became a children’s puppet theater. Today, it still stands at 388 Nanjing Road W., a commercial venue containing shops, restaurants and a puppet theater.
Metropolis Club
Before the club was built in 1934 by a Cantonese merchant, the site had contained a three-story hotel with a stage and ballroom accommodating several hundred people.
The hotel on today’s Jiangning Road opened in 1927 but closed five years later because of a dispute among investors.
The new Metropolis Club became one of the city’s most popular and influential clubs. Dancers looked out onto a traditional Chinese garden, and the club had a covered area for outdoor dancing.
Like Ciro’s, the Metropolis was turned into a storytelling theater in 1954. In 1985, it was renovated into a multi-function venue by the city government, which held balls and receptions, inviting foreign journalists to visit.
After another renovation, it contained dance floors, tea houses, theaters, restaurants, karoke and snooker rooms. In 1988 it opened to the public and soon because a popular dating spot.
In 1992, it was demolished. The Westgate Mall was built in its place.
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