Havana, Cuba during the corrupt reign of Batista became a city of legendary pleasures and organized crime
Havana: The Way It Was
Show Girls in a Havana Nightclub
December 14, 1986
By JOHN DeGROOT, Staff Writer for the South Florida Sun Sentinel Copyright © 2013
INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS get their first glimpse of Cuba at Havana`s Jose Marti Airport. But few of them stay in Havana, preferring the sun and sand at Varadero Beach and other resorts.
The reason is simple. It takes less than an afternoon to tour the magnificent 16th-century cobbled streets and moss-covered palaces of Old Havana, and once you`ve done that, there`s not much to see or do in the once- glittering capital.
Still, no tourist should miss the show at the old Tropicana Night Club, where hundreds of showgirls race around the stage like so many Carmen Mirandas. There have been some changes, however. Unlike the bare-breasted showgirls who delighted American tourists in the `50s, the current chorines are dressed in relatively modest two-piece bathing suits.
Apart from the Tropicana, there is little nightlife in Havana.
``It was a very different city before the revolution,`` recalls Choo Choo Suarez, who is now a room clerk at the Riviera Hotel. ``In those days, the town was filled with rich American tourists.``
Choo Choo was a blackjack dealer at the old Riviera casino, which was owned by Miami mobster Meyer Lansky.
There was a $500 limit at his blackjack tables, Choo Choo recalls. And a woman cost $50 for the night.
``But she would be a beautiful woman,`` Choo Choo says. ``The kind you could take anywhere. But only an American tourist could have a woman like that.``
Everything changed when Castro shut down the casinos in 1961.
Choo-Choo pauses for a moment, remembering.
``I don`t think most Americans would like it in Cuba now,`` he says. ``Not since we closed down the casinos and got rid of the prostitutes.``
There`s not much for an American tourist in Cuba, Choo Choo believes. At least not the kind he knew in the old days.
``All we have now for tourists is beaches and sunshine,`` he says. ``But I never met an American tourist who came here for that. Mostly they came for gambling and sex -- especially sex.``
Spectacular performances
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Nat King Cole frequently performed at the Tropicana
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Another pause. Another memory.
``Did you see the second Godfather movie?`` he asks. ``The one that showed the American gangsters in Cuba?
``That`s how it was. The American who made that movie was very authentic. He even had a scene with Superman in it.``
Superman?
``Yes,`` Choo Choo says. ``Don`t you remember the scene where the American gangster and his friends go to a sex club? And a small black man walks out on the stage to have sex with a young woman chained to a post?
``That film was the absolute truth. Everybody knew about Superman. He was a small, black man with a very large organ. And he had sex every night on stage at the Mambo Club. All the American tourists went to see him. It cost $25.``
The Mambo Club has been closed for years.
``I have no idea where Superman is,`` Choo Choo says. ``He must be a very old man by now, certainly much too old for that sort of thing.
``I will tell you something few people know,`` Choo Choo announces, leaning over the counter and lowering his voice. ``It`s about Superman. I met him personally. He was a man who liked men more than women.``
Superman was gay?
``Yes,`` Choo Choo nods. ``But none of the Americans ever knew it. It was quite a scandal. Superman was a great actor -- but never the great lover the American tourists paid their money to see.``
``Did you see the second Godfather movie?`` he asks. ``The one that showed the American gangsters in Cuba?
``That`s how it was. The American who made that movie was very authentic. He even had a scene with Superman in it.``
Superman?
``Yes,`` Choo Choo says. ``Don`t you remember the scene where the American gangster and his friends go to a sex club? And a small black man walks out on the stage to have sex with a young woman chained to a post?
``That film was the absolute truth. Everybody knew about Superman. He was a small, black man with a very large organ. And he had sex every night on stage at the Mambo Club. All the American tourists went to see him. It cost $25.``
The Mambo Club has been closed for years.
``I have no idea where Superman is,`` Choo Choo says. ``He must be a very old man by now, certainly much too old for that sort of thing.
``I will tell you something few people know,`` Choo Choo announces, leaning over the counter and lowering his voice. ``It`s about Superman. I met him personally. He was a man who liked men more than women.``
Superman was gay?
``Yes,`` Choo Choo nods. ``But none of the Americans ever knew it. It was quite a scandal. Superman was a great actor -- but never the great lover the American tourists paid their money to see.``
The Mambo Club became legendary
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Sloppy joe's Bar for Cigars and Drinks
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Showgirls by the dozens
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Havana's Teatro Shanghai
Superman actually performed in Havana's Teatro Shanghai in the Chinese section of Havana. This was probably one of the rawest burlesque clubs where anything was possible. The audience was mostly male, although they did get the occasional society lady or tourist who would watch the show with a mask on. Occasionally American tourists would faint at the site of the performances and had to be carried out. In addition to Superman, there was also strip-tease, "Folies Bergere" catering to stag parties. For more information on the Teatro Shanghai click MORE
The shows were ribald, raw and bordered on the vulgar
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El Teatro Shanghai
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Nearly naked showgirls
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