Forbidden City (nightclub)

The Forbidden City was a Chinese nightclub and cabaret in business from the late 1930s to the late 1950s, on the second floor of 363 Sutter Street (the former space is now renumbered 369 Sutter Street and is now a franchise of Barbizon Modeling and Acting) in San Francisco between Chinatown and Union Square. The Forbidden City featured Asian American singers, dancers, chorus lines, magicians, strippers, and musicians. It was popular with military personnel who were transiting through San Francisco during World War II. The novel, and in turn the musical and film Flower Drum Song were inspired by the Forbidden City, as was the 1989 documentary, Forbidden City U.S.A.

Charlie Low, the son of small store owners from Nevada, opened the Forbidden City in 1938, after the success of Chinese Village, which he opened two years earlier. Named after the Forbidden City in Beijing, the new club became the most famous among approximately 12 Chinese-themed cabaret clubs in Chinatown. It was located on the outskirts of San Francisco's Chinatown, and intended to cater to the curiosity of a largely white audience. Initially, Low found it difficult to recruit performers from the local Chinese community, which looked down on entertainers, particularly women in sexually provocative performances. Business was slow until Low hired Noel Toy, a nude model who had been performing at the Golden Gate International Exposition.Life Magazine published a 3-page profile of the club, praising the dancing abilities of Chinese women as a "fragile charm distinctive to their race".

The club thrived during World War II, and throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In 1957 author C. Y. Yee wrote a best-selling novel, Flower Drum Song, set at the Forbidden City. Rodgers and Hammerstein created a popular musical from the book in 1958, which has had several revivals, the most recent by David Henry Hwang in 2001-2002. In 1961 a Hollywood film was made from the musical. These portrayals did little to help the club, however. By the late 1950s it was facing increasing competition from more explicit shows, such as the Condor Club in North Beach. The club converted briefly to a strip club before closing in 1962. The space was destroyed by a fire in the 1980s, but the building survived and was used as a computer instruction center as of 2000.

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