The Carlton Club was a night club in the 200 block of West Washington Street in 1937. (Just below the popular Green Mill Restaurant.) It was opened in January under a special license as a private, not-for-profit club. "A newly decorated, modernistic club and dining room for a select class of professional men and women." The club featured floor shows, dancing and private party rooms. There was dancing every evening for members, and on select nights the club was open to the public. The clubs were allowed to serve alcohol at all times that other bars were not. A tavern, which was tightly regulated as to hours, had to pay $400 for a license, and the private clubs paid just $5 for an annual license and had no restrictions as to hours. I'm not sure how this fee schedule was supposed to work to the advantage of the city!
On December 21, 1937, the Carlton Club announced that there would be boxing every Tuesday night. At 4 a. m. Christmas morning (not a Tuesday), a former police officer was at the Carlton Club when a fight broke out. The club manager asked the former officer, Francis Kauth, to stand in the doorway and make sure no one left the club, until the police arrived. Kauth stood in the door and would not allow anyone, including Moss Carver (a boxer), to exit the club. Inexplicably, Kauth ended up at the bottom of the staircase leading down to the night club after Moss Carver forced his way out of the club.
When the police arrived Kauth was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Witnesses named Moss Carver as the man who had struck Kauth, but Carver had already left the club. The Pantagraph reported that this was not the first fatal fight in a "private club" in Bloomington. In November another man had been beaten with an Indian club and killed at the Veteran's Protective Club.
The police caught up with Moss Carver at Hohenstein's drug store (121 South Center Street) the same morning at 9:45. (The drug store was open on Christmas Day!) Carver first denied being at the Carlton Club that morning, and further denied knowing that there was a fight.
According to at least one witness, Moss Carver punched Kauth in the chin, knocking him down, and causing Kauth's head to hit the step leading out of the club. Later, other witnesses would testify that the floor was slippery and that they did not see either man actually land a punch. Witnesses also said that Kauth was sober while at the club. The coroner's testimony probably sealed the case when he testified that there was no injury to Kauth's chin.
Somewhat oddly, State's Attorney Wall defended the club and Carver's attorney suggested that the club was run by unknown persons who were above the law. He described it as a place "where sixteen year old girls mix drinks for men, where fights occur, and where people go when they are drunk and wish to be entertained." The state's attorney called it "a great institution." The jury found that Carver had the right to use "reasonable force" when Kauth attempted to bar his exit from the club, and he was acquitted. Five months later, State's Attorney Wall was no longer called the Carlton Club a "great institution" and brought action to close the Carlton Club as a public nuisance.
All photos are from the Pantagraph Negative Collection and are used with the permission of the McLean County Museum of History.
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