Stork Club - Television and Movies

Television and Movies

The Stork Club was a television series hosted by Billingsley, who circulated among the tables interviewing guests at the club. Sponsored by Fatima cigarettes, the series ran from 1950 to 1955. The television show was directed by Yul Brynner, who was a TV director before he was a star of stage and screen. The program began on CBS with the network having built a replica of the Cub Room on the Stork Club's sixth floor to serve as the set for the show. Billingsley was paid $12,000 each week as its host. The television show moved to ABC by 1955; on the broadcast of May 8 of that year, Billingsley made some remarks about a fellow New York restaurateur's (Bernard "Toots" Shor) financial solvency and honesty. Shor responded by suing for a million dollars. He collected just under $50,000 as a settlement in March 1959; the Stork Club television show ended in the same year the statements were made.

There was also a Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse presentation, Murder At The Stork Club, which was aired on NBC January 15, 1950. Franchot Tone and Billingsley had cameo roles in the television drama. The television show was an adaptation of Vera Caspary's 1946 mystery novel, The Murder in the Stork Club, where the action took place in and around the famous nightclub, with Sherman Billingsley and other real-life characters appearing in the plot.

The Stork Club was also featured in several movies, including The Stork Club (1945), Executive Suite (1954), and My Favorite Year (1982).

In All About Eve (1950), the characters played by Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Anne Baxter and George Sanders are shown in the Cub Room of the Stork Club.

The Alfred Hitchcock film The Wrong Man (1957) starred Henry Fonda as real-life Stork Club bassist Christopher Emanuel Balestrero ("Manny"), who was falsely accused of committing robberies around New York City. Scenes involving Balestrero playing the bass were actually shot at the club. The film's screenplay, written by Maxwell Anderson, was based on a true story originally published in Life magazine.

The Stork Club was featured in the second season episode of AMC's dramatic television series Mad Men titled "The Golden Violin". The club provided the setting for a party attended by characters Don and Betty Draper in celebration of comedian Jimmy Barrett.

The Stork Club is mentioned in Captain America: The First Avenger. The titular character and his love interest agree to meet there for a date in one week.