Omaha Exploration

Long before it became Club Omaha, The 20’s located just southwest of 72nd and Dodge was one Omaha’s classiest and perhaps raciest nightclubs. The Roaring Twenties (or The Roaring 20’s, The Twenties or sometimes just The 20’s) opened its doors in 1964. Among its owners was Anthony Greco and various members of the Bortolotti family.

Anthony, who lived in a plush apartment inside the club, learned the business from his father who in addition to owning a bunch of land around 42nd and Center also opened The Ritz Nightclub starting in 1934. There was a brief mention of The Ritz when we explored Paddy McGown’s sometime ago. I should point out that Anthony’s father Andrew was another of the city’s pioneering businessmen who emigrated from Carlentini, Sicily. 

The son went off to serve in World War II before returning home and helping pops with the club. By 1955 the Greco family would sell its last east of 42nd and Center for construction of The Center Mall. Within the mall father and son would open a swanky new jazz club called The Panther Room. Fast forward nine years later and Greco the younger was ready to open a club of his own. 

At 7301 Farnam Street, Anthony found a lot on which to build his club. One newspaper story mentions that The 20’s was built around the old Colonial house that sat on the lot for decades. I’m not sure whether that meant they used a portion of the house to build the club or that it was simply built on the same lot. Either way, its location on The Strip was perfect. The Strip, by the way, is what they called 72nd Street from Dodge to Center back in the day. 

Billed as “America’s Most Fashionable Speakeasy”, it was a cocktail lounge with a Roaring 20’s motif, three bars and a red-on-red color scheme. The exterior had large backlit murals of stars from the era including Charlie Chaplin and Al Jolson. In the parking lot and at the entrances there were the original lamp posts obtained from the Omaha Public Power District. Inside there was a glass-enclosed telephone booth that appeared to have been sprayed with machine gun fire in addition to a faux building that had a sexy mannequin leg hanging out of a window. It also featured singing bartenders and waitresses. 

Anthony sought out a wide variety of entertainments acts which he personally auditioned by traveling to other cities to catch their acts.They included cabaret performers, comedians, puppet shows, melodrama and musical theater. Back to that puppet show for a minute. It apparently was a sort of Las Vegas-type revue that featured six topless dancers playing marionettes. Among its more notable performers were Julie Wilson, Mickey Sharp and Rich Little. The club even employed the Hal Pryor Band as its full-time house band. 

Despite the club’s popularity, it struggled to turn a profit by 1968. That led to a disagreement by the partners on its future. As a result, Anthony sold his stake in The 20’s in 1969 and proceeded to open a new club called 8 Ltd. in the basement of Westroads Mall and later Bacchus International. 

The Bortolotti continued to operate the club in pretty much the same manner until a lack of business resulted in its closure in 1971. In an attempt to breathe new life into the club, they introduced a new concept and a new name – Caesar’s West. This marks its debut as a topless club. While it proved successful for a time, the city ended up banning topless clubs shortly thereafter. It continued to operate as a go-go after that and was forced to change its name back to The 20’s in 1973 as a result of legal threats by Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. His clientele apparently didn’t enjoy it quite as much and the club closed yet again. 

Once again, the owners went to the drawing board in order to come up with a new concept that would catch one. They had even considered changing the name from The 20’s to The 50’s and transforming it into a rock-n-roll themed club that might attract a younger crowd. While it reopened as a live music club, it retained The 20’s name. At one point it even billed itself as “West Omaha’s Country Club”. Its owners remained in the business of hiring exotic dancers to perform in a smaller, private section of the club that was called the Showgirls Lounge.

In 1983 Terry Click, a drummer from Cincinnati gave the club new life when he leased it and upgraded both the light and sound systems in addition to extending the stage. Terry’s vision was to turn the venue into a total entertainment complex. To that end, he continued to bring in local bands to perform during the week and hosted an open mic comedy night where anyone could get on stage. During the weekends, however, he was successful in booking national acts to perform including the Ramones, R.E.M, Rick Nelson, Tanya Tucker, Spyro Gyra and Michael Bolton. As hard as it is to believe, the Showgirls Lounge continued to operate in the same manner. Terry’s vision came to an end upon discovering the money earned from a small venue with a capacity of just 300 went towards paying for the national acts. As a result, the club closed for a third or fourth time. I lost count by this point. 

Mickey Sparano introduced Omaha to go-go bars when he opened his first club downtown in 1959. Since then he went on to open the Razzle Dazzle in Council Bluffs. This time he set his sights on The 20’s. His initial vision was to model it after The Playboy Club with cocktail waitresses dressing up in costumes as well as employing both cigarette and camera girls. I’m not sure if the Playboy idea ever came to fruition but if it did, I suspect it was short-lived. Afterwards he booked revue bands and even tried operating a supper club. Mickey often traveled to Las Vegas and Atlantic City to scout musicians to play at his club. 

Items listed during a 2019 auction of items inside The 20’s.

By 1988 he eventually settled into a live music venue that drew local rock bands. By this time he also added a separate entrance to the Showgirls Lounge on the west end of the building. Apparently the clientele that preferred to be entertained by scantily clad women didn’t like walking through the main room where a younger crowd was listening to a band perform. By the mid-1990s however business slowed once again and Mickey was forced to close the main room most nights of the week. The Showgirls Lounge continued to operate. After Mickey passed away in 2002 his partner Denny Konvalin took over.

The 20’s struggled after that and may have even closed again as it didn’t appear in the newspapers until two years later. Or maybe Denny just kept a low profile. During the ensuing years there was an off-duty policeman that opened fire at someone outside the club, two people were arrested on drug charges in the parking lot, there was an assault inside the club, a bouncer who was shot at by a customer and most tragically a teenager was shot and killed outside. Oddly despite all of this unwanted attention, musician John Mayer apparently visited the club in 2010 after performing in Omaha. He was apparently quite the generous tipper. The 20’s closed for good in 2016 after 52 years. 

It managed one last act when it reopened as Club Omaha in 2017. It had the distinction of being Omaha’s only all nude club after its owner found a loophole in the state law that allowed him to operate the club as long as he didn’t sell alcohol. Instead customers would purchase a membership to enter the private club at the door and proceed to bring their own booze. Despite the controversy surrounding the club, it continued to operate here until 2019 when he moved his establishment to 120th and Center. The building was demolished in 2020 and today serves as a parking lot for semi-trailers.

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Until next time, keep exploring!

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