It sits just off the main drag in downtown Hot Springs and, therefore, somewhat removed from the hustle and bustle of Central Avenue, but, in many ways, the legendary Vapors nightclub represented the epicenter of the Spa City’s infamous run as Vegas of the South in the mid-20th century.
By the time the club opened in 1960, Hot Springs had long been considered a sanctuary for gangsters from “up north,” an unofficial neutral ground where members of the mob could escape family politics to recharge and make a little — or a lot of — bank on the side. During the 1920s, as Major League Baseball’s spring training took root in Hot Springs, the Spa City became haven for notorious gangsters such as Pretty Boy Floyd, Lucky Luciano and the coup de gras of public-
enemies-Nos.-1 himself, Al Capone.
Print ads hawked the Vapors as the best club of its kind in the region, top, and local newspaper headlines often lamented the perceived lawlessness in Spa City with regards to illegal gambling. (Images courtesy of Garland County Historical Society)
The July 22, 1939, issue of Liberty magazine, then the second-most-read publication in the United States behind the Saturday Evening Post, published a story about Hot Springs and its ties to organized crime. The article was titled “Hell in Hot Springs” and billed as “a story of one town’s corruption, taken from the G-Men’s files.”
The Vapors, so named to conjure up images of the mist resulting from the city’s famous hot springs, was opened by one such noteworthy mobster, Owen Vincent “Owney” Madden, owner of the famed Cotton Club in Harlem, with local businessman Dane Harris. As did most clubs in the Spa City, the Vapors operated a casino behind a wall separating the gambling parlor from the lobby. Officially, the Vapors and other clubs in town were simply establishments for eating and drinking — the casinos were not listed in the books.
The Vapors looked the part of Vegas showroom, seen here and below, while newspaper photographers recorded the aftermath of a 1963 bomb explosion at the club that exposed illegal slot machines and gaming tables. (Photos courtesy of Garland County Historical Society)
Law enforcement and local elected officials were mostly complicit in the operation of illegal gambling, prostitution and open bars throughout the city during the first half of the 20th century. After all, the clubs made a lot of people on both sides of the law a lot of money. For its part, the Vapors drew a high-end crowd, and musical acts there included the likes of Dean Martin and Tony Bennett.
The Vapors quickly distinguished itself. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas states that Bennett first sang his acclaimed hit “(I Left My Heart) In San Francisco” at the Vapors. One night during rehearsal before a show, Bennett sang the song as a trial run for an upcoming show at the Fairmont in San Francisco. A bartender, setting up for the night’s show, told him if the song was recorded, he would buy the first copy.
“The Vapors appeared at the height of the illegal gambling era in Hot Springs and later became one of the most visible symbols of its end,” said Elizabeth Robbins, executive director of the Garland County Historical Society. “The famous, the infamous and the ordinary people who gambled and entertained and worked there helped create a unique time in our city’s past, one whose glamor still fascinates people today.”
By the mid-1960s, elected officials across the country were less willing to look the other way when it came to organized crime. The Spa City’s ascent (or descent, depending upon one’s perspective) into Vegas-like status took a hit with the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy as U.S. attorney general and the election of Winthrop Rockefeller as Arkansas governor.
The Vapors’ crippling blow, however, occurred the morning of Jan. 4, 1963, when an explosion leveled parts of the building, exposing the casino to the public and injuring 12. A photo of the club’s gaming tables and slots was published on the front page of the old Arkansas Gazette the next day, revealing the state’s biggest unkept secret. The writing, as it were, was not so much on the wall as it was on the front page of the Gazette, the biggest “wall” of them all in Arkansas. Other local clubs continued to operate illegal gambling for a few more years, but the tide had turned.
The Vapors was restored and carried on as a nightclub only, going through various iterations until the property was sold to a church in 1998. The club is back today as the Vapors Live, a nightclub, restaurant and music venue that harkens back to the Spa City’s infamous days as a home away from home for organized crime.
