Lou Reed, Barbara Walters’ father, opened The Latin Quarter Nightclub in 1942. In its original Times Square location, the club offered big-name acts like Frank Sinatra as well as chorus girls, can-can dancers and singers, choreographed dance performances and salsa dancing nights.
When Lou Walters retired in the 1950s, the Latin Quarter Nightclub featured more showgirls and chorus lines due to an inability to grab big name singers and performers—and attendance plummeted.
According to a 1989 "New York Times" article, in 1969 the Latin Quarter Nightclub chorus girls went on strike. In the midst of that strike, New York City collection agencies padlocked the building for not paying its rent.
To bring in new guests, the upstairs room in the club became an “art-house” that showed soft-pornography adult films. The movies at the Cine Lido, as it was called, were a success and brought guests and money to the club’s top floor. New York police, however, caught on to the illegal business. In 1973, police stormed up the stairs and raided the movie theater, which was playing a film called "The Newcomers."
In 1980, the location became the Princess Theatre. For four years, it hosted live, quality stage productions. But in 1984 the Latin Quarter name and concept was brought back, with a focus on hip hop and rap music.
In1987, three guests leaving the club were shot. The club changed owners who attempted to restore its original quality and renamed it the Penguin Club, but it did not last long. In 1989, a New York City building company tore down the building, replacing it with a 22-story tower hotel, the Radisson Lexington.
Record producer Ralph Mercado still saw hope for the club. In 2003, he revived the Latin Quarter nightclub, opening it in the base of the Radisson. The club offered a range of music from hip-hop to salsa, reggae to rap and R&B.
Since 2003, the club experienced a more mainstream-club appeal and attitude, drawing tourists and New York City locals for ethnic music and dancing in downtown Manhattan. However, the club got bad press in the 2008.
According to a "New York Times" article from December of that year, Plaxico Burress, former New York Giants wide receiver and former Pittsburgh Steelers player, accidently shot himself in the leg inside the club’s elevator. Burress served a two year prison sentence for carrying a gun into the club and, the Manhattan Community Board 6 recommended the club's liquor license not be renewed.