Located across from Philadelphia International Records, the Fantasy Lounge was a popular hangout for PIR recording artists, songwriters and producers; movers and shakers; actors and actresses appearing in nearby theaters; and the rich and famous including Teddy Pendergrass, Lou Rawls and Diana Ross.
The Kimmel Center is in the footprint of the Fantasy Lounge.
While at the unveiling of Billie Holiday’s Walk of Fame plaque, I confirmed the location of the club with legendary DJ Jerry Blavat.
From a 1999 news story reporting on the death of Lauretta Tucker Adams, the owner of the Fantasy Lounge:
Among the most famous of her businesses was the Fantasy Lounge, a supper club at Broad and Spruce Streets in Philadelphia, where just about anyone could mingle with famous musicians, politicians and professional athletes. It was the spot where fabulous theater parties were tossed by performing casts, and Diana Ross boogied until the wee hours at a birthday party in her honor, according to a 1985 Daily News story lamenting the lounge’s closing to make room for expansion of the Philadelphia College of Art.
Walk of Fame inductee Kenny Gamble recounted:
She was a role model and mentor to many of us. She promoted us everywhere. She did things because she really cared. She didn’t care about material things, and she would help anybody who really needed help with no strings attached . . . and she was very smart in business.
All That Philly Jazz 