Red, Hot and Cool
By Stefene Russell
Photograph courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society's Photographs and Prints Collection
The Red Carpet Lounge had miles of just that—red carpet—along with red flocked wallpaper and chairs upholstered in gold leather. There was a little piano bar where Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum played; he first arrived at the lounge's door as a trumpeter (it was a paying gig, so he learned to play jazz keys, and fast). Though the waitresses showed plenty of leg—and bosom—this was no Hooters for jazz buffs. You didn't show up without a jacket. The gentlemen wore French cuffs, the ladies silk stockings and Joy by Jean Patou. If there's any stretch of modern St. Louis that approximates Gaslight Square, it's the Loop, so it's no surprise that Jay Brandt, whose parents owned the Red Carpet—he bussed tables there as a kid—reopened the club, on Delmar. The new Red Carpet doesn't have velvet wallpaper or waitresses in hot pants, but you can still hear Peanuts Whalum play jazz. And if you squinch your eyes just right and turn your head slightly sideways, you can almost make out a few of those twinkles that hung in the air on the south side of Olive on humid summer nights.
