Monarch Saloon Memphis Long Sleeve T-Shirt

This is a Bluescentric Brand premium Long Sleeve T-Shirt, available in sizes from Small up to 5XL! This is a pre-shrunk 100% heavy cotton (athletic heather 99%) 6 oz long sleeve tee. Double-needle sleeve and bottom hem. 

In a time when Memphis was known for tough establishments, The Monarch stood out as one of the most notorious. 

Operating since at least 1908 and closing in the 1950s, The Monarch was a rowdy, ornate gambling parlor, constructed to be “the finest in the South” at great expense by Memphis gangster Jim Kinnane. 

Filled with secret entrances, trap doors and seedy back rooms, The Monarch Club earned the nickname “The Castle of Missing Men”, because, rumor had it, a funeral home across the back alley would “disappear” bodies of victims, down-on-their-luck gamblers, trouble makers & debtors who got in over their heads. 

The club’s heyday existed at the same time B.B. King & Elvis Presley searched for paths into the music business while watching W.C. Handy, Furry Lewis & Bukka White perform on the street. Future gangster Machine Gun Kelly hung in front of The Monarch hocking prohibition-defying bottles of liquor. Robert Wilkins even wrote a song about The Monarch, “Old Jim Canan’s”.

The building still stands at 340 Beale Street, ironically now a Memphis Police sub-station. Which is probably good, because Beale Street during the time of The Monarch’s raucous reign would reportedly have ambulances lined up for a half mile to cart off the evening’s victims.

After The Monarch closed, it became a short-lived record label called House of Sound.