The Vapors is ready for another deal.
A nightclub in the heart of the Hot Springs historic district for about three decades starting in 1960, it is back on the real estate market.
And it has indeed been a long, strange trip for the low building at 321 Park Ave. Gambling and glamour swirled about it before it eventually became a beacon for lost souls.
Tower of Strength Ministries has owned the 21,000-square-foot building since 1998 after it had been vacant for several years, said Chris Rix, the listing agent.
The club was built by Dane Harris in partnership with Vincent Owen “Owney” Madden, a noted gangster in New York during the 1920s and ’30s who had owned the famous Cotton Club there before moving to Hot Springs to live a quieter, if questionable, life. He had spent eight years in the infamous Sing Sing prison for a revenge killing after surviving an assassination attempt in which 11 slugs riddled his body.
The restorative waters of the bathhouses, with their vapors, and the relaxed, and ready-to-accommodate, town, appealed to Madden.
His connections enabled the Vapors to attract entertainers - such as Tony Bennett, the Smothers Brothers and Edgar Bergen - who played Las Vegas and other circuits.
A 1962 Vapors postcard published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette offers a glimpse of the appeal of the club. “Sure having a good trip,” the sender writes. “This is the place [we] were last night for dinner & show. Saw Martha Raye & cast. Then played the one arm bandit.” It’s signed Joe & Zelma.
An explosion of a suspicious nature heavily damaged the club in 1963, injuring 12 people. Madden died two years later of natural causes and is buried in Hot Springs’ Greenwood Cemetery.
In 1967, under orders from Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, Arkansas State Police uprooted illegal gambling in the city.
Harris got the message. In the 1970s, he went “modern,” opening the Cockeyed Cowboy and the Apollo Disco under the Vapors’ roof.
He died in 1981, but the club continued to draw entertainers such as country singer-songwriter and actor Jerry Reed and impressionist Frank Gorshin.
It was, according to the Democrat-Gazette in 1992, the favorite club of Virginia Clinton, mother of former President Bill Clinton, who grew up in Hot Springs.
Oddly enough, its demise coincided with the rise of “dockside” gambling across the Mississippi River and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
The Tower of Strength Ministries, which describes itself as charismatic, made necessary improvements, replacing the roof, upgrading the heating and cooling systems, and making adaptations to fit its needs, Rix said.
“They preserved the integrity of the structure,” Rix said. Interior photos on the Rix Realty website show the scalloped ceilings in what had been the showroom, typical of the midcentury modern style. The stage is still there. “It’s carpeted, but underneath the carpet is the original mahogany dance floor,” Rix said.
The asking price is $898,000, reduced from $948,000 because the owners are motivated, he said. It has been on the market since Nov. 1.
The congregation uses only about 4,000 square feet of the building, about 20 percent of the space, so it is seeking a better fit, Rix said. The property has been shown but no offers are on the table.
What’s the pitch for the place these days?
“It would be perfect … for a dinner-theater complex,” Rix offered.
If you have a tip, call Jack Weatherly at (501) 378-3518 or email him at jweatherly@arkansasonline.com
Business, Pages 69 on 02/23/2014