formicarius:

Portrait of Sam Donahue and Hep, Aquarium, New York, N.Y., ca. Dec. 1946

Probably no dance band ever has played to so many empty tables consistently as the Sam Donahue ork during the recent double booking with Lionel Hampton at the Aquarium. The operators decreed that Sam should play afternoons, and the place isn’t open in the afternoon! A single customer, John Sorenson, who just got off a boat from Denmark, wandered in by mistake one day and was served by the entire skeleton staff of three waiters, a cashier, head waiter, cook and busboy. In one of these staff photos by got, Sam and the band are seen playing to an attentive audience, consisting of one cat, Hep.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/5269520472/

(via therecordlegacy)