~ Have a good story relating to this bar? Email us. Though now part of Chicago’s vibrant history, the legend lives on at the last surviving Gaslight Club (not to be confused with Gaslight Corner), located on the lobby level of the Hilton Hotel at O’Hare International Airport (across from Terminal 3). They even had a roadshow that could be booked for events: “a leggy, lively revue of mirth and madness that features flappers, the Charleston, Dixieland jazz and spirited Mardi Gras fun,” as well as a publication called Gaslight Gazette, read by 75,000 men with an average age of 47.8 years and income of $28,779 a year (back in 1968, the year of their 15th anniversary). The Gaslight Club also spawned additional clubs in Beverly Hills, New York City, Washington DC, and Paris.

The Gaslight Club quickly outgrew its original location on Rush Street (kitty corner from Quigley Preparatory Seminary), then on Huron Street and finally moving to The Palmer House on Monroe.

As such, the joint attracted older, well-to-do men there to have an eyeful of girls dressed in a 20s version of the bunnies further north and to drink cocktails out of ceramic mugs just as they did during Prohibition. The Gaslight Club, founded by Burton Browne, was private and required members to carry a key to get in, inspiring the rival Playboy Club that would open seven years later. While I never had the pleasure of frequenting the Gaslight Club in Chicago’s River North district, I can appreciate its memory (hence, this page).

Gaslight club chicago hilton