Bygone places CDMX / El Bombay, started in 1906, very close to Garibaldi.
Throughout its long history as a bar, cabaret, dance hall, brothel, and table dance club, El Bombay saw its peak in the '70s and '80s, featuring shows with the most famous vedettes.
By Alejandro Pohlenz
One hundred meters from Plaza de Garibaldi stood the Club Bombay, also known as Salón Bombay. It had various names since its opening in 1906 (the Mexican Revolution hadn't even begun yet. Back then, it was a "piquería," meaning a place where they only sold alcohol). It was called La Niña (a strange name for a bar), El Imperial, and El Shanghái. In 1952, it acquired its definitive title: Club Bombay.
The Most Famous Vedettes
It's said that the most celebrated vedettes performed there: Wanda Seux (born in Paraguay, 1948), La Princesa Lea (1949, Canadian-Mexican), and the no less illustrious Lyn May (her real name was Liliana Mendiola Mayanes, and her age is undetermined. She began her career in 1972: I imagine she must have been born in the '40s).
El Bombay also hosted the Sonora Santanera and was the main set for some fichera films like Las Ficheras (1976) or Bellas de Noche (1974). Performers there included the rumba dancer Crisanta Figueroa (La Rorrita de Oro) and the silk-footed dancer, Berta Alfaro.
Intellectual Gatherings
Something surprising is that, they say, El Bombay was the venue for conversations involving Jaime Sabines (the excellent poet from Chiapas), Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, and Renato Leduc (a Mexican writer and poet who died in the '80s). It's extraordinary that such important artists would meet in a cabaret.
El Bombay declined: from a dance hall, it transformed into a cabaret; then a brothel, and finally a table-dance club. In 2011 (more than 100 years later), it ceased operating as a cabaret and became a hip-hop venue.
Eje Central and República de Ecuador, Historic Center, Distrito Federal.
Permanently Closed.
