A then-unknown Billie Holiday performing at Montreal’s Terminal Club, 1933.

Café Montmartre, Montreal, ca. 1960s.

Rockhead’s Paradise, Montreal, ca. 1960s.

For Montreal, it was an honour being called “The Paris of North America,” a moniker earned through the ongoing influx of people from the U.S. and elsewhere drawn to the city decade after decade by the siren song of booze, fun and hoppin’ music. The city’s nightlife encouraged stepping-out as a natural calling, and droves of jazz musicians, vocalists and other performers gravitated to the city and its many uptown and downtown nightclubs operating from dusk to dawn. This episode’s interviewees, native-born Montrealers all, describe the entertainment-industry phenomenon their town was for so many years, and how its nightlife established the city’s multicultural flavour so vibrant to this day.