Eddie Davis

Longtime song and dance man Eddie Davis ran away from his North Philadelphia home at the age of twelve, making his way as a carnival barker. After serving in the U. S. Army in World War I, he started singing in Atlantic City nightclubs, and at the onset of prohibition, with Leon Enkin opened a speakeasy in midtown Manhattan called "Leon and Eddie's." Davis was the host and chief entertainer, with a repertoire of over a thousand songs, although many stars of the past, present and future appeared there, from Jackie Gleason to Bob Hope to Alan King to Eydie Gorme. His brother Philip took over as manager after Leon Enkin left to run the Leon and Eddie's (later "Leon & Charlie's") branch in Fort Laudedale, while the day manager and bouncer was Toots Shor, who would open his famed restaurant at the same New York address when Leon and Eddie's closed their doors in 1953, after a quarter century.