The Ballroom on South Broadway
- J Plunky Branch
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
How Mr. Ali Helped Build One of Los Angeles’ Most Important Black Entertainment Venues During the Civil Rights Era
Mr. Ali is a respected entrepreneur, veteran, philanthropist, and community builder whose
life reflects the best traditions of immigrant perseverance and American civic engagement.
A second-generation Palestinian American whose family businesses helped serve working-
class communities throughout California in the 1950s and 1960s, Mr. Ali went on to become
an influential businessman in Southern California, while also playing a historic role in the
development of Black entertainment culture in Los Angeles during the Civil Rights era. As
co-operator of the legendary Five Four Ballroom on South Broadway, he helped create one
of the city’s most important venues for emerging African American performers, presenting
legendary artists including B.B. King, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Johnny “Guitar”
Watson. A Vietnam-era Armed Services veteran and longtime supporter of youth programs,
veterans’ causes, and community philanthropy, Mr. Ali’s legacy stands as a powerful
example of cross-cultural cooperation, visionary entrepreneurship, and service to the
broader community.
Recently, the author, J. Plunky Branch, a renowned jazz musician and historian interviewed Mr.
Ali and they discussed Black music history, Los Angeles, Hollywood, and collaborations across
racial and ethnic communities.
By the early 1960s, Los Angeles was changing its rhythm.
The old maps of race and neighborhood were being redrawn in real time. White middle-
class families were steadily leaving South Central Los Angeles for the suburbs and the
emerging developments of Orange County. At the same time, African Americans migrating
from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and other parts of the South were arriving in Los Angeles
seeking opportunity, dignity, and community. Mexican and Chicano laborers continued
shaping the economy of California through agricultural labor stretching from the Central
Valley into Southern California. Jewish, Arab, Armenian, Irish, and immigrant-owned
businesses formed another layer of the city’s evolving commercial fabric.
In the middle of those historic shifts stood an unlikely figure: Mr. Ali, the son of Palestinian
immigrants, a young entrepreneur who would become part businessman, part cultural
bridge-builder, and part community advocate.
Long before diversity became a corporate slogan, Mr. Ali was living it.
His life story is deeply woven into the history of immigrant enterprise in California and into
an overlooked chapter of Black entertainment history in Los Angeles - the rise of the Five
Four Ballroom, located at 5401 South Broadway, a venue that became one of the city’s vital
cultural gathering spaces during the Civil Rights era.
Today, Mr. Ali is known throughout the Long Beach and Huntington Beach communities as a
successful entrepreneur and philanthropist, supporting veterans’ causes, youth
organizations, disaster relief efforts, and numerous local initiatives. A veteran himself,
having served during the Vietnam War era, he represents a generation of immigrants and
first-generation Americans who believed business success carried an obligation to serve the
broader community.
But decades earlier, when he was barely twenty years old, he found himself helping shape
the soundtrack of Black Los Angeles.
From Palestinian Family Enterprise to California Opportunity
Mr. Ali’s family had already established itself in California commerce during the 1950s and
1960s. Like many immigrant families, they built their livelihood through relentless work,
discipline, and community relationships.
Among their businesses was the distribution and sale of Levi’s jeans and related goods to
working-class communities throughout California, particularly Chicano laborers employed
in the agricultural fields of Central and Southern California. Their businesses operated
within the everyday realities of California’s multicultural economy - serving Latino
workers, immigrant families, and urban communities often overlooked by larger
institutions.
Mr. Ali: “Yeah, and I was a young man, and some of my elder family were ready to retire. So we
the young generation, second generation immigrant, wanted to keep the family business. So
we, we bought the business from the family.”
As younger members of the family began assuming responsibility for the enterprise, Mr. Ali
emerged as an ambitious and entrepreneurial force. While still very young, he took over
aspects of the family business from his elders and began looking toward new ventures.
One of those opportunities would place him directly at the center of Los Angeles' nightlife
and music history.
The Five Four Ballroom Before the Transition
The Five Four Ballroom had already established a reputation years before Mr. Ali became
involved. Owned by Mr. Nelson, a Swedish businessman, the club had operated during the
late 1940s and early 1950s as a successful entertainment venue catering primarily to white
and Jewish audiences.
At the time, Los Angeles nightlife remained heavily segregated, both formally and
informally. Entertainment venues often reflected the racial divisions of the city itself.
But demographics were changing rapidly.
As white residents moved outward toward suburban communities, African Americans
increasingly settled in South Central Los Angeles, Watts, and Compton. These communities
were creating their own institutions, businesses, churches, political organizations, and
cultural spaces. Yet opportunities for Black audiences to enjoy major live entertainment
remained limited.
Hollywood venues often excluded or discouraged African American patrons. Black
performers could entertain white audiences in some spaces while Black audiences
themselves remained unwelcome.
The Five Four Ballroom would eventually become part of an alternative cultural network -
one built for the Black community by an unusually diverse coalition of businessmen and
promoters.
A Remarkable Partnership Across Communities
According to Mr. Ali, the ballroom was eventually sold to an African American owner who
struggled with the management side of the business. Around that same period, an Irish
booking agent from New York entered the picture, bringing connections to a growing circuit
of young Black performers traveling through the country.
What emerged next was highly unusual for its time.
A Palestinian-American entrepreneur, a Swedish club owner, African American business
partners, and an Irish booking agent joined forces to transform the venue into one of Los
Angeles’ premier destinations for Black entertainment.
Mr. Ali and two African American brothers eventually helped manage and operate the club,
consciously building an environment that welcomed young Black families and working-
class patrons who had few comparable venues available to them elsewhere in Los Angeles.
The Five Four Ballroom quickly evolved into more than a nightclub.
It became a community institution.
The Sound of a Changing America
The list of performers who appeared at the Five Four Ballroom reads today like a chapter
from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
B.B. King.
Bobby “Blue” Bland.
Johnny “Guitar” Watson.
Ike & Tina Turner
Marvin Gaye.
Little Richard.
Stevie Wonder.
and many other LA local black entertainers.
Many of them performed there before becoming internationally recognized superstars.
Mr. Ali recalls Little Richard as one of the earliest major acts to electrify the venue. Weekend
performances routinely packed the ballroom for both evening shows and matinee
performances. The atmosphere was energetic, stylish, and deeply connected to the
emerging Black cultural identity of Los Angeles during the Civil Rights era.
The Five Four Ballroom became an important stop on the national Black entertainment
circuit, particularly for younger acts seeking to build audiences on the West Coast.
It also offered something equally important: dignity and access.
At a time when many Hollywood clubs and mainstream venues remained inaccessible or
unwelcoming to African Americans, the Five Four Ballroom provided a place where Black
audiences could gather freely, hear major artists, dance, socialize, and participate fully in
the cultural life of the city.
Mr. Ali: “So our place, 5401 South Broadway, became the place for Black entertainment in the
community; 10 miles from Hollywood.”
Integration Before It Became Fashionable
One of the most fascinating dimensions of the Five Four Ballroom was the racial diversity
that gradually emerged around it.
While the club became known primarily as a major Black entertainment venue, it also
attracted young white musicians and audiences interested in rhythm and blues, soul, and
early rock music. Among the young performers connected to the venue were early members
associated with what would later become the Beach Boys phenomenon.
Mr. Ali: “Brian Wilson and his group would come, at first to check out the black entertainers
and eventually they would play at the club too.”
This interracial mixing - still controversial in many parts of America during the early
1960s - became part of the club’s identity.
By the mid-1960s, the ballroom had developed a national reputation as a place where
musical innovation and cultural boundaries intersected.
Stevie Wonder and Service to the Community
Mr. Ali’s understanding of business was never limited to profit alone.
As relationships developed between the ballroom and local organizations, members of the
Muslim community and activists connected to Black community organizations - including
individuals associated with the Black Panthers - approached him with a suggestion: use
the venue to create something positive for neighborhood youth.
Mr. Ali responded by organizing free Sunday matinees for young people and families.
One of those events featured a very young Stevie Wonder.
Mr. Ali recalled initially being surprised when the young musician arrived because he had
not realized Stevie was blind. But the performance proved unforgettable, and parents
throughout the community deeply appreciated the opportunity for their children to
experience positive live entertainment in a safe environment.
Mr. Ali: At first, I was worried we were going to have riot on our hands because he was blind
and mostly played the harmonica. But Stevie was such a great entertainer, the kids just loved
him. And the parents thanked me graciously for doing the free event for their kids.”
The events reflected a broader philosophy that would define Mr. Ali’s life for decades
afterward: business success should strengthen community life, not merely enrich
individuals.
Those youth programs were interrupted when Mr. Ali himself was drafted during the
Vietnam War era and entered military service.
A Lifetime of Philanthropy and Civic Engagement
Following his military service, Mr. Ali continued building businesses while also expanding
his civic and philanthropic involvement.
Over the years, he has supported veterans’ programs, community fundraisers, disaster relief
efforts, youth sports organizations, and numerous charitable causes throughout Southern
California. His work has crossed racial, ethnic, and religious boundaries in ways that reflect
both his immigrant upbringing and his lived experiences inside America’s multicultural
urban communities.
Mr. Ali: "It has always been my philosophy to work with others and support those in the
community who need help, especially the veterans.”
His life story complicates simplistic narratives about race and identity in America. As a
Palestinian-American businessman working closely with African American communities,
Latino labor networks, Jewish business owners, white entrepreneurs, and immigrant
families, Mr. Ali’s experiences reveal a more layered and collaborative history than is often
acknowledged.
His story is also a reminder that many of America’s most important cultural spaces were
sustained not by institutions, but by local entrepreneurs willing to take risks across social
and racial lines.
Preserving the Legacy of the Five Four Ballroom
Today, the story of the Five Four Ballroom remains largely absent from mainstream
histories of Los Angeles music culture.
Yet its significance is undeniable.
Located at 5401 South Broadway, the ballroom served as a critical entertainment hub
during one of the most transformative periods in American urban history. It gave Black
performers a major platform, provided Black audiences with a welcoming cultural space,
and demonstrated how interracial business collaboration could succeed during a deeply
divided era.
For Mr. Ali, the ballroom’s legacy is inseparable from the broader lesson of his own life:
communities advance when people work together across lines of race, religion, and
ethnicity.
In an era often remembered primarily for conflict and division, the Five Four Ballroom tells
another story - one of collaboration, music, migration, and shared aspiration.
And at the center of that story stands Mr. Ali: veteran, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and
unlikely architect of one of Black Los Angeles’ most important cultural stages.
Mr. Ali and Music Today
More about Mike
Comments