Lennie’s on the Turnpike opens in Peabody.

Originally the Turnpike Club, it is operated by Lennie Sogoloff and Penny Abell on Route 1. When Sogoloff becomes sole owner in 1953, he changes the club’s name. Performers include jazz greats like Count Basie, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk, as well as popular signers like Roberta Flack and Bette Midler, and comedians like Jay Leno. Originally a bar with a jazz-filled jukebox that held just 56 customers, “if they sucked in their stomachs,” according to Boston Globe jazz critic Ernie Santosuosso, it expands to host live music and seat 200. The club is destroyed by fire on May 30, 1971. After operating for a year in Danvers, the club closes in 1972.