Fabulous Dunes
Known Name(s)
Fabulous Dunes
Address
Neptune, NJ
Establishment Type(s)
Restaurant, Night Club
Physical Status
Unknown
Description
With no address given in its sole listing in 1962, it is difficult to determine exactly where the Fabulous Dunes was. Numerous ads in local shore town newspapers in 1960 and 1961 give the location as Route 33 at West Bangs Avenue, placing the Neptune restaurant and night club at a crossroads away from the oceanfront and close to the Garden State Parkway. Ads advertise the spot as half a mile east of Exit 100B on the Parkway. At present, nothing is known of the structure.
Sources: “The Fabulous Dunes,” The Daily Register (Red Bank), 30 December 1960.
Detailed History
The Fabulous Dunes, a restaurant and nightclub, was listed in The Green Book for one year only: 1962. Frequent ads in local shore town newspapers indicate it was a new venue in the early 1960s, and its location close to the Garden State Parkway spoke to ways in which the new highway changed travel and leisure habits beginning in the 1950s.
An ad for New Years’ Eve, 1960, entertainment options in the Red Bank Daily Register described the Fabulous Dunes as “Jersey’s newest and most superb resort.” An ad in the 19 May 1961 Asbury Park Press stated that it had “101 Luxurious Rooms” and both an indoor and an outdoor pool. In July of 1961, Helen Murray’s social column in the Long Branch paper noted that “The Fabulous Dunes on Rt. 33 continues to draw the biggest bees with its honeyed entertainment and continental atmosphere.” Notices name well-known African-American artists who appeared at the venue, including Sarah Vaugh, Cab Calloway, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, and the Platters.
Sources: Helen Murray, “Along the Shore,” The Daily Record (Long Branch), 27 July 1961; “The Fabulous Dunes,” The Daily Record, 23 May1961; “The Fabulous Dunes,” The Daily Register (Red Bank), 30 December 1960; “Tonight through Sunday the Fabulous Dunes Presents Cab Calloway,” Asbury Park Press, 19 May 1961; “Tonight see Sarah Vaughn …,” Asbury Park Press, 1 June 1961.
J. Shaffer
