Skull's Rainbow Room

Down a stairway off Printers Alley in Nashville, this supper club serves dinner with live jazz and a burlesque stage. It opened in 1948, sat dark for 17 years, and returned in 2015.

The club occupies the basement of the Southern Turf Building, built in 1895 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Earlier uses included a saloon, an upstairs brothel, and bootlegging tunnels.

David “Skull” Schulman opened the room in 1948 and ran it for 50 years. Nashville knew him as the mayor of Printers Alley, a Hee Haw regular who walked dyed poodles on rhinestone leashes.

Schulman was attacked during a robbery at the club in January 1998 and died the next day. Two men were convicted in 2001; 2025 reporting says the Tennessee Innocence Project has reviewed the convictions.

Staff and visitors describe Schulman still in the room and along Printers Alley, sometimes with a small white poodle at his heel.

David Wileman, who led the club’s renovation, described cold spots he could not explain in a building with no air conditioning at the time.

A 2016 Nashville Scene feature on the club’s return is the oldest published account, quoting employees who described a figure like Schulman during the storage years.