The history of Montreal cabarets ranges from the early 1920s to the 1970s. Cabarets were unquestionably a social, economic and cultural phenomenon that radically transformed the entertainment scene in Montreal and Quebec.
Propelled by American Prohibition, Montreal cabarets hosted renowned artists from the United States. and France, causing Montreal to quickly gain a reputation as a party town, attracting large numbers of tourists, especially Americans. Also, many American jazz artists performed in the city. On the other hand, in the 1950s, Montreal's cabarets became an important venue for the emergence of new Québécois talent.
The scene reached its peak in two periods: around 1930, and again in the late 1940s. However, the New York and later the Montreal Mafia had close ties with the cabaret world, and the vitality of cabarets was eventually affected by the popularity of television and a campaign of public repression led by Mayor Jean Drapeau in the late 1950s, until the beginning of the 1970s, when cabarets disappeared from the Montreal scene.