Latin Casino and Jackie Wilson — October 1, 2026

Verified chronology

Cherry Hill Township’s history says the Latin Casino moved from Philadelphia and opened in Delaware Township at the end of 1960. The township did not become Cherry Hill until 1961. It lists Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Liberace and the Temptations among performers.
Cherry Hill Public Library’s local history confirms the venue and its replacement by Subaru’s headquarters. Cherry Hill Courier reporting in September 2026 locates the former site at 2235 Route 70 West and dates the headquarters demolition to 2019. The address is a parcel/site locator, not the original stage footprint.
A September 30, 1975 Associated Press dispatch preserved by the Oklahoma Historical Society describes Wilson’s collapse at the Latin Casino the previous night during Dick Clark’s oldies show and his transfer to Cherry Hill Medical Center. It says he had just finished “Lonely Teardrops.” Record World, October 11, 1975 independently gives Monday, September 29, the revue and his critical condition on September 30.
Later retellings, including an NPR interview with the authors of The Show Won’t Go On, put the collapse at the lyric “my heart is crying.” That differs from the next-day AP timing. The entry uses “around his performance” and does not assert an exact lyric, fall direction or audience reaction.
Billboard, March 20, 1976 reported that Wilson came out of a roughly three-and-a-half-month coma in January but remained severely impaired. Its July 10, 1976 report documented a court-approved insurance settlement for medical expenses. Do not describe one uninterrupted coma lasting until 1984.
Billboard, October 24, 1981 connects Wilson to Medford Leas and separately reports the former Latin Casino’s conversion into Emerald City and its 1981 bankruptcy and closure. It gives capacities of 2,000 for the Latin Casino and 1,500 for Emerald City, so a single fixed venue capacity is misleading.
Nelson George’s Billboard obituary, February 4, 1984 dates Wilson’s move to Medford Leas to May 1977 and his death in Mount Holly to January 21, 1984. A January 28, 1984 UPI funeral report confirms that he had lived at Medford Leas before transfer to Burlington County Memorial Hospital.

Editorial and map limits

The Latin Casino was in Cherry Hill, outside the Pine Barrens core. Its connection to this archive is Wilson’s documented later residence at Medford Leas in Medford.
The Route 70 address locates the former property. Neither the historical reporting nor the modern address establishes the precise stage position. A future map pin should be marked as a former venue site or parcel, not an exact stage coordinate.
Most contemporaneous sources describe a heart attack, but do not permit reconstruction of every medical event in the collapse or the subsequent years. The story describes the lasting brain injury using contemporary reports.

October 2 follow-up

Billboard, August 16, 1975 reports a federal tax judgment of more than $2.5 million against the Latin Casino operator and Dallas Gerson’s planned September reopening. Its September 13 report reports approval of a liquor-license transfer to a new corporation. Wilson’s September 29 appearance establishes that the venue was operating by then; neither report establishes the tax case’s eventual outcome.
Billboard, December 20, 1975 says, on an unnamed source’s account, that Wilson had emerged from coma about two weeks earlier. Its March 20, 1976 report places emergence in January. The precise timing is unresolved; both reports describe lasting impairment.
Billboard, October 24, 1981 describes a halt after bankruptcy, but its January 16, 1982 follow-up shows the property and license still in proceedings. The October halt cannot be used as an established permanent closing date.
The former site is 2235 Route 70 West, Cherry Hill, Block 27.01 Lot 7, per the township’s site plan and NJOGIS parcel composite, object 1546442. The old marker, 39.92334, -75.04389, lay outside the parcel near Route 70’s median. The corrected representative point, 39.92275, -75.04390, intersects the parcel. NJOGIS’s polygon is not a survey and does not locate the original stage. OpenStreetMap’s apparent 2235 address results were geocoded points on Route 70 carriageways, not surveyed address objects; they are no longer used as the map basis.