With a career that spanned over 60 years, John Hemmer found creative purpose throughout his life. His reflections on the American nightclub era captured in the documentary, John Hemmer & the Showgirls, and its respective archive, illustrate a vital and under-documented side of performing arts. As an organizer of a reunion of entertainers, John worked for decades alongside dancers, Janie Thomas Freed and Chickee James Kulp to safeguard the legacy of a lost period. His place in our cultural history and the importance of art and community are recorded and reinforced through John and his cohort’s experiences.