In summer, when the nights are balmy, when the breeze is nonexistent, or so humid that we spend our nights tossing and turning in front of the fan, we cannot help but fantasize about hot Havana nightclubs, those glittering cabarets of yore where Americans and Cubans once danced under the stars ‘til dawn. The names of these clubs - Tropicana, Sans Souci, Riviera and Johnny's Dream Club - evoke a veritable Shangri-La of pleasure spots.

The dress code for these dazzling locales was all about remaining cool and elegant despite the heat. Shapes were fluid, and white was de rigueur for both sexes. And though designers had not yet discovered fabrics that could hold a complicated shape without sacrificing breathability, the effect of all the drapes and folds, of halter and one-shoulder necklines, of skirts that were tight in all the right places, but still roomy enough to allow for mamboing across a dance floor, was to create an illusion of freshness even when it was eighty-five degrees at midnight.

So next time you feel the Santa Ana winds kick in and you're stuck someplace without air-conditioning, get out your whites, slip on your heels, pour yourself a rum-and-something over ice, turn on some old school dance music, and remember that it's not the temperature that matters, but how well you can dress for it.

Above photo: Cuban actress Lillian Laso (in pleats), Mexican film star Maria Felix (second from right), Cuban torch singer Olga Guillot, center, and Carmen Miranda (in head scarf) relaxing at Havana's fabled Tropicana Cabaret. Behind Miranda in pale tie is Tropicana's owner Martin Fox.

The author's father (left) and uncle at a high school graduation party in Havana, 1950s.

Couple dancing the Danzón, a popular pre-mambo dance in Cuba.

In center: Ofelia Fox, wife of Tropicana's owner, in an embroidered white lace halter dress by Pierre Balmain. To her right is Liberace, who was giving a dinner at Tropicana for the Cuban press corps.

Story and photos provided by Rosa Lowinger.