Sweet’s Ballroom was the go-to venue in downtown Oakland during the Big Band era of WWII. William Sweet, a former agriculture professor, opened the nightclub in 1920, and it became enormously successful with performances by such performers as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Xavier Cugat. In the 1970s it was known as Sands Ballroom.

The first location of Sweet’s, which was originally a dance school, was at 480 - 20th Street. c.1950, it was at 1414 Franklin Street. Finally, the ballroom settled into the location at 1933 Broadway.