The night I walked through the doors and into the club, it was the loud 1980′s music from Salt n Pepa to Pet Shop Boys that drew you inside. The Mix of the patrons in the club was very mixed racially, sexually and clicky pretty much like it is today but grittier like being in a basement, it was actually of an old Chestnut street hotel. The space was large. this was the Dance floor and lounge area there was also a bar to the right of the entrance of the club. The entrance to the restrooms had two tessla globes [...]
Lesbian & Gay Senior Lives Part 2 – the First March
Documenting the first New York City Pride politcal march in 1970, the years after the Stonewall riots and the continuing struggles for health insurance, equal rights and equality. Courtesy of LGBTCenterNYC, Thank you. Enjoy
The LGBT Senior Experience Part 1
Trials and tribulations of LGBT seniors and paths taken to set the way for generations to come. They talk about growing up in pre Stonewall riots 1960′s New York City, before the support of the LGBT community center. Courtesy of LGBTCenterNYC, Thank you. Enjoy
Brief History of the Everard Baths and Video of the 1977 Fire
During 1888 the Everard Baths was a Turkish “health and fitness” bath founded by financier James Everard in a former church. Building was designed in a typical late nineteenth century architectural style, Victorian Romanesque Revival which was common at the time. James Everard who owned and operated the Everard brewery on 135th Street. November 28, 1898 gas was suspected in the death of a soldier who was found dead in his room at the baths. On January 5, 1919 and not to long after in 1920 the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice encouraged random police raids in [...]
The Night I Met KURTZ
My first experience in a gay club was in Philadelphia in the fall of 1988, the phone rings and it’s my friend Gene. He asked me if I wanted to hang out later that night. “I said cool”, where? He said “there was a club downtown at Chestnut near thirteenth street not far from the John Wanamaker department store.” It was called Kurtz, they had a great dance floor and the DJ’s (One of the DJs was a brother of Michelle, a girl we knew in high school) played great music. After the call, I thought for a moment. That’s a gay club, [...]
The Weekend After Stumbling Upon the Spike & the Eagle’s Nest
Well, at fourteen years old in 1986 being from the Bronx. Getting ready to hit the town really didn’t take much at all. I mean, since my mother thought I was staying at my best friends mother’s apartment upstairs. There was no reason for me to leave all decked out and seem like I was going somewhere. So, I would bring whatever I was wearing that evening to my best friend’s apartment upstairs the afternoon before while my mother was at work. For the most part my best friend and I would hit the happening or “it” club at the time. Red Zone on fifty forth street, [...]
Excelsior M.C. – Our History
Excelsior M.C. began in 1975 when a group of four men, Terry McNulty, David Talbot, Rich Dicurci and Wally Wallace. Rich Dicurci & Wally Wallace shared a room on Fire Island where they spent “Leather Weekend,” sponsored by Cycle M.C. . The club members and GDI’s (Goddamn Independents) at this run people came from all over the United States and Europe, everyone was very friendly and outgoing. The original four members felt a kinship with these leather men and a special friendship evolved with one group in particular, Empire City M.C. . This biker club of contemporaries lent our founders a copy of [...]