Powdered Sugar Instead of Booger Sugar

Limelight - the church-turned-notorious-nightclub-turned-urban-mall - will reportedly be getting a distinctly SUBurban tenant: IHOP. That sound you hear is a thousand aging Club Kids sobbing uncontrollably...

You can read my previous recollection of Limelight when it was a nightclub HERE.

Limelight: The Movie

During the 1980's, Canadian Peter Gatien moved to NYC and built a nightclub empire. But this empire started with one legendary club, the Limelight.

Limelight was an old, vacant, deconsecrated church that Gatien turned into the hottest and most decadent club since Studio 54. This was the club that launched the legendary Club Kids - and the cash that Limelight generated allowed Gatien to open other superclubs like Palladium, Tunnel and Club USA.

When I moved to NYC in the early 90's, it wasn't unheard of for my friends and I to spend 2-3 nights a week in a Peter Gatien-owned club: Wednesdays and/or Fridays at Limelight (AKA "Slimelight"), Saturdays at Tunnel, and Sundays at Club USA (later at Palladium). Those were the days.

And then the DEA came and ruined everything. Bastards.

As the owner of legendary hotspots like Limelight, Tunnel, Palladium and Club USA, Peter Gatien was the king of the New York club scene until years of legal battles led to his eventual deportation to Canada. This exuberant documentary charts Gatien's rise and fall against the transformation of New York City, offering a wild ride through a now-closed chapter in the history of NYC nightlife. From the director of "Cocaine Cowboys."

Gay NYC Nightlife Loses an Icon - Marc Berkley

NYC party promoter, HX Magazine founder, and gay nightlife ringmaster Marc Berkley said in 1993 - "A few years ago there were maybe 500 fabulous people in New York. Now, everyone thinks they’re fabulous." And he was right. Every time I sashayed up to the Limelight, Tunnel, Palladium, or Club USA and entered one of Marc's parties, I felt like the hottest biatch this side of Trenton.

It really saddened me to learn that "Ms. Berkley" (as he called himself), passed away on Fire Island yesterday of an apparent heart attack. He was only 56 years old. My strong reaction to the news was surprising until I thought about it ... In actuality, I moved to NYC to be a part of Marc Berkley's world.

In the early 90's, after graduating college and moving back home, I visited NYC often. The clubs were awesome but sometimes hard to find since venues, promoters, etc. changed constantly. And remember, there was no Internet - the only way to find out about future parties was via flyers, which were handed to you while leaving bars/clubs.

But party promoter Marc Berkley (and his partner Matthew Bank) had an ingenious idea. They would put together a black-and-white pamphlet which listed bars/clubs/sexay places - with emphasis on Marc's parties. This pamphlet, called "Homo Xtra", soon became HX Magazine ... New York's premiere "bar rag"...

HX was basically ALL the party flyers put together.  So when I visited the city the first thing I did was find a copy of HX and plan my itinerary.  Marc Berkely and Matthew Bank's little magazine showed me a world that seemed fun, edgy, and VERY gay - just the kind of place I wanted to be in. So eventually I packed my bags, left Central Pennsylvania, and moved to the Big City.

After arriving, my nightlife revolved around Marc's parties - Limelight was on Wednesdays ("Lick-It") and Fridays ("Heaven"), and later there was Saturdays at the Tunnel, and Sundays at Club USA (my all-time favorite club/party) and then Palladium. If you got on Marc's mailing list, you were issued a "Fagtag" which got you reduced or comped admission to all these parties. And for a country mouse like me, it was like a VIP ticket to superstardom...

But, as all things do, gay nightlife changed - and we heard less and less about Ms. Berkley.  He promoted parties here and there - but finally sold his stake in HX before the magazine closed completely.  And over the past few years I hadn't read or heard a thing about him (go to a great article HERE which fills in some blanks).

Berkley was attending a friend's birthday party on Fire Island this weekend and complained of stomach pain on Friday night before going to bed.  He died peacefully in his sleep and was found by his friends on Saturday morning.

RIP Ms. Berkley.  When it's my time to go, will bringing my Fagtag to Heaven help me get in?  I bet it will ...

Afternoon Techno Break - James Brown Is Dead

As I've written BEFORE, the old Limelight club (above) hasn't been open in years (they're turning it into a mini-mall) - but I can still remember some of the music they played there.  Limelight's larger main dance floor ("The Sanctuary") was always the "straight" (or straightish) area of the club - and they LOVED their techno music on that side.  I swear, EVERY SINGLE TIME I ventured out from the gay rooms ("The Chapel" and/or "The Library") and went to the main dance floor, THIS song was spinning...

Manhattan's Gay Bar Graveyard

Next Magazine did a piece this week on all the Manhattan gay hotspots (and not-so-hotspots) which closed during the past 10 years.  Many of these shuttered bars/clubs were places I hung out - especially when I first moved to NYC in the 90's (Limelight, Roxy, Tunnel, etc.).  If those walls could talk...

But the one name which really hit home was Stella's (circled in red).  I have mentioned that bar many times, because it was simply a great place to hang out.  Not only was I friends with the owner, the staff, and half the customers - I became very "close" to some of the dancers as well.  EXTREMELY close.    :)

Good times...

Thanks to Kayce.

Notorious Limelight Nightclub Becomes A Mall

This story makes me so incredibly sad and makes me feel so incredibly old. One of the reasons I moved to NYC in the early 90's was because there were places like the notorious Limelight night club. Or, as we affectionately called it back in the day, "The Slimelight".

Waiting to get in

The Limelight was opened in a deconsecrated Episcopal church in 1983 by nightclub impresario Peter Gatien. My fascination with the club began in college, when I would read Michael Musto's column in the Village Voice to find about the infamous "Club Kids", who ran amok in NYC clubland at the time. The Club Kids fascinated me, and although I didn't fancy wearing eye makeup and outrageous costumes myself, I loved how they were able to manufacture a certain level of celebrity out of nothing. Basically they got dressed up, went out to clubs, got drunk and high, and acted nuts - and for this, some of them were quite well-known.

Club Kids at the Limelight

So, on my many visits to NYC before I moved here, I always went to the Limelight. Wednesdays ("Lick It") and Fridays ("Heaven") were the best nights to go, because half the club was strictly gay, and the other half was mixed. The cool thing was that us gay boys could go anywhere in the club, but straight guys (and many girls) weren't allowed into the gay party. We even had our own entrance, and it felt very "VIP".

I moved to NYC in November of 1993, and I spent my very first Thanksgiving Eve (Lick It Wednesday) at the Limelight. I arrived at the club early (before the cover charge kicked in - I was broke) and I found myself in "The Chapel" (the gay dance floor) in the middle of a Thanksgiving feast - WITH THE CLUB KIDS! I don't know who threw the party, or quite how I managed to get in, but it was fantastic. They had put out a serious buffet - complete with Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, and all the traditional trimmings - served on china (not paper plates). It was the only Thanksgiving turkey I had that year.

The meal was most likely provided by Peter Gatien to show his love for the Club Kids by giving them a decent holiday meal. After all, most of these kids didn't have much money - like me they were fabulous but poor. And it would make sense for Gatien to thank them, because many of us came to Limelight just to be near these outrageous characters.

On the dance floor of the Limelight

After a while, many of the Club Kids got out of control with drugs - and The Slimelight became well-known as a place where you could buy Ecstasy, Cocaine, Special K, and pretty much any other drug you wanted. And drug use was quite out in the open - most people didn't even bother to take it to a bathroom stall. This drug-fueled madness culminated in the killing of drug dealer Angel Melendez (who I remember from Limelight - he really did wear wings) by Club Kid King Michael Alig back at Alig's apartment. This was the story portrayed in that horrible movie, Party Monster.

Sex was pretty much out in the open also. I saw guys having sex on couches beside the dance floor, I saw a sex show performed in a small room on a single bed, and at one point there was a room full of bunk beds for anyone to use. But, most famously, there was "The Lick-It Lounge" - the dark room down a long ominous hallway where boys "got to know each other". Or so I've been told...

For a blond party-boy from Pennsylvania in his mid-twenties, the Limelight was pretty much the absolute greatest thing ever invented. However, open drug use and rampant sex don't get overlooked forever - especially when Rudy Giuliani runs your city. So NYC finally shut the Limelight down, and the Feds deported Peter Gatien back to his native Canada for tax evasion. The party was over.

After a unsuccessful stint as a club called "Avalon", the Limelight stood vacant for years. However, they have recently opened the main dance floor for use as a space for Sample Sales...

And now, according to recent media reports, the Limelight will be turned into a mall. And even though clubbing isn't my thing anymore, the idea of that fabulous space featuring racks of "Juicy Couture" makes me incredibly sad.