Tag Archives: after-hours

SANDWICH RUN by Peter Nolan Smith

New York nightclubs closed at 4am in 1979, however many people didn’t want to go home after Studio 54, the Mudd Club, Xenon or CBGBs. The Mafia ran the after-hour clubs like the Cisco Disco, the 82 Club and the Nursery on 3rd Avenue. Drinks were served with an undesirable degree of danger, so when […]

IN ABSENCE OF AMNESIA – Chapter 2 By Peter Nolan Smith

Two weeks after Labor Day the Continental opened its door without a liquor license. Limos lined West 25th Street well past dawn, as models, actresses, and strippers danced with abandon to the city’s best DJs. Movie stars snorted coke with two-bit dealers and national politicians seduced Amazonian TVs on pop-art sofas. Few revelers cared about […]

IN ABSENCE OF AMNESIA – Chapter 1 By Peter Nolan Smith

New York in the summer of 1981 was everything it hadn’t been in the winter of 1979. The temperature boiled the asphalt. Punk had been replaced by New Wave and somehow the city had escaped bankruptcy. Money flowed on the streets and even the East Village exhibited signs of regeneration, since abandoned tenements can only […]

Cops In The Good Old Days

Nightclub raconteur Steve Lewis wrote on Blackbook.com that the NYPD harassment of the nightclub GREENHOUSE appeared to be blatant racism. http://www.blackbookmag.com/racism-core-greenhouse-harassment/ That certainly seems to be the case. The police hate nightclubs, because they don’t get payoffs like the ‘good ole days’ unless they put pressure on the joint and then the ‘bagman’ comes to […]

The Arthur Of Light

Arthur Weinstein was a master of light. His gift transformed empty space into cathedrals of color. His miracles are entrenched in my memories of Hurrah, the Jefferson, Continental, and Milk Bar. Today is his birthday and anyone who was his friend will know how to celebrate his joyous life. Long live Arthur Weinstein.