From Popism: The Warhol Sixties:
In the spring, Stash, the son of Stanley from the Dom, called to say that he and the Dom bartender--a good-looking Irish guy, I remember--wanted to open a discotheque in a place he'd found uptown on E. 71st Street, a gymnasium, and that he wanted us to be involved--to revive the Exploding Plastic Inevitable there...The Gymnasium was the ultimate sixties place for me, because, as I said, we left it exactly as it was, with the mats, parallel bars, weights, straps, and barbells. You thought, "Gymnasium, right, wow, fantastic," and when you look again like that at something you've always taken for granted, you see it fresh, and it's a good Pop experience.
3/23/67 issue.
3/30/67 issue.
4/13 & 4/20/67 issues. There were a few other ads, but I only saw one that listed another band, the Eighth Wonders of the World.
Tompkins Square Park.
6/8/67 issue: The Grateful Dead.
7/13/67 issue: Richie Havens ad. I could have sworn I saw a little ad for the Fugs at the park too, but I can't find it now.
8/10/67 issue: Country Joe & the Fish.
3/9/67 and several other issues: Harvey Kramer's "Rock Flow," an attempted series of happenings at the Broadway Central Hotel (future home of the Mercer Arts Center). Richard Goldstein gave these a less-than-stellar review in his "Pop Eye" column on 3/23/67.
3/9/67 issue: Dance to "some of the best Go-Go music in town" at the Hotel Diplomat's Crystal Room.
These rock & roll dance class ads were in just about every issue--I wouldn't mind some proper instruction in the skate, the booga-loo, the shan-gra-la, and the frug today!
4/27/67 issue: "La Mod Boogaloo Extravaganza" at "Webster Manor"--I've never seen Webster Hall referred to as such anywhere else.
6/29/67 issue: A "Tigerdelic Blast" at Flatbush Terrace.
8/31/67 issue: The Infinite Poster on Bleecker Street sold not only Cafe au Go Go Posters, but also Fillmore and Avalon Ballroom posters "imported" from S.F.!!!
9/21/67 issue: Pretty freaking hilarious! The following week's issue had a full report.
10/12 & 10/26 issues: Donovan at Philharmonic Hall, Nov. 12. (I can't quite tell where Arlo Guthrie was at.) Richard Goldstein reviewed it and an earlier Aretha Franklin show at the Hall in the 11/16/67 issue.
10/12/67 issue: These guys took the Fugs' spot at the Players Theatre for a few weeks.
12/14/67 issue: From the "Scenes" column...I didn't realize the Night Owl had turned into a poster shop as early as '67.
12/28/67 issue: I can't recall ever hearing of this place prior to seeing its ads, which seemed to start running around the fall of '67. Other ads mentioned folks like Amanda Ambrose and the Chicago Loop.
Well, that about does it for this year. I could go on and on--I barely touched any film, theater, restaurant, or retail store ads, which are often even more of a hoot--but I think I've shown you an adequate sample. '68 is missing from the archive, so the next series will focus on 1969.
3 comments:
I and my friend Jim and our band were part of the "Flow" at the Broadway Central Hotel. We were students at the School of Visual Arts. Our band (Cougar and Dark's Shadow Show Blues Band) played for a set or two. Jim and I stayed up for about 30 hours, painting a giant mural in the ballroom.
What a trip THAT was.
Long time ago. Far away.
Thanks for elaborating a bit on these events--I appreciate it.
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