The Limelight
40°44′28″N 73°59′38″W / 40.741114°N 73.993832°W
The Limelight is the name of a string of different nightclubs that were owned and operated by Peter Gatien, located in Atlanta, Chicago, Hollywood, Florida, and London, and formerly in New York City.
History
Peter Gatien opened the first Limelight nightclub in Hollywood, Florida in the 1970s. When it burned to the ground in the late 70s, Gatien turned to Atlanta for his next incarnation of Limelight. The Limelight there opened in February 1980. It was housed in a strip mall in the former home of the Harlequin Dinner Theatre. In 1983, Gatien relocated to New York to open another Limelight club, and his brother Maurice was given the reins of the Atlanta club. Maurice reportedly had less talent for running a nightclub than Peter did. "Peter was the brains behind the operation," according to house photographer and publicist Guy D'Alema. "Maurice ... didn't want to spend a dime and didn't have a creative bone in his body."[1] The Atlanta club was located next to a 24-hour Kroger grocery store, which became known, affectionately, as "Disco Kroger."[2]
The Limelight in Chicago was housed in the former home of the Chicago Historical Society, the building itself being a historical structure. While short-lived as a club under the Limelight moniker, it exists to this day as a nightclub; presently it is the location of both Excalibur and Vision nightclubs. The Limelight in London was located in a former Welsh Presbyterian church that dates from the 1890s on Shaftesbury Avenue, just off Cambridge Circus. The London club's decline in popularity led to its closure and takeover in 2003 by Australian pub chain The Walkabout, who converted it into a sports bar.
The Limelight in New York City, which was owned by Peter Gatien and designed by Ari Bahat opened in November 1983 in the former Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion, a Gothic Revival brownstone building which was built in 1844-1845 as designed by architect Richard Upjohn. When the parish merged with two others, the church was deconsecrated and sold to Odyssey House, a drug rehabilitation program, in the early 1970s, and they in turn, facing a fiscal crisis, sold it to Gatien in 1982.[3] Located on the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) at West 20th Street, the neigborhood around the club was, at the time, a virtually abandoned corner of Manhattan's Chelsea district, but had once been a fashionable residential neighborhood, and then, by the late 19th century, part of the elegant "Ladies' Mile" shopping district. Today, it is considered to be on the western reaches of the Flatiron District.
The New York Limelight originally started as a disco and rock music club. In the 1990s, it became a prominent place to hear techno, goth, and industrial music, and to obtain recreational drugs. It earned the media's attention in 1996 when club and party promoter Michael Alig was arrested and later convicted for the killing and dismemberment of Angel Melendez, a resident drug dealer at the club. The 2003 film Party Monster, starring Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green, was based on this event. The Limelight was closed by the police, but subsequently reopened several times during the 1990s. In September 2003, it reopened under the name "Avalon," however it closed its doors for good in 2007.[4]
Present
On May 7, 2010, the site of the former New York City Limelight club reopened its doors as a retail mall called the Limelight Marketplace. Conceived by Jack Menashe, who formerly owned SoHo retail store Lounge, James Mansour of Mansour Design, and Melisca Klisanin, Creative Director, the marketplace is a three-story venue consisting of more than 60 small, high-end shops, selling jewelry, clothing, organic goods and other items.[5] It was promoted with a campaign which utilized advertisements on local buses, taxicabs, and billboards.[6][7]
In popular culture
- The New York location was the subject of the 1985 song "This Disco (Used to be a Cute Cathedral)" by contemporary Christian music singer Steve Taylor. The song's lyrics mention's the club's name and history. Originally released on Taylor's On The Fritz album, a live version of the song appears on his album, Limelight.[8]
- The club was also mentioned in The Horrorist's track "One Night in New York City" and used as a shooting location for Basic Instinct.
References
- Notes
- ^ Ghosts of hotspots past from atlanta.creativeloafing.com, April 23, 2003
- ^ Turn off the mirror ball: 'Disco Kroger' getting makeover from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 1, 2008
- ^ Mendelsohn, Joyce (1998), Touring the Flatiron: Walks in Four Historic Neighborhoods, New York: New York Landmarks Conservancy, ISBN 0-964-7061-2-1, OCLC 40227695
- ^ Holy Headache! Finding Limelight’s Next Act from The New York Observer 24 February 2009
- ^ http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/item_rGeFxAjleHPhjZSMvsp1QP
- ^ "Limelight Marketplace Opens in New York".
- ^ Zagat Buzz: Limelight Marketplace: Grimaldi's Pizza by the Slice, Cupcakes and More, May 5, 2010
- ^ Lyrics: This Disco (Used To Be A Cute Cathedral) from www.onfritz.com]
- Bibliography
- Frank Owen, 2003 Clubland: The Fabulous Rise and Murderous Fall of Club Culture, St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-28766-6 (UK title Clubland Confidential, Ebury Press)
- Review of Frank Owen's, Clubland Confidential in the UK Guardian
External links
