Dorian Gray was a
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
in the 1980s and 1990s, located in
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
in
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. Founders Gerd Schüler and Michael Presinger opened the club on November 8, 1978, intending to offer events similar to those at
Studio 54
Studio 54 is a Broadway theater and a former disco nightclub at 254 West 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Operated by the Roundabout Theatre Company, Studio 54 has 1,006 seats on two levels. The theater was ...
in New York City. Dorian Gray was one of the largest nightclubs in Germany at that time. The design of the nightclub cost more than
DM 2.5 million and laid the cornerstone for the successful Airport club brand. The name of the club comes from
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
's novel ''
The Picture of Dorian Gray
''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical fiction, philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''Th ...
''.
Dorian Gray was, unusually for a nightclub, located in Hall C of the airport's Terminal 1 building. For this reason, the nightclub remained opened during early morning hours, while the rest of the airport remained closed.
Music
Up to 2,500 guests danced on three dancefloors (Runningman, Studio 54 and Chillout). In the late 1970s,
disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
,
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
, and from 1984 onwards, to
electronic dance music such as
EBM,
house
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
,
new wave and
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...
, and from 1992, urban music in the smaller section of the club were played.
Famous DJs who played at Dorian Gray were
Carl Cox
Carl Cox (born 29 July 1962) is a British house and techno club DJ, as well as radio DJ and record producer. He is based in Hove, Sussex, England.
Cox has won and been nominated for numerous awards. He has performed at numerous clubs and ele ...
,
Paul van Dyk
Matthias Paul (; born 16 December 1971), known professionally as Paul van Dyk () is a German DJ, record producer and musician. One of the first true renowned DJs, van Dyk was the first artist to receive a Grammy Award nomination in the newly a ...
,
Sven Väth
Sven Väth (born 26 October 1964) is a German DJ and electronic music producer. He is a three-time DJ Awards winner, and his career in electronic music spans over 30 years. The single "Electrica Salsa" with OFF launched his career in 1986. Referr ...
,
Torsten Fenslau
Torsten Fenslau (23 April 1964 — 6 November 1993) was a German disc jockey and music producer, and can be characterized as an important pioneer in the early Sound of Frankfurt.
Career
From 1982 to 1993, Fenslau served as a DJ at the nightclub D ...
,
Ulli Brenner Ulli may refer to:
* Pulkovo Airport (ICAO airport code ULLI)
* Cyclone Ulli
Cyclone Ulli (also named Cyclone Emil by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute) was an intense European windstorm. Forming on December 31, 2011 off the coast of ...
, Michael Münzing (one half of
Snap!
Snap! is a German Eurodance group formed in 1989 by Record producer, producers Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti. The act has been through a number of line-up changes over the years, including American singers, songwriters and rappers Thea A ...
),
DJ Dag
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...
, Talla 2XLC,
Tom Wax
Tom or TOM may refer to:
* Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name)
Characters
* Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head''
* Tom Beck, a character ...
,
Mark Spoon
Mark Spoon (27 November 1966 – 11 January 2006) was a disc jockey, musician and record producer from Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Together with Rolf Ellmer (Jam El Mar) he recorded under several monikers, including Jam & Spoon, Tokyo Ghetto Pus ...
,
Heinz Felber
The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six contin ...
,
DMS12,
Pete Marvelous,
Paul Oakenfold
Paul Mark Oakenfold (born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Mass ...
,
Pascal FEOS
Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name
* Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
** Blaise Pascal, Fre ...
,
Björn Mulik and
Andy Düx.
Tone and light effects
The nightclub had at the time a ''Richard-Long-Sound-System-Design'' which used large sound system speakers with a
JBL
JBL is an American audio equipment manufacturer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. JBL serves the customer home and professional market. The professional market includes studios, installed/tour/portable sound, cars, music ...
and Gauss-Alnico base sound system which produced loud and clear sound. The DJ equipment consisted of
Thorens
Thorens is a formerly Swiss manufacturer of high-end audio equipment. Thorens is historically renowned for the range of phonographs (turntables) the manufacturer produces. In addition to audio playback equipment, Thorens is also a historical man ...
and later from mid-1990s
Technics turntables.
The light system was made out of red, green and orange colours which were positioned to reflect the mirrors on the floor. Until the mid-1990s a strong laser show was used. One of the video jockeys was also
Alexander Metzger.
Closure
On 31 December 2000 the nightclub ceased operations in Frankfurt am Main, due to continuing problems in securing fire safety certification from the airport inspectorate. The last record that was played on the closure was "
Lovin' You
"Lovin' You" is a song recorded by American singer Minnie Riperton from her second studio album, ''Perfect Angel'' (1974). It was written by Riperton and Richard Rudolph, produced by Rudolph and Stevie Wonder, and released as the album's fourth s ...
" from musician
Minnie Riperton
Minnie Julia Riperton Rudolph (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979)
was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You" and her four octave D3 to F7 coloratura soprano range. She is also widely known for her use o ...
and was played by the resident DJ Ufuk in the small club. Several years after the closure of the nightclub, the painted entrance doors were still visible with the original image. In January 2008, the existing space in Hall C was renovated into a shopping area.
Miscellaneous
In early 2003, both original owners started a new nightclub in Berlin on
Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corne ...
, which, however, had to file for insolvency already in the following year due to rent debts.
The ''sister nightclub'' of Dorian Gray in Perkins Park in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
, which opened in 1980 with the similar idea of events still operates today. In the years 2006 to 2008, there were dedicated party events at year-end called ''Airport-Night'' in remembrance of the Dorian Gray days.
References
{{coord, 50.051094, N, 8.57416613, E, type:landmark_region:DE, display=title
Disco
Defunct nightclubs
Nightclubs in Frankfurt
Buildings and structures in Frankfurt
Electronic dance music venues
1978 establishments in Germany
Event venues established in 1978
2000 disestablishments in Germany