The Peppermint Lounge was a popular
discotheque
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 ...
located at 128 West 45th Street in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
that was open from 1958 to 1965, although a new one was opened in 1980. It was the launchpad for the global
Twist
Twist may refer to:
In arts and entertainment Film, television, and stage
* ''Twist'' (2003 film), a 2003 independent film loosely based on Charles Dickens's novel ''Oliver Twist''
* ''Twist'' (2021 film), a 2021 modern rendition of ''Olive ...
craze in the early 1960s. Many claim The Peppermint Lounge was also where
go-go dancing
Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was take ...
originated, although this claim is subject to dispute.
Original Peppermint Lounge
The Peppermint Lounge opened in 1958 at 128 West 45th Street in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. It had a lengthy mahogany bar running along one side, many mirrors and a dance floor at the back, a capacity of just 178 people, and a
gay clientele.
As the Twist craze hit in 1960–1961, celebrities swarmed into the Peppermint Lounge –
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...
,
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
,
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
,
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
,
Liberace
Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordi ...
,
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
,
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
,
Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
,
Annette Funicello
Annette Joanne Funicello (October 22, 1942 – April 8, 2013) was an American actress and singer. Funicello began her professional career as a child performer at the age of twelve. She was one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the orig ...
, even the elusive
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...
– to dance to the house band,
Joey Dee and the Starliters
Joey Dee and the Starliters (also credited as Joey Dee and the Starlighters) is an American popular music group. The group is best known for their million-selling recording "Peppermint Twist" (1961).
The group's most notable lineup is considere ...
.
Jackie Kennedy
Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A pop ...
was such an enthusiast that she arranged for a temporary "Peppermint Lounge" to be mounted in the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
. One such event even took place at a meeting of the austere
Council of the Organization of American States.
A sister club was opened in
Miami Beach
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...
. The proprietor Ralph Saggese appeared as a contestant on ''
What's My Line?
''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...
'' in 1961.
During 1961,
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
filmed the movie ''
Hey, Let's Twist!
''Hey, Let's Twist!'' is a 1961 American musical film directed by Greg Garrison and written by Hal Hackady. The film stars Joey Dee, Jo Ann Campbell, Teddy Randazzo, Kay Armen, Zohra Lampert and Dino Di Luca. The film was released on Decembe ...
'', a fictional story of Dee and the Peppermint Lounge starring
Jo Ann Campbell
Jo Ann Campbell (born July 20, 1938 in Jacksonville, Florida) is an American singer who was one of the pioneers of rockabilly.
Campbell began attending music school at the age of four, and won many honors as a drum majorette at Fletcher High S ...
and
Teddy Randazzo
Alessandro Carmelo "Teddy" Randazzo (May 13, 1935 – November 21, 2003) was an American pop songwriter, singer, arranger and producer, who composed hit songs such as "Goin' Out of My Head", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle", "Pretty Blue Eyes", ...
. At the end of the year, the Starliters' "
Peppermint Twist
"Peppermint Twist" is a song written by Joey Dee and Henry Glover, recorded and released by Joey Dee and the Starliters in 1961. Capitalizing on the Twist dance craze and the nightclub in which Dee performed ("The Peppermint Lounge"), the song ...
" became a hit, spending three weeks at No. 1 in January 1962. This brought the club wide recognition, reinforced later in the year by
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an American singer and songwriter. Considered to be a pioneer and one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred ...
's "
Twistin' the Night Away
"Twistin' the Night Away" is a song written and recorded by Sam Cooke. It was recorded on 18 December 1961 and released as a single in 1962. It became very popular, charting in the top ten of both the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 (#9) and Billboard's R ...
" which, while not mentioning the club by name, was about "a place/Somewhere up a New York way/Where the people are so gay". The movie and soundtrack album also did their part in making the Peppermint Lounge a world-famous venue. Successful singles spawned from ''Hey, Let's Twist!'' were the title track and "
Shout – Part I". Other albums released during this time were ''Doin' the Twist at the Peppermint Lounge'', which was recorded live at the venue, and ''All the World's Twistin' with Joey Dee & the Starliters''.
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
were filmed visiting the club during their first U.S. visit in 1964.
Artists who performed at the Peppermint Lounge include
the Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...
,
the Ronettes
The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. The ...
(who made their professional debut here in 1961),
the Crystals
The Crystals are an American vocal group that originated in New York City. Considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era in the first half of the 1960s, their 1961–1964 chart hits – including " There's No Other (Like My Baby)", ...
,
the Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers ( ) are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decades, ...
,
Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker (born Ernest Evans; October 3, 1941) is an American rock and roll singer and dancer. He is widely known for popularizing many dance styles, including The Twist dance style, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard & The Midnighte ...
,
the Younger Brothers
''The Younger Brothers'' is a 1949 American Western film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Wayne Morris, Bruce Bennett, Janis Paige.
Plot
Determined to reform from their outlaw ways, Cole, Jim and Bob Younger ride to Cedar Creek, Minnesot ...
,
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli ( ; born March 12, 1946) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and choreographer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli is among a rare group of performers awarded an Emmy, Grammy ...
and
the Four Seasons. In the mid‑1960s, the house band was
the Wild Ones. The Denos, a traveling roadhouse band, were another featured act. Members of the Starliters later went on to form the
Young Rascals
Young may refer to:
* Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents
* Youth, the time of life when one is young, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood
Music
* The Young, an American roc ...
.
Both the NYC and Miami clubs were sold in 1965. The New York club was run by
Genovese crime family
The Genovese crime family, () also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American M ...
captain
Matty "The Horse" Ianniello, who managed numerous gay bars and strip clubs in Manhattan. It closed when it lost its liquor license on December 28, 1965.
Hollywood
The 128 West 45th Street venue reopened as a gay bar called "Hollywood", most notable for the 1970s DJ residency of
Richie Kaczor
Richie Kaczor (9 December 1952 – April 1993) was an early DJ during disco's infancy in the 1970s.
His DJ career began in New Jersey, Kaczor played at clubs in New York City and surrounding states before being asked by nightclub owners Steve ...
, who went on to great success at
Studio 54.
G. G. Barnum's Room
The 45th Street space reopened as G. G. Barnum's Room on July 20, 1978, and continued until November 1980.
[History of Gay Clubs in New York, with pictures of the outsides of the clubs:](_blank)
/ref> Male go-go dancers
Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was taken ...
performed on trapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a ceiling support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances. Trapeze acts may be static, spinning (rigged from a single point), swinging or flying, an ...
s over a net above the dance floor. G. G. Barnum's Room was a popular meeting place for transsexual
Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignment ...
s, drag queen
A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...
s and homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
s. The "G.G." was a reference to the Ianniello-owned Gilded Grape located at 719 8th Avenue, a notorious gay bar which operated from the early 1970s until 1977.
Second Peppermint Lounge
In November 1980, after G. G. Barnum's closed, the Peppermint Lounge name was revived for a new music night club sparked by Rudolf Pieper and Jim Fouratt and run by Frank Roccio and Tom Goodkind. The DJ was David Azarc. The club featured top international music acts from both alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
and the burgeoning hip hop scenes. Some of the regular featured acts were the Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2006. Their lineup rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy the only ever-present members. T ...
, X, the Raybeats
The Raybeats were an American instrumental neo-surf rock combo from New York City that arose from the No Wave musical scene. The original line-up consisted of Don Christensen (drums), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Irwin (guitar, saxophone, Acetone o ...
, the Go-Gos
The Go-Go's are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Belinda ...
, Duran Duran
Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...
, Marshall Crenshaw
Marshall Howard Crenshaw (born November 11, 1953) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for hit songs such as " Someday, Someway," a US top 40 hit in 1982, " Cynical Girl," and "Whenever You're on My Mind." He i ...
, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were an American hip hop group formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1978. The group's members were Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Kidd Creole (not to be confused with Kid Creole), Keef Cowboy, Sc ...
, Big Country
Big Country are a Scottish rock band formed in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1981.
The height of the band's popularity was in the early to mid 1980s, although it has retained a cult following for many years since. The band's music incorporated Scot ...
, Billy Idol
William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is a British-American singer, songwriter, and musician. He first achieved fame in the 1970s emerging from the London punk rock scene as the lead singer o ...
, Afrika Bambaataa
Lance Taylor (born on April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenc ...
, the Bangles
The Bangles are an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1981. The band recorded several singles that reached the U.S. top 10 during the 1980s, including "Manic Monday" (1986), "Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986), " Hazy Shade ...
, the Waitresses
The Waitresses were an American new wave band from Akron, Ohio, best known for their singles " I Know What Boys Like" and "Christmas Wrapping." They released two albums, ''Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?'' and ''Bruiseology'', and two EPs, '' I Coul ...
and Joan Jett
Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin, September 22, 1958) is an American singer, guitarist, record producer, and actress. Jett is best known for her work as the frontwoman of her band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and for earlier founding and per ...
. VIP guests such as Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
and David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
added to the club's cachet. In March 1981, Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up i ...
visited the club in one of her first public appearances after the death of John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
, personally delivering a copy of their last single, "Walking on Thin Ice
"Walking on Thin Ice" is a song by Yoko Ono, released in 1981. She and John Lennon concluded the recording of the song on December 8, 1980. It was upon their return from the recording studio to The Dakota (their home in New York City) that Lenn ...
".
In 1982, the Peppermint Lounge moved downtown to 100 5th Avenue. It closed in 1985. The building at 128 West 45th Street was torn down in the mid-1980s.
Racketeering case
In 1986, Judge Edward Weinfeld
Edward Weinfeld (May 14, 1901 – January 17, 1988) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Education and career
Born on May 14, 1901, in New York City, New York, Weinfeld r ...
sentenced Ianniello to six years in prison on a racketeering
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.
Originally and of ...
charge that involved skimming over $2 million from bars and restaurants (including Umberto's Clam House, the Peppermint Lounge and a topless bar
A strip club is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease or other erotic or exotic dances. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, and can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style. Am ...
called the Mardi Gras, all in Manhattan) secretly owned by Ianniello, his business partner Benjamin Cohen and seven associates.
References
External links
Iggy Pop plays the Peppermint Lounge
– 1982 East Village Other ad
{{Coord, 40, 45, 26, N, 73, 59, 0, W, type:landmark_region:US, display=title
Defunct drinking establishments in Manhattan
Nightclubs in Manhattan
Defunct nightclubs in New York (state)
1958 establishments in New York City
1965 disestablishments in New York (state)
Midtown Manhattan