The Dance Floor and the Booth: A Glance Back at Club Life (Part One)

By Will Seagers

Hi folks! Will here! So many times as I set out to write these blogs, I feel that I have hit a bit of a wall in terms of finding worthy and interesting material. That was the case today until out of the blue I started to think about bars and dance clubs that have given me so many great memories.

Starting at the beginning, my long time buddy Michael from my home state of New Jersey and I worked our way into a local Asbury Park bar called Danny's Golden Dragon, both at the tender age of 18. The legal age to enter was 21. But, depending on who was the doorman, we would ply our charms at the door and (as promised) after the bar closed. Tee hee hee! That year would be 1969. This was a rather large bar with a dance floor at the end of which was a Seeburg Jukebox. This was in the era before mixed music from a Disc Jockey even was a thought. The dancing was simple and everyone flooded the floor when tunes from The Supremes, Marvin Gaye and the like would come on said jukebox. At this age, I had never danced before. But, I had a lot of wonderful tutors who were eager to show me... wink.

That Asbury Park venue was soon followed by another just down the street - the M&K. It started off as a tavern with lots of sexy locals. The owner expanded the place and added a back room just for dancing - Asbury's first discotheque! At the end of its raised and colorfully under-lit dance floor was the first DJ Booth that I had ever encountered. John, the DJ, at first played very much like a juke box - no mixing to speak of. And, with really popular tunes, he would play a song over again! Soon slip-cuing and blending followed. The crowd really took to his performances.

I can't leave my Jersey Shore roots without mentioning the El Moroccan Room, also in Asbury Park. The music was a cut above all the other local places. There was a reason. The disc jockey was Richie Kaczor who went on to be one of the lead disc jockeys at Studio 54 in New York. Most of the music that he played I still have in my record collection to this date.

Moving ahead a couple of years, I was living in Jersey City - right across the Hudson River from New York City! Things had already kicked into high gear with a lot of the bars and clubs in the Village in terms of DJs replacing the jukeboxes. But, a totally new thing was springing up all over lower Manhattan - private loft style clubs.

My first experience was going to one of these "clubs" with a dear friend of mine named Mark. The club was the Gay Activist Alliance's home base called The Firehouse. Every Saturday night a private party was thrown in its authentic and vacated four floor fire house on Wooster St. in the SoHo area. The music was amazing and like nothing I had ever heard before. Barry Lederer was the first actual mixing DJ that I had ever had the pleasure of listening and dancing to. I would go to the level above where he played just to watch him. He worked with two RCA 45 RPM spindle type turntables and toggled between them without a mixer. His sense of taste and timing were incredible. He went on with his lover Peter to form Graebar Sound. This company's sound systems graced many clubs in many cities such as Trocadero and Dreamland in S.F. and The Saint in N.Y. just to name a few. Oh, and BTW, Mark became the legendary light man of The Saint!

As a dancing reveler in San Juan, P.R. I cannot leave out The Abbey in Old San Juan. While living and working in P.R. I spent almost every Saturday night enjoying local and N.Y. DJs in this quaintly converted chapel. It was the early 70s in the golden age of aviation. Every winter weekend, NYC flew down to San Juan to party.

Moving right along, living in Manhattan gave me a wealth of clubs to visit, as well. But, the one that conjurs up the best memory was The Loft. This was a weekly event held at the private loft of David Mancuso. His sound system was extraordinary - Klipsche speakers and Mark Levinson electronics. David chose not to use a mixer. The ones available at that time did not have the sonic quality to fit into is demanding taste. Nonetheless, he seamlessly stitched together legendary nights of music for his revelers!

Jumping around chronologically, I need to mention other New York paradigms of entertainment. 12 West, Le Jardin, and of course Flamingo. Although all of them were wonderful clubs, Flamingo holds more memories for me than about any other club. As a wintering ground for the Fire Island 500, this very private club sported not only a great dance floor, incomparable DJs, but also a central gallery just before the dance floor representing art from the very members themselves. Fresh fruit, snacks and non-alcholocic beverages were adjacent to the gallery area. It was truly a club paradise!

While working on Fire Island in the pines during the years of '76, '77 and '78, my "neighborhood bars" included The Sandpiper with Robbie Leslie at the wheels of steel and Cherry Grove's Ice Palace where a plethora of top Manhattan DJs would play. Permanently etched in my memory is a night I will never forget in 1975. Just prior to my working there, my friend Roger and I along with the frenzied party goers at the Ice Palace literally collapsed one end of the dance floor! Keep in mind, this was in Fire Island where many buildings were elevated on piles. The DJ politely stopped the music "congratulated" the dancers and relocated the crowd to another part of that same dance floor to continue their night! Now, that's what I call a party!

I'll be back with more!

Bio of Will Seagers:

Will Seagers (also credited as Matt Harper), within his multifaceted careers and participation in numerous gay communities across the country in the '70s and '80s and beyond, worked as a print model, film performer, and DJ, just to name a few. He made iconic appearances in releases from Falcon, Hand in Hand, Joe Gage, Target (Bullet), J. Brian, Steve Scott, and more, including in lead roles in major classics like Gage's L.A. Tool & Die (1979) and Scott's Wanted (1980). He brought strong screen presence and exceptional acting to his roles and was scene partners with many fellow legends of classic porn.

Will Seagers, recent photo