The Peppermint Lounge was a popular discotheque located at 128 West 45th Street in midtown Manhattan that was open from 1961 to 1965.
Original Peppermint Lounge
The Peppermint Lounge was owned by Genovese crime family capo Matthew Ianniello who controlled The Peppermint Lounge and many gay bars, strip clubs in Manhattan. The 128 West 45th Street property later was home to Ianniello's GG Barnum's Room -- opening on July 20, 1978 that became a popular meeting place for transexuals, drag queens and homosexuals. The "GG" was a reference to his beloved Gilded Grape located at 719 8th Avenue where he reportedly was fond of flirting with the young drag queens. After the closure of GG Barnum's Room, Ianniello turned the space again into The Peppermint Lounge but this time as a rock themed nightclub. He and several of his closest associates were convicted of a cash skimming operation. The Peppermint Lounge attracted many famous celebrities such as Jacqueline Kennedy in 1962 and The Beatles in 1964 (during their first U.S. visit). It is most notable for being the home base of Joey Dee and the Starliters who recorded their #1 hit "Peppermint Twist" at the venue in the early 1960s.
For years afterwards, The Twist dance craze was closely associated with the club. In the mid 1960s, the house band was The Wild Ones and also featured groups such as The Denos, a travelling road house band bringing soul music with a dance beat.
Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the Peppermint Lounge when women there began to get up on tables and dance the twist. [1]
The Peppermint Lounge closed when it lost its liquor license on December 28, 1965 [2]
G.G. Barnum's Room
A gay bar called G.G. Barnum’s Room that had go-go dancers that go-go danced on trapezes over a net above the dance floor opened in the same space at 128 West 45th St. in 1977 and continued until November 1980. [3]
Second Peppermint Lounge
In November 1980, a rock club (not a disco) called the Peppermint Lounge opened in the space where G.G. Barnum’s had been, the original Peppermint Lounge space. [4] The Peppermint Lounge moved downtown to 100 5th Ave. in 1982 and changed its name to the New Peppermint Lounge. It survived into the mid-1980s before closing down.
References
- ^ Video, The Twist (A film by Ron Mann) 1993
- ^ Peppermint Lounge Loses its Liquor License:
- ^ History of Gay Clubs in New York, with pictures of the outsides of the clubs:
- ^ History of Gay Clubs in New York, with pictures of the outsides of the clubs:
External links
Coordinates: 40°45′26″N, 73°59′0″W
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