'We'd Found This Cave Out of Time': The New York Dolls Rock Club 82
- edgarstreetbooks
- Aug 8
- 3 min read
‘New York Rock & Roll History: The 1970s’ Book Excerpt
Frank Mastropolo
Club 82, “New York’s After-Dark Rendezvous,” opened in 1953 and soon gained notoriety for its elaborate stage shows performed by 35 female impersonators. Judy Garland, Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor, and Salvador Dali were among the glitterati in attendance.
Strippers, dancers, comedians, and singers, all men in drag, staged three shows nightly, seven days a week well into the 1960s, when the novelty wore off and the basement club’s popularity faded.
Club 82 had a revival in the 1970s as glam rockers like David Bowie climbed the charts. The New York Dolls, all in drag except for Johnny Thunders, played the club in 1974.
Punk and new wave bands like Television, Teenage Lust, and the Stilettos, featuring a pre-Blondie Debbie Harry, followed and the club enjoyed success for a few more years. Bowie and Lou Reed often dropped by.
“We couldn’t believe that we’d found this cave out of time that was just waiting for us,” said Miamis guitarist Tom Wynbrandt in Bedford+Bowery.
“And the fact that it used to have this dangerous drag history only made it that much more louche and desirable.”
As Club 82 looked for the next big thing to replace its drag extravaganzas, the New York Dolls revived the club’s fortunes. “We hung out there a lot during the early days of the Dolls,” wrote guitarist Sylvain Sylvain in There’s No Bones in Ice Cream.
“We’d never played there, though; nobody had. The only live entertainment they put on was drag shows. So when they invited us to do their Easter party, we jumped at it. This is what the New York Dolls were made for!”
“I was the manager of the New York Dolls and I was approached by the club because they were switching over to glam rock bands,” said Marty Thau in Bedford+Bowery.
“The drag crowd had moved on and the Club 82 never returned to the original format.
“Here was an opportunity to make a point by playing directly to that issue of ‘Were the Dolls transvestites, were they gay?’ Here they were, playing the Club 82, and it would be a big laugh for the audience in town that the Dolls, whom they knew were not gay, were playing the Club 82.
“The Dolls were led by David Johansen. He said, ‘Yeah, we’ll all go there dressed like women. Since they think we are gay, transvestites, let’s play to that.’ Johnny Thunders wouldn’t hear about it. He was a little bit too butch to put on a dress.”
“We shared the stage with the Dolls on that famous gig at the 82,” said guitarist Tom Wynbrandt of the Miamis.
“When the Dolls played there, they really inaugurated the place. It took tremendous swagger and attitude to pull it off, to dress like that and still seem like a rock god rather than a swish. You really needed stones to pull that off. And they had ‘em.”
“It was funky and dark,” said Thau. “The show was sold out and it was a hip audience that showed up. All the downtown hipsters and vintage clothes kids, all the trendy types. The buzz got out on that and they showed up en masse.
“It was a one-time shot at making the point that we’re too cool to be bothered by your lack of information. So we’ll hit you squarely between the eyes with this and maybe if you’re hip enough, you’ll get the point.”
Performances by rock bands ended by 1976 and the club was a disco bar until it closed in 1978.
Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones opened Woody’s in the Club 82 space in 1990. Woody’s billed itself as “New York City’s Next Premiere Rock ’n’ Roll Club and Art Gallery!”
Despite installing more soundproofing, noise violations issued by the city’s Environmental Protection Department sunk the club by 1991. “We were getting so many fines and violations it was inevitable,” a club spokeswoman told the New York Daily News.
Frank Mastropolo is the author of New York Rock & Roll History: The 1970s, part of the New York Rock History series. For more on our latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.
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