Outside was a mob scene, crowds pushing and shoving to get in. I don’t want to go in if these are what the people are like outside, I thought. I mean, if you couldn’t stand the people on the street, why would you want to be trapped indoors with them? So I did not go to the opening night, but I did go the next night and a few other times. This was the first time in New York when people gathered around the entrance to a club waiting to be given permission to come in. You went in and it was kind of shabby. There was a long mirrored hallway like an old movie theater (the place had been a television broadcasting studio), then a coat check to one side, and off to the other side were circular bars with very sweaty half-naked bartenders. There was always someone giving you a “free drink ticket.” I don’t remember ever having to buy a drink there. All the half-naked bartenders were very young, and for many people getting in that club meant entering an oasis of acceptance, something hard to understand now.
