Paradise Garage Stories

   An enormous amount of material has been written about the Paradise Garage over the years, some of it true, some of it not true. This section contains a mix of my personal ideas about the Garage, and the ideas from other people more eloquent than I.
   This page is going to be the hardest and most incomplete of all the pages on this site. This is the section that I want to bring stories of the Garage to you from my fellow co - workers. So as they submit the material to me I will add it here for you to read.
   As more information is added to this page and more Garage employees surface with stories, I may change the formatting of this document to be more interactive, we'll have to see. . . . for now I will just post a date in the white text boxes when a new post has been added.

This section is small but growing . . . and as the title suggests . . . . . , this is the story section.
Once I get some of the staff members to loosen up and spill their guts, we will add some of stories here. Hopefully I can get them to tell all of the sorted details of things that went down at the club, but for right now, cute cuddle events will just have to do. Also . . on the other hand, if one of our guest logs into the forum with a story that is juicy eneough, it just could end up here.

Paradise Garage 101

   The Paradise Garage was located at 84 King Street in New York City and was open from 1977 to 1987. Although the concept of the club started a year earlier 1976 in a space on Read Street , the more well-known version of the Garage didn't take hold until 1980. The Paradise Garage was constructed on the second and third floors of a parking garage belonging to Bell Telephone, giving the club it's name "Paradise Garage".

   The Garage was membership based, meaning unless you were lucky enough to have a membership card you were not able to get in. The Garage started as a gay only nightclub, but because of popular demand and financial proliferation, it soon opened its membership to hetero crowds. Thus Friday nights became "Straight Night" and Saturday night catered to it original core community. Sundays and special holidays saw a mixing of the life-styles, which was my favorite gathering. It was a chance to experience a really energized and eclectic party, something that was not to be missed.

    The story of the Paradise Garage could not be told without telling the story of Larry Levan. Larry was the Quintessential DJ of the 20th century without argument. You can read about him on any Google search, but I am going to send you HERE. It was because of Larry that the Garage was able to boast a lot of extras that was unheard of for nightclubs up to this point. The Garage had its own record label called "Garage Records", it had a house band, "The Peachboys", and the Garage even won Billboard Awards for best sound system several years in a row.

This next section originally from Carl's Garage and House Website

"After 11 years, as the best disco in town, the Paradise Garage will throw its final party on the September 26th, 1987. Owner Michael Brody says the club at 84 King Street, New York will close because protests from the Soho community kept his lease from being renewed. "They don't want a black club in their neighborhood," says Brody But the relationship between the members-only club and its patrons was an unusually peaceful one. People didn't come to network or get laid. Booze wasn't sold, drug use was discrete; the Paradise Garage was a place to dance. From midnight until 10 a.m. every Friday and Saturday you could shake your butt and not get harrassed by chemically-altered assholes. To the Blacks, Latins, and Gays, who went there each weekend, the Garage was more than sanctuary. It was church."

Ok . . . here is a story for you. . . . .
One Friday night, David DePino was rockin the dancefloor, Peter Munoz had come into the booth to do the lights, so I left and went down to the front door to hang out with Noel for a bit. When I got to the fornt door, Noel had asked me if I ever heard of someone named "Hamberger". I didn't understand the question at first so he repeated it "Did you ever hear of someone named Hamberger or something like that"
I told him no . . and truely I couldn't think of anyone I knew by this name . . .
Noel said "Hamberger said he was some sort of musician and was in town to do a show"
So it started me to think who the heck was this guy . . . Hamberger? . . . Hamberger? . . . Hmmm and then it dawned on me . . . Meatloaf?
I asked Noel if that was the name . . . Noel says "Yesy . . . that was his name Meatloaf . . Hamberger same thing . . . " I was totally psyched that meatloaf was in the house . . . I was seriously into 80's rock and roll in those days so meeting Meatloaf would have been awesome.
I looked at Noel and said "Well did he come in? . . . . were did he go? "
Noel looks at me and goes "Well, . . I didn't let him in because I didn't know who he was!" . . . . . . . . . . . . . D'Oh!

Posted By Ralph Curtis: Sept 10th 2006

" Here is a fun fact about the dance floor, there was sand underneath the hardwood floors that served as a sound deadener. and If I am not mistaken, the bass cabinet is called a Bertha, the Levan portion is the extension/mouth that sits in front of it, Larry's own designed, trademarked, I think. The Bertha's can be found in many clubs but few have the Levan extension. "
"Larry had named the sound system Zookie as he believed it had a life of its own. I was the one with him with the wires were cut from the amplifiers days after the club had closed, he actually asked me to do it. He told me that day that Zookie would never be able to be played anywhere else."

Posted By Michael R Sampson: July 10th 2005

When the Paradise Garage closed, I had gone over to "The Saint" to apply for a position, the manager asked me what would it take to give the Saint the same sort of vibe that the Garage had, (as if that were possible), "What would it take to make us like the Garage" I told him he would have to fire his staff and hire all of us because that was the only way he would even come close to the energy and charisma of the Garage. The Garage was not about any one of us it was about all of us. It was the feeling you got as you climbed the steps of the subway on Houston. It was the way you felt when you saw Noel smiling at the front door and greeted you as you entered. It was the way you felt as you climbed the ramp and Eduardo smiled at you as he took your ticket. It was the way you could trust steve and Juan to keep an eye on your things in the coatroom without you having to worrying. It was the at home feeling you got when you entered that door because Hector Matta made sure that the club was spotlessly cleaned and the floors were buffed and polished. It was the way Kenny kept food and drink out for you. It was the way the security guys kept us all safe, and we didn't even know they were around. It was the way Patrick kept the designs fresh and interesting for us every week. And it was Larry and David who made us Party and forget our troubles, if only for that evening. That is what the Garage was about."
"I never got that Job at the Saint.. I wonder why!"

Posted By Ralph Curtis: February 1st 2005