What an Electrifying Past: 19­25 St. Marks Place In 1831, four buildings were built as townhouses for the wealthy at 19­ 25 St. Marks Place. Reflecting the changing demographics of the neighborhood in 1870, the buildings at 19 and 21 St. Marks Place were acquired by the Arion Society. The Arion Society was one of the lead­ ing German singing social organizations in the US from 1854 to 1918 and emerged in the East Village as it developed into Kleindeustch­ land, or Little Germany. When the Arion Society moved uptown in 1887, all three buildings were purchased by George Erhet and combined into community halls and ballrooms as Arlington Hall. Arlington Hall hosted everyone from Theodore Roosevelt, when he was a NYC Police Commissioner, to William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper publisher who built the nation’s largest newspaper chain. One of its most infamous incidents, however, occurred on January 6, 1914 when there was a mob shootout between Jewish mobsters led by Benjamin “Dope Benny” Fein and Italian gangster Jack Sirocco’s crew. This event took place in Arlington Hall and marked the beginning of the predom­ inance of the Italian American gangsters over the Jewish American gangsters. In 1920 the buildings were acquired by the Polish National Home a community meeting hall and restaurant. THE ELECTRIC CIRCUS By the 1960s, the bohemianism and nightlife previ­ ously associated with New York's Greenwich Village was growing in what would later be called the East Village. In 1966 artist Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey – who directed many of Warhol's films, and who became a sometime manager of the Velvet Underground – sublet the ballroom and turned it into a nightclub. The Velvet Underground was the house band, and their performances under Andy Warhol's influence were accompanied by many light effects with the added touches of projected movies and projected photographs, all going on at the same time. The experience was called the "Exploding Plastic Inevitable." Under new management it reopened as the Electric Circus, a chic bohemian nightclub that drew more than 3,000 people to its opening night, according to contemporary coverage in The Village Voice. As evidence of its “boho chicness,” the interior was designed to resemble a 1960s version of a Bedouin tent. Flame throwing jugglers and trapeze artists performed between musical sets, strobe lights flashed over a huge dance floor, and multiple projectors flashed images and footage from home movies. Seating was varied, with sofas provided. The Electric Circus became "New York's ultimate mixed­media pleasure dome, and its hallucinogenic light baths enthralled every sector of New York society." Its hedonistic atmosphere also influenced the later rise of disco culture and discotheques. Jam bands such as The Grateful Dead and avant­garde composers such as minimalist Terry Riley and elec­ tronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick, played at the club. Other bands played there before they were famous, such as Raven and "Soft White Underbelly" before it became known as Blue Öyster Cult, the All­ man Brothers Band, Sly & the Family Stone and The Chambers Brother. The Electric Circus fell victim to the increasingly radicalized activity centered in the East Village in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In March 1970, a bomb was set off in the middle of the dance floor, injuring dozens. Though unconfirmed the bombing was attributed to the Black Panther Party. The club never regained its chic reputation and closed in 1971. Upon closing, the building no longer functioned as a club or space for regular public performances, but the building was not significantly physically altered until 2003 when a major renovation eliminated the ballroom and converted the building into upscale apartments and retail space. TALES FROM THE LOCALS The Electric Circus was described as the East Village fuse box for Warhol's talents and those of his entourage, in particular the Velvet Un­ derground and Nico. The dazzling synthesis of psychedelica and glam­ our, of the Velvet's strange atmospheric music and Warhol's performance displays of lights and costumes, immediately attracted the scenesters to this odd little street "everyone from hippies to Tom Wolfe and George Plimpton" ­­ way before St. Marks would make its reputa­ tion in the 1970s with the punk scene." "What memories. I started working at the E.C. as a ticket taker. I say working, but in reality we didn't get paid, we got let in for our work. Like Woodstock, if you remembered much of what happened at the E.C. you weren't really there." "I'm so excited, after all these decades to hear from people who got to experience the the most amazing Electric Circus, as I did. By far dancing myself into a dazed, psychedelic trance, while absorbing the mag­ ical energy of the Chambers Brothers sing 'Time', was right up there in my top ten of life altering experi­ ences. I was a runaway, living with new friends in the Village. The big room was completely decorated with fabric amorphously draped on walls and spanning corners and cornices. Projectors behind the fabric ran continuous short loops of films. Of course it was dimly lit so as not to wash out the films. People were everywhere and moved mysteriously in the smoky dim light. I was born in Brooklyn and had already lived a few years in Manhattan, but I never saw anything like this before. The next time I saw EC the decor had changed. I never paid to get in because I was a member of the PABLO Light** show." An original ad from summer of 1967 A 1977 photo of CBGB, which oper- ated on the Bowery from 1973 to 2006 CBGB OMFUG Richard Hell wrote in the New York Times, CBGB "housed the most influential cluster of bands ever to have grown up ­ or to implicitly reject the concept of growing up ­ under one roof." The CBGB’s golden era began on March 31, 1974 with Television’s first gig. Television would later become CBGB’s Sunday night sta­ ple. The Ramones debuted on August 16 of the same year. Other important firsts during the club’s formative years include Blondie’s debut on January 17, 1975; The Patti Smith Group on February 14, 1975 and the Talking Heads first appearance, opening for The Ramones on June 8, 1975. The Police even made its first American ap­ pearances onstage at CBGB’s on October 20 and 21, 1978. Other regulars included The Dead Boys, The Dictators and The Heartbreakers. With the exception of the touring Police, these debuting bands became cornerstones of the scene, coming to make multiple appearances and building a rabid NYC, and beyond, following. The Ramones often played a set twice because it was so short, and Blondie was said to have appeared onstage every weekend for about seven months. Those were the halcyon days of CBGB’s, and those were the bands that truly formed the club’s legacy. The only rule was the acts were to play only original music –­ no covers, although The Ramones snuck them in occasionally (as did The Replacements) As the ’70s wound down, and CBGB’s entered the ’80s, the club shifted focus to hardcore punk. Sunday after­ noons were known as Matinee Day or Thrash Day, and bands such as Agnostic Frost, Cro­Mags and Warzone re­ placed the more classic punk sound of the ’70s counterparts. The hardcore scene tended to get out of control and violent at times, though, and in 1990, Kristal temporarily declined to book hardcore acts. A notable ’80s highlight were the Sonic Youth gigs for Daydream Nation, in 1988. Big names, such as Pearl Jam, Green Day and The White Stripes made appearances at the club in the last few years of its existence, but the club had lost some of its luster. In 2005, a dispute arose between CBGB’s and the Bowery Residents Committee, which claimed Kristal owed $91,000 in back rent. That was the beginning of the end for the gloriously loud and trashy mecca, which had played host to an estimated 50,000 bands. Despite several attempts to save the New York landmark, Patti Smith played the final concert ever at CBGB’s on October 15, 2006. Its doors closed forever, and several of its contents, such as a wooden phone booth and the outdoor awning, soon found a home in New York’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex. There was talk of Hilly Kristal salvaging whatever he could from the club and moving it however, after a battle withlung cancer, Kristal passed away less than a year later on August 27, 2007. THE HISTORY OF CBGB BY HILLY KRISTAL In 1998, Hilly Kristal, founder of CBGB, wrote a brief history of the club. Here it is in its unedited en­ tirety: Installment Vol. 1 The questions most asked of me is, "What does CBGB stand for?" I reply, "It stands for the kind of music I intended to have, but not the kind of music that we became famous for: COUNTRY BLUEGRASS BLUES." The next question is always, "but what does OMFUG stand for?" and I say, "That's more of what we do, it means OTHER MUSIC FOR UPLIFTING GOURMANDIZERS." And what is a gourmandizer? It's a vora­ cious eater of, in this case, MUSIC. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been asked those questions. A lot of people believe that OMFUG stands for something dirty, but the truth is, I felt that CBGB sounded so pat that I wanted something to go with it that sounded a little uncouth, or crude.