Crisco Disco

408 West 15th Street | Chelsea | built 1950

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1970
The building houses the gay nightclub Crisco Disco
From the 1970s into the 1980s, the club at 408 West 15th Street is one of New York's premier gay discos. Its DJ booth is a giant mock vintage can of Crisco shortening, a nod to what the brand's name meant in gay slang. In 2015, critic Michael Musto lists it among the city's edgiest venues that will never be recaptured.
Source: Wikipedia
2015
Michael Musto lists Crisco Disco among the city's unrepeatable venues
In 2015 Michael Musto included Crisco Disco in a list of eight edgy New York venues that can never be recaptured. The club at 15th Street and 10th Avenue had a large DJ booth built to look like a giant vintage can of Crisco shortening.
“In 2015, Michael Musto listed Crisco Disco as one of the eight…”
Source: Wikipedia
2019
Elton John recalls being turned away from Crisco Disco with Divine
Elton John writes in his 2019 memoir, Me, that he and the drag performer Divine were once refused entry to Crisco Disco in the 1970s because they were dressed too outrageously. Bill Brewster's history of DJ culture says that at clubs such as this one, dancing took second place to sex.
“…he and the drag performer Divine were once denied entry to Crisco Disco because they were too outrageously dressed…”
Source: Wikipedia

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