One of the most notorious and fun gay after-hours nightspots in New York City of the 1970s and 1980s was THE ANVIL located at 500 W. 14th Street.
Built-in 1908 by the Conner Brothers, this building was originally known as “The Strand Hotel.” The three-story hotel catered to sailors and was located on a patch of land known as Dalamater Square.
“It is a three-story structure, on the ground floor of which is a saloon and the upper part of which contains 28 rooms,” stated a court document from 1914.
“[The Strand] accepts only men as roomers,” the document added, and caters “to the class of trade that has business at the riverfront.” Ehmmmmm.
Opened in the fall of 1974 The Anvil, a split-level “after-hours nightclub” opened on the north-facing side of the building which was now the infamous hot-sheet, pay-by-the-hour Liberty Inn. The statements “accepts only men” and “the class of trade that has business at the riverfront.” really hadn’t changed all that much.
The bouncers were as brutal and as wonderfully sleazy as The Anvil itself. And they always took care to notice the number of people that were in the club at one time to not break fire regulations and give the city an excuse to raid them. With lines that sometimes formed around the block on a busy Friday or Saturday night unless you were known or a fellow bar employee, you could wait hours to get in. While (some) drag queens were welcome, women were not. Although a few did make it in mostly due to trickery or their celebrity status The Anvil was one of the hottest, sleaziest, and most glorious places to be for gay men of that period.
The main floor contained a dance floor, a rectangular bar, and a performance area all painted black where everything would go on at once.
The after-hours atmosphere of the Anvil was wound up and kinetic from the amount of alcohol and drugs its patrons had already consumed and would consume by the end of the night.
Male dancers would perform in the bar as bartenders poured drinks around them. On the smallish stage on the dance-floor drag performers such as Candy Stevens would perform bizarre acts with a five-foot snake while fire-eating. Other drag performers were “The Famous Yuba” who was one of the first performers there and who stayed until the end. Loretta Fox, Dana Terrell, “The Long-Legged Lady of The Night…” Arien West, Diana del Rio, The Amazing Electrifying Grace, and Brandon Forte
Between drag shows the disco music pumped away at an earsplitting volume as shirtless and sweaty men danced to the beat packed together side by side. Poppers were passed freely from man to man and from time to time you could feel the floor bounce and shake beneath your feet to the beat of the music.
Downstairs was the coat check run by the ever-jovial Patrick. There was another small bar downstairs and a large screen on which gay male porn of the period was played. Behind the screen was a cavernous back room where it was pitch black and never boring. Shouts of “Gentlemen watch your wallets.” would echo through the basement as Patrick called out the warning every 15 – 20 minutes against pickpockets. (Rumor also had it that there were tunnels beneath The Anvil that ran directly to the piers. But it has never actually been proven.)
Patrons would emerge (I included) sopped with sweat and wearing sunglasses after a long Saturday night in the dawn’s early light only to pass people from bordering neighborhoods going to early Sunday morning Mass.
Because of the era involved, there are no interior photographs of the Anvil available to publish. But it was nothing spectacular. You see it was not the inside of The Anvil that made it what it was. It was the patrons, gay men many of whom are gone now which is why it is important to remember these scared gay spaces of yesterday.
The Anvil was closed in 1986 another victim of the AIDS epidemic and the clean-up of “sex establishments” in NYC. And while The Anvil is long gone, the Liberty Inn lives on as NYC’s highest-rated romantic couples short-stay hotel.
It’s nice to know some things never change.
Have a story you’d like to share about The Anvil? Post it in the comments section for history’s sake.
My lover Jamie Perry worked at the Anvil as a dancer & general help. The morning after his first night on the job, a body was found on te basement floor with a knife in his back. The bouncers carried the corpse into thes street & dumped it. The tunnels were old bootleggers tunnels & were sealed off, did not lead to the piers or really to anywhere. The place was a firetrap but Jamie knew how to use the trapezes to get sout quickly. Mob-owned of course.
As to the “fisting shows”. I must disagree. I, also, was there!
Yes. I agree with you. There were definitely fisting shows in the early days of the Anvil. I also remember the guy who would do acrobatics with a double folded dildo up his you know what. Very talented. We use to call him puckers. Ahh the gold ole days.
I was went once in 1975 and I never went back
i ALSO WAS THERE IN 1975 AND THERE WERE FIST SHOWS ABOVE DE BAR, OF COURSE, IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I SAW SUCH A THING AND I WAS ALMOST SICK
I was there as well and witnessed this first hand
The Anvil, the most notoriously decadent after-hours WestVillage club of its time, a genuine institution of gay sin, good music,&drugs(a three-ring-circus)located in a small 3-story,freestanding triangular building bordered by the WestSideHighway, 11thAve, &14th Street. I was a weekend dancer at the GaietyMaleBurlesque and could not always find sleeping accommodations when I escaped from my real residence as a student at StonyBrook University to dance professionally and recreationally in NYC. The Anvil was my backup hostel, open midnight-noon,7days/week. The music was W.Village/Fire Island hi-NRG, danceable because the DJ knew how to mix. The Anvil catered to the hottest local and international men comingling around the go-go boys festooned on the oval bar and a tight dance floor for those of us whose reason for being there was to dance. Potentially dangerous sexplay was prevalent in the cave-like basement,but even with my seemingly cavalier attitude about sex as a hustler,I still preferred to make love in a stranger’s bed than in the dark,cold,ominous,subterranean vaults downstairs.The VillageVoice reported stories of tortured corpses found in the Anvil’s basement.I liked to stay upstairs on the dancefloor.One homeless night I found myself there dancing,drinking beers,peeing in the large urinal as men with bathroom fetishes lurked around. I flirted with go-go boys as they swung from rooftop ropes,and realized that one of these dancers recognized me as a colleague from the Gaiety, and swung over to devote his otherwise profitable attention (beer swigging bar-flys) on me with free drink tickets. He was a naturally beautiful Canadian with a full head of brown hair feathered with a center part, just a smidgeon of hair on the cleavage of his chest, and the perfume that only a man of French descent could carry off. He made it clear that we were going to go home that night, which worked with my plans: find someone to go home with or wait until I could return to my dorm at StonyBrook University. Mr.Montreal was intent on keeping me in close proximity to him so that I was actually directed to follow him during his break into the sliver of a dressing room with a slanted ceiling accommodating the staircase to the second floor of the transient hotel upstairs. I was a veteran dancer at the Gaiety, so knew the protocol observed in a dressing room. But I was awestruck to, Yuba, making up his distinctively sculptured face with makeup that would also transform him into Grace Jones. I actually felt it was inappropriate for me to invade Yuba’s privacy, so excused myself from the intimate dressing room to watch 3-D, a precursor to Lypsinka, perform. When Mr.Montreal appeared on center stage, he scared me out of the Anvil as he produced a can of Crisco and proceeded to fist himself. Exiting the Anvil as the sun was rising, I walked alone along the slippery cattle fat/blood drippings that coated the active 14th St.Meat Market to escape from the sado/masochistic madness. http://www.christopherduquette.com
OMG – loved the Anvil. Used to leave the Greenwich Ave area around 2 or so and walk thru the old Meatpacking district on 14th st to the anvil and dance and drink until after the sunup and beyond. I remember the little peep hole in the door to get let in – those were the days. And i agree – sun up and the neighbors in the area going to church on Sunday was not an uncommon occurrence, Also there definitely were no sex acts on the bar – big myth.
Hey Billy. Hope you are well. In 1985 I saw Candy Stevens at the Ice Palace in Fire Island and hung out with her by the pool. She was fantastic! Donna Law shared a cab with Ruby Rims coming back from a club in Jersey.
Hi Tom. So feew people call me Billy anymore. I was just in NYC last October. Plan on going again soon. Send me an email at Will@back2Stonewall.com
Great article but anyone who didn’t witness the sex shows went to the Anvil when it was already popular and sanitized. Within days of it opening I went frequently and there were NO queues. The back room was off the ground floor bar and above the bar on a small stage there were live shows every night, fisting, dildo squatting, and one memorable guy who danced with a pint glass of beer attached by a chain and clip attached to his foreskin. Within 4 months of opening Truman Capote and Andy Warhol showed up and the place was ruined. When the celebrity crowd showed up I never went back and clearly the Anvil had already changed for the worse.
Well now! Obviously, Will, you and I weren’t there the night there was a “live sex show?” But as a regular habituè of THE ANVIL for those years, I certainly never saw sex on the upstairs stage! Perhaps someone was a bit confused between upstairs and downstairs?
As for the tunnels, in 1979 I was daring enough to explore one of the supposed tunnels, but both the smell and rotting structure turned us back even though we could hear the traffic overhead on West Street and hear the Hudson. But it makes for another wonderful “would have been!”
Hi. There were sex (fisting) shows on the main floor when the club first went from straight to gay and became the Anvil. They stopped doing them when the club started to become popular. wayne
I used to go to The Anvil on “new wave” nights (Tuesdays) around 1982. Bill Bahlman was the DJ and Bernard Zette (who later appeared in the movie “Last Exit to Brooklyn”) was one of the performers. I only remember the basement level being open (the entrance was on the southeast side of the building). I was so young and naive, I didn’t know people were having sex in the back room.
Are you sure this was the Anvil? The entrance to the Anvil was always on the north side of the building.
The Anvil, the most notoriously decadent after-hours West Village club of its time, a virtual institution of gay sin, good music, and a three ring circus of gay entertainment was located in a small three story, free standing triangular building bordered on all three sides by the West Side Highway and 11th Avenue with its entrance on 14th Street. The Anvil had everything I needed under my circumstances as a weekend dancer at the Gaiety Burlesque Theater that relied on the generosity of couch-surfing. I had no couch available some nights. So I would count on the Anvil as my hostel. The Anvil was open from midnight until noon the next day, seven days a week. It was a drug friendly environment. The music was a West Village and Fire Island hi-energy sound, like the Flamingo, unlike the R&B influenced disco played at the downtown underground clubs I preferred. But it was danceable because the DJ was on drugs, and knew how to mix. There were drag queen shows at regular intervals all night on a center stage that I found terribly entertaining after a long binge of hard dancing. The Anvil catered to some of the hottest looking local and international men I had ever seen comingling around the go-go boy festooned bar and tight dance floor, like every rare species of gay men for me to admire and possibly sleep with. The Anvil provided facilities to have quick and sometimes dangerous sex in the cave-like basement, but even with my seemingly cavalier attitude about sex from hustling, I still would prefer to make love in a comfortable bed than in a dark cold ominous subterranean vault. The Village Voice ran a cover story investigating unresolved murder cases of gay and transsexual men in the West Village, and one of the murder victims that the police did not care about bringing justice to a tortured corpse found in the Anvil basement. I liked to stay upstairs on the dance floor high on drugs and twirl to the music than risk being mummified in the subterranean level of the Anvil.
Like most underground clubs, the Anvil had a difficult doorman who could turn someone away from the club based on the bogus “members only” excuse. The correct non-designer jeans, t-shirt, boots, and black leather accessories as well as a handsome face, toned body and $10.00 would guarantee entry from the busy vehicular traffic racing around the building to the sexual purgatory of men inside. Like most clubs that catered to this demographic, women were not allowed, with the exception of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ sister, Lee Radziwill, gay royalty, who would be allowed in with her gay male escort Truman Capote while they slummed downtown after a night at Studio 54. Both would not budge from the entrance door area, to observe the crowd at a safe distance, until their fatigue and boredom swept them out the handy getaway exit, and back to the comfort of the Upper East Side.
One Friday night I danced, drank cans of Budweiser beer, peed in the large urinal as men with bathroom fetishes lurked around me, flirted and socialized with go-go boys as they swung from rooftop ropes, and developed my first gay crush on a man with beautiful eyes who I had been cruising with heavy stares across the dance floor. I was skilled at communicating my intentions to another man in a disco while I danced, never uttering a word for hours until I found myself standing next to Mr. Eyes while at the bar waiting to order another beer. At the narcissist age of nineteen years old, I would enter a club, size up the crowd to see if there was anyone I felt was attractive enough for me, and I would fixate on them, obsessing when they were out of sight for a moment as if they left, until they would reappear and I would continue the cruising charade. Nine times out of ten the object of my obsession would finally leave the disco without a word ever spoken between us. It was a futile game of cat and mouse, and my young ego was not ready for rejection.
When it was apparent that Mr. Eyes was not going to make the first move, and the morning sun was beginning to stream through the exit door as members left the club, I decided it was time to let him know I was interested in him. His beautiful orbs cemented my crush as I stood close to him and shook his hand and introduced myself. Some small talk ensued. I asked him to dance, the reward of a successful cruise, but Mr. Eyes said he was about to leave. He suggested that I return the following Saturday night to the Anvil to meet up with him. I left the club shortly after he left. I walked along the slippery cattle fat and blood drippings coating the active meat market sidewalk of 14th Street feeling that my new infatuation, the first step to being in love, with someone of the same sex, was possible.
After a day of rest at a now available loft of a caring friend, and excited prattle with him about my new crush, I returned to the Gaiety for the Saturday night Marathon, changed into a butch protocol outfit to ensure entry to the Anvil, and started my Saturday night dancing at my club of choice, the Gallery.
Being impatient and afraid of missing Mr. Eyes, I got to the Anvil a few hours earlier than the agreed upon time. I was too distracted looking at the entrance door to enjoy myself, even the strange stage performances that were unique to this bizarre institution of gay extremism. The resident drag queen, MC, and DJ was Miss Candy Stevens, a black man who had so much estrogen and silicon injected into his body and his face that wearing the skin tight sequin cat suit he favored, he looked like a creature from another planet with exaggerated hips, tits, cheekbones and lips. One Christmas he stopped his show to share the tender story of his mother calling him earlier that day to say she wanted her boy home for Christmas. This was not meant as a joke, and most of the less cynical members of the audience gave him their sympathetic applause. But I was too condescending not to picture the lumpy creature sitting across the kitchenette from his mother in her trailer home somewhere down south, slurring in a deep southern drawl “My SON is home!”
Candy Stevens lip-synched a lot of ABBA, performing to “Dancing Queen” that night before talking, joking, and ridiculing the audience. Yuba, a mean looking black man who could do a respectable imitation of Grace Jones, did his trademark fire act that night by running the flames of two torches over his hard, hairless and nude body, finishing with a dangerous spit of fire into the audience like a violent dragon. 3D finished the show with her vintage day glow mod look that brought the club to its only moment of hilarity as she lip-synched with exaggerated gestures to a pre-edited medley of iconic movie actresses delivering hysterical lines mixed to pre-alternative music.
I forgave Mr. Eyes when he finally came through the front door hours later, socialized at length with bartenders, and ordered himself a beer without seeming to notice me or appear to be looking for me. I had put so much energy obsessing about Mr. Eyes that I was hardly going to let my fervor evaporate so quickly. I was young, so I had a lot more patience to wait for my first crush, the man of my new homosexual dreams, to come to me of his own volition. When he eventually did make his way to me, I could see he was tipsy from more than drinking the can of beer he clutched in his hand. Mr. Eyes bored me with the highlights of how and where he had just spent the earlier part of the night, dancing and drugging at the Flamingo, which did not interest me that much as I had my own memories of where and how my night had already been spent, stripping at the Gaiety and dancing at the Gallery. Mr. Eyes complained of his fatigued state and that the sedatives he had swallowed were tiring him. I still thought I had a crush on Mr. Eyes even though his eyes were not looking that beautiful, and still had hope that this was going to be my first long-term gay romance. I was an 19 year old stripper and hustler while focused on graduating from college on schedule. I replied that I could help the situation because I had more speed, and foolishly offered up a few black beauties for Mr. Eyes to take. He greedily popped one in his mouth, and one in his pocket. My final desperate move to salvage this unraveling date was to ask Mr. Eyes to dance with me, at which point he informed me that the DJ in the booth above us was his boyfriend, and that he would not be able to dance with me there at the Anvil, or anywhere else for that matter. I had been played by a player.
My first male crush ended in twenty-four hours with my first male rejection. This rejection stung my street savvy and naive nineteen year old heart so hard that to this day, I will not exhibit any feelings for a man I might be sexually interested in until I am absolutely sure that that man is absolutely sexually interested in me and that the possibility of the two of us having sex is more than feasible. I never wanted to feel the rejection I felt early that morning at the Anvil ever again. It is quite a defense mechanism that could keep me from interacting with another human considering that I had presented myself so physically naked on and off the stage of the Gaiety for two years. As I quietly recovered my dignity and left Mr. Eyes and the Anvil, his boyfriend the DJ played the Hues Corporation “I Caught Your Act”, telling the story of a two-timing drama played out for an entire theater to witness:
Walking along the street last night, I happened to see you within
You went into a picture show – the drama was about to begin
Followed you inside, didn’t try to hide
The lights were down, you took his hand and when the movie started
You moved right in so close to him
It left me broken hearted
I caught your act, oh I saw what you did girl
I caught your act, caught your act baby
I saw the whole thing, you got carried away
It was easy to see, there was no part for me
I caught your act,
I saw what you did girl
I caught your act, caught your act baby
Caught your act, caught your act baby
And I got caught in the dark.
I always found solace in the lyrics to the songs that I drugged and danced to.
Christopher chastised me at brunch the next day after I had gushed my emotional heartache. The lesson to learn from this episode was not to watch my heart, but to “never share your drugs, never, with anyone”. It was another lesson in narcissistic selfishness to practice for the rest of my gay life.
I wrote about my overextended obsession with dancing both recreationally and professionally from 1976 – 2004 in the best clubs in NYC, until I crashed and burned from the excesses of the lifestyle. Homo GoGo Man: a fairytale about a boy who grew up in discoland.
That was one of the best times in my life at the Anvil and your story was the best I ever read. I would love to meet up with The Anvil crowd I went there every Friday and Saturday nights well into the morning.Please e-mail me at boycemar@aol.com Thank You So Much Jimmy
Intrigued by your story, I want more. Bravo!
3D still performs regularly in Sydney.
The reigning Queen of the Sydney gay scene.
the anvil was a extremely dirty night club that the owner harry did not care about, or he would of cleaned that place the right way..It was a sardine can of men.it was amazing, funny and adult…there was no room upstairs on the floor or in the back room, except for rubbing against each other, pickpockets and watching the strip show on stage..the strip show on stage were a lot of customers drunk and high, who would never remember the next day.then there was the professional dancers..on the front bar were the hot male go go dancers, shirtless in shorts and sneakers dancing round and round..most of them got the hell out afterwards, this kept the dream going. late at night there was a black dancer who could do amazing things naked with different size objects,,what happened to him..the bartenders made big money and had great apartments…the door man made squat…the place was packed, there was a long line of men outside.. these men came from every walk of life.., rich kids, college guys, male models, police officers, street guys, broadway dancers, hustlers, street kids and weirdos…weirdos came with the territory and you knew to stay away… this incredible popular place with many lives was a dirty hole and i would not surprised if it aided in making people ill….no body has pictures of the inside because they were to busy being seen and having fun, like the 21 c and studio 54…the it place…
sorry,,there was a dirty downstairs were men would go to get intimate..people met men there and went home or hooked up another night…
Will, sorry to disagree with you, but as I so eloquently describe my first gay crush/rejection at the Anvil, as ironic as life is, I returned to the Anvil one homeless night to find wholesome Mr.Montreal, who I dumped to get rejected by Anvil’s DJ BF, who was so glad to see me as he swung from gogo ropes, that I was sure I was being given a second chance with the Canadian. Bringing me into the miniscule dressing room was intimate but awkward as Uba was applying his war face. I could never have been more shocked than anyone in the Anvil that night as Mr.Montreal took center stage, and slowly performed a seduction act that could not prepare ANYONE for him to fist himself, spotlight, Crisco, and audible discomfort from those of us on the dancefloor. I was 18, I stripped and hustled for money, but anal, not to mention fisting, was not my thing. I did not even have the decency to wait for Mr.Montreal to complete his act to rejct him again: I fled the scene of the crime, like I was an accomplice guilty of ruining this sweet Canadian. On a more personal/bsns note, I would like to meet (assume you are in NYC) to discuss our common opportunities of experiencing and surviving hedonistic NYC. My book, ‘Homo GoGo Man’ is top seller 4 years thanks mostly to my blogging, but I convinced my publisher that I need an agent to get me to next level (and next book, the epilogue to recovering from the disco bug). You may know of someone who is on the same page as us? email me: xristo_pherre@hotmail.com
Amidst both of your eloquent memories of the anvil I still haven’t heard the name of the very 1st on stage master ceremonies/MC, who also sang in the shows,, live or the name of the very famous disco DJ that not only spun there but several other clubs around the town and was prominently featured in the internationally known disconet. His name was Chico Starr……. Who also danced on the bar when not working as A DJ at the Anvil……..
I am that man…. Chico Starr
Thank you, Chico Starr, for adding your name to this important informational blog! Will Kohler has perhaps the most factually and historically accurate blog of the 100s that I’ve read on queer history. And our history and the individuals who were part of it are important to acknowledge and recognize because without them there wouldn’t have been that history! So, I than you again for your help with this!
Big leatherman shopping for chicken, carried me over his head toward the exit. I was at the height of a go-go dancer who asked me “do you want to go with him?” I shouted NO! and the dancer got me down. He took me home instead. Sadly, he arranged photography with a neighbor, and promptly mailed the photos to my parents after I failed to return to his apartment to live there. Wish he stayed dancing that night. Bryan.
Earlyone morning they served a hot breakfast with coffee. I remember eating it at one of those school desks downstairs in the video lounge.
It was one of my most favourite clubs and I have spent the last 30 years telling that story about Peter downstairs yelling ‘Gentleman watch your wallets in the back room please”. I”m grateful to have experienced it and survived. Thanks for your article. not many peeps around who remember. The other extraordinary place was the Saint. Now that was something.
i used to love the drag shows there, Jackie Nicole(AS Shirley Bassey, Jimmy James (as Marilyn) Miss Uba (Grace Jones) Ruby Rims, and so many more.
I wish I can Find Pics of these popular rag Queens
The Anvil, the most notoriously decadent after-hours WestVillage club of its time, a genuine institution of gay sin, good music,&drugs(a three-ring-circus)located in a small 3-story,freestanding triangular building bordered by the WestSideHighway, 11thAve, &14th Street. I was a weekend dancer at the GaietyMaleBurlesque and could not always find sleeping accommodations when I escaped from my real residence as a student at StonyBrook University to dance professionally and recreationally in NYC. The Anvil was my backup hostel, open midnight-noon,7days/week. The music was W.Village/Fire Island hi-NRG, danceable because the DJ knew how to mix. The Anvil catered to the hottest local and international men comingling around the go-go boys festooned on the oval bar and a tight dance floor for those of us whose reason for being there was to dance. Potentially dangerous sexplay was prevalent in the cave-like basement,but even with my seemingly cavalier attitude about sex as a hustler,I still preferred to make love in a stranger’s bed than in the dark,cold,ominous,subterranean vaults downstairs.The VillageVoice reported stories of tortured corpses found in the Anvil’s basement.I liked to stay upstairs on the dancefloor.One homeless night I found myself there dancing,drinking beers,peeing in the large urinal as men with bathroom fetishes lurked around. I flirted with go-go boys as they swung from rooftop ropes,and realized that one of these dancers identified me as a colleague from the Gaiety, and swung over to devote his otherwise profitable attention (beer swigging bar-flys) on me with free drink tickets. He was a naturally beautiful Canadian with a full head of brown hair feathered with a center part, just a smidgeon of hair on the cleavage of his chest, and the perfume that only a man of French descent could carry off. He made it clear that we were going to go home that night, which worked with my plans: find someone to go home with or wait until I could return to my dorm at Stony Brook University. Mr.Montreal was intent on keeping me in close proximity to him that I was actually directed to follow him during a break into the sliver of a dressing room with a slanted ceiling accommodating the staircase to the second floor of the transient hotel upstairs. I was a veteran dancer at the Gaiety, so knew the protocol observed in a dressing room. But I was awestruck to see one of the Anvil’s headline performers, Yuba, making his distinctively sculptured face up with makeup that would also transform Grace Jones into an Andy Warhol silk screen. I actually felt it was inappropriate for me to invade Yuba’s privacy, so excused myself to watch 3-D, a precursor to Lypsinka, perform. When Mr.Montreal appeared on center stage, he scared me out of the Anvil as he produced a can of Crisco and proceeded to fist himself. I walked along the slippery cattle fat/blood drippings that coated the active 14th St.meat market.
All those infamous gay sex clubs of the 1970’s and 80’s are now only a faded memory.Those were very different times in NYC.I was 20 in 1976 and remember them all,including the bathhouses..Most were closed around 1985-86,,due to the burgeoning Aids crisis.The non-stop sex party came to a grinding halt as many perished.Today,we have the Corona-Virus; however,it is not nearly as deadly as the HIV virus was. They sure came up with a vaccine fast,too.Anyone that thinks a vaccine to stop HIV from destroying the immune systems of mostly gay men in the early days of the epidemic was simply not possible,they are delusional.Had it been heterosexuals dropping dead like flies and not a sexually transmitted virus,one would have been developed.To this day,there still is no vaccine.That is because it remains mostly the homosexual community effected by it and the drug companies reap billions annually by keeping its victims on expensive life-long drug therapies.
Did any of you ever see Freddie Mercury there? I love him and heard he went there.
Freddie went to the Anvil and the Mineshaft. There’s a photo of him in The Mineshaft that I’ve seen somewhere.
Always had a hard time getting in. Thought I was a cop. Was actually a high school math teacher. Fun to say the least.
In the 1990s, the basement became the Hellfire Club, a sponsor of the NYC Rocky Horror Show. We (the cast) hung out there in costume after the show watching the various S&M displays in the various alcoves. The bar was demoted to a mere juice and soft drinks.
I visited the Anvil mainly on weekends. I enjoyed it. I spent most of my time downstairs in the basement. But……… I had to grope my way around, as it was too dark there. LOL One time downstairs in the dark room, I met am acquaintance there who was supposedly straight. Fun.
Such fond memories! Stumbling out of the Anvil around sunrise and walking the meatpacking district with beef carcasses swinging out of the back of the trucks over the sidewalks and into the warehouses. I also have a memory of a Queen who preformed there and I never figured out who she was…Old and toothless and work cat food cans as bangle bracelets….fabulous in a way that was so beyond anything I’ve ever seen to date!
I always had a great time. The best way to pay was buying a card. I forgot the price and how many drinks, but you could get in again if there were a lot of drinks left on the card without paying an entrance fee on weekdays. Weekends you had to pay. (I think it was $8 for 5 drinks-1980 prices).
I never had a problem getting in-perhaps because I always tipped the security guard when I went in. I “lost” my wallet in the backroom on Halloween 1980-a total disaster trying to replace all my Id’s.
I never saw sex shows on the stage or on the bar. Fools kept spilling their drinks on the stage during a drag performance. I often tried to help cleaning up the liquid. “My” spot was on the small stairs going up to the stage. I would dance for hours with worrying about getting .my feet stepped on when I danced on those steps. Great dancing music.
When we left and walked over to the diner in the morning, all truck drivers would give us nasty looks. I would yell back: “At least I had a great time this morning-did you?”
Many, many famous guys were there over the years. No Id’s were ever checked unlike most bars today in NYC that want to see my Id to get in.
I am thinking that I should spend some money and open an illegal gay trashy after hours club-I’ll screen the guys coming in.
I remember …
What diners were around then that everyone would go to? Did anyone ever see the video blogger from the 80s there, nelson sullivan? Many videos of him online as be was friends with ru paul and michael musto (village voice editor)
I remember this dancer saved me from being carried off by the bouncer.
When I came out as a dancer/stripper/hustler at the Gaiety Male Burlesque Theater, I would find myself homeless (my mentors had dates preventing me from access to a shower and a couch to sleep on, and access to my college academic homework as a student at Stony Brook University). So, I went to afterhours clubs (the Anvil, Crisco Disco, the Cave near the Bare Foot Boy, ….) to waddle away the hours until dawn when I knew I could return to my mentor’s loft to recover my duffel bag of possessions or get high again to stay another day and night in hedonistic NYC. Nightclubbing in NYC took precedents over my academic responsibilities. The Anvil is the location where my otherwise jaded heart was first spurned heart by my first crush on a man. The soundtrack, played by the DJ at the Anvil who happened to be the object of my obsession’s male lover, played the song forever poignant ‘I Caught Your Act’ by the Hues Corp as I put two&two together before I exited the Peyton Place of the club Anvil:
Curtain going up-up…
Caught you baby, yes I did, he was holdin’ you in his arms
Curtain going up-up… one night stand with your thievin’ man
Curtain going up, up,… did he buy popcorn, did he buy candy
Why’d you ever get together
When you played those long love scenes your kisses failed to show
I had the best seat in the house
And when the lights came on you were the first one to know
I caught your act…..
Then I heard Candi Staton’s song ‘Victim’ (1976), ironically played in a loop by the Anvil’s trans performer/DJ, that epitomized the feeling of becoming a victim of a broken heart.
When I started out
It was just a matter of seeing you every day
I looked forward to the times
When you would come my way
I longed just to see you
Wore a smile just to greet you
I’m a victim of the very song I sing
You gave me a brand new reason
To start fixing up my face
Having cocktails at your favorite place
A table just for two
Got rid of loneliness, now that I have you
I became a victim of the very song I sing
I’m a victim of the very song I sing
Why don’t you practice what you preach
That’s what everybody’s telling me
If my advice is good for others
It’s got to be good for me
So I try to occupy my mind
Keep myself busy all the time
But the more I try to do
The more I keep thinking of you
Oh well, I guess I’ll end up in the lost and found
Looks like love and me
We done fought another round
Another woman in is his claim to fame
And I’m lucky if I can break these chains
Victim
Two songs that I gratefully acquired on remastered CD’s (had to leave my crates of vinyl LPs with a record shop for aficionados after downsizing for multiple moves). http://www.ChristopherDuquette.com
THE ANVIL HISTORY FROM AN INSIDER: There are many fun and accurate comments about The Anvil here, but none I saw from those of us directly involved and soon perhaps none of us will be left to tell our story. By the way, The Anvil also owned a nearby disco called, Alex in Wonderland.
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As best friend of the owner-creator of The Anvil, Gary, and quite a regular with him and much involved,, I should start with that clarification as I’ve only seen interviews with Chico Starr and Ruby Rims get his name right. There were three owners, Gary the owner-manager. Two others from let us say the usual place. I enjoyed when they brought their wives who stood against the14th Street wall on occasional week nights (The Anvil allowed no women except them).
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Not mentioned that I saw was The Anvil was a no-cash place. Bartenders were to take tickets bought at the door, six for five dollar for regulars on a punch card. Truth be told, they often spiked my and Gary’s drinks with so much alcohol that we often missed the forbidden cash exchange across the bar.
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I would also be remiss before telling more of the story without noting there were two managers along the way, Conrad and Frank. Frank went on to manage Stella’s in midtown. Frank passed a while ago. I’ve lost track of Conrad though he loved doing a cruise for Anvil employees. Clifford was the bouncer.
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Often missed is The Anvil began as a straight club in early 1974 with hookers who danced and offered quick favors in the first-floor backroom often on Friday afternoon. Gary inched the club toward gay by moving to a leather crowd on select nights. Many often assume The Anvil had a basement early on. It did not. Yes, there was fisting at the beginning, Toby the premier purveyor, a sight to behold. A snake as well as a chain stick in my mind too but maybe that was just a foggy drunken night or two.
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The basement area was added a couple years later, and I remember it well because I met Gary at the club, and he was digging out the basement with dancers to give the height needed. This added downstair back rooms to the one at the rear of the club on the first floor which actually began as a kitchen.
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My favorite iconic part of The Anvil was the line-up of plaster asses at the top of the bar from The Ass with Class Contest. Patrons would go on stage, get rated and the one who won was plastered in front of all. The bar also gave winners a golden anvil on a marble bottom, think paperweight, which I still have.
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Of course, I knew well and had a fair number of intimate moments with the dancers, but I was in my mid-20s then. Alas, names hide over time, but I remember well Chico Starr, DJ and Acrobat Dancer, Richie Rivera, early DJ, Loretta Fox, Drag and Rutgers College student, Jeff, Raphael, Ruby, Yuba, Felipe (who was discovered at The Anvil for Village People), Edie, a Dominican lover of mine for a while..
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Another Anvil moment worth mentioning is the creation of the Anita Bryant punch after being closed for serving liquor by vice. Gary spiked it with lab alcohol and wow it had a bang. That happened later in the year. Fortunately, the issue was resolved, and liquor was served by January. Patrons brought brown bags. Remember this was the free era of NYC, no Disney then. Times Square, hot, risky.
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No, The Anvil was not closed by the city. It voluntarily shut down a few days after Wally’s Mine Shaft was raided and closed, likewise in November 1985, to avoid legal closure.
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I would also be remiss not telling a little more of Gary as he passed in December 2021. When he refused to create more clubs for fear of AIDS, the other owners forbade him from being hired at any other bar. I met with a key owner at the Baby Doll Club in lower Manhattan (he owned it). I was a junior professor at the time at a major city university and persuaded him after some deal talk to let my business partner, the dept. chair, hire Gary as program coordinator. Yes, I know I’m not the typical professor.
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I’m happy to report Gary worked there until he retired and taught, possibly not ironically, Restaurant and Club Management. Also one other correction, Gary was the one who announced, “Gentlemen watch your wallets in the backroom.” The Anvil was Gary’s vision in every way possible.
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Hope what I’ve said is interesting and brings back fond memories of some things not yet said. There was no place like it, camaraderie with a big C especially on my favorite night, Sunday, when I went, and Gary didn’t. Maybe there is a movie waiting to be done. It was every bit as famous as Studio 54 in the gay world, right up there with Jack’s Eagle’s Nest where we often drank before opening.
Thank you so much, Danny, for adding more factual details to Will Kohler’s accurate and historical foundation for queer history with this blog! It’s important to me that our history is as accurate as possible and not some episode of DRUNK HISTORY or anecdotal personal reminiscences without any evidence as we’ve seen too often. As someone who has been part of it I deeply appreciate your help for Will’s efforts.
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Hope what I’ve said is interesting and brings back fond memories of some things not yet said. There was no place like it, camaraderie with a big C especially on my favorite night, Sunday, when I went, and Gary didn’t. Maybe there is a movie waiting to be done. It was every bit as famous as Studio 54 in the gay world, right up there with Jack’s Eagle’s Nest where we often drank before opening. Pantera Negra 2: Wakanda para Sempre
When I came out as a dancer/stripper/hustler at the Gaiety Male Burlesque Theater in sex-saturated Times Square, I would occasionally find myself homeless. My mentors would have intimate dates preventing me access to a shower, a couch to sleep on, and access to my college academic homework required as a student at Stony Brook University. So, I went to afterhours clubs (the Anvil, Crisco Disco, the Cave near the Barefoot Boy, ….) to while away the hours until dawn when I knew I could return to my mentor’s loft to recover my duffel bag of possessions or get high again to stay another day and night in hedonistic NYC. Nightclubbing in NYC took precedents over my academic responsibilities. The Anvil is the location where my otherwise jaded heart was first spurned by my first crush on a man. The soundtrack, played by the DJ at the Anvil who happened to be the object of my obsession’s male lover, played the song forever poignant of that moment as a naïve 18-year-old. ‘I Caught Your Act’ by the Hues Corp was placed on the turntable by the DJ who was my nemesis. I put two&two together, that I was being played a fool by the object of my obsession before I exited the Peyton Place drama at the club Anvil:
Curtain going up-up…
Caught you baby, yes I did, he was holdin’ you in his arms
Curtain going up-up… one night stand with your thievin’ man
Curtain going up, up,… did he buy popcorn, did he buy candy
Why’d you ever get together
When you played those long love scenes your kisses failed to show
I had the best seat in the house
And when the lights came on you were the first one to know
I caught your act….
I swore I would never put myself in that humiliating position again. It took years for me to meet a man that I could trust with my broken heart. http://www.facebook.com/authorchristopherduquette
I love reading all these stories of a wild and free time in New York.
great comments. I visited the place on many weekends.
Will,
Time to proofread again!? Just a thought to remove any misconceptions about the facts and the tone of your writing?
Kinetic!
Would, not wound!
Scarred, not scared!!
And thanks again for all your efforts to keep our queer history accurate and based on factual evidence as much as possible!!!
Chico, I gave the history of The Anvil in this blog last September 2022 as someone who helped create some of it starting in 1974 (helping to close in late 1985) with fond memories of you and Gary, who dreamed the place and was its founder and Yuba who helped us with Alex in Wonderland as well as many other dancers and DJs.
I have a great front entrance picture of Alex in Wonderland with Yuba, Gary in a Queen of Hearts Outfit, and me. I’m trying to get the drag pictures Gary’s niece received after his death but that’s complex. I never had them. I know Frank, one of our managers, who went on to Stella’s passed a while back. You likely remember him. Don’t know about Conrad our other manager but it’s a very long time ago.
I’m still at the university. Remember? 46 years there. Hard to believe. Professor and Anvil, always thought that was a fun combo. As I said in that chronicle, I “arranged” with Anvil owners to get Gary hired at the university as my “secretary.” They weren’t happy he wouldn’t design more clubs because the AIDS crisis was beginning and alas underway more than any of us knew. He visited and helped many. He worked at the university until he retired. Don’t know if you remember the medical office we created on 14th street for the other owners.
As I mentioned in those chronicles, Gary died December 2021. Looked for a link for you online to try and find how to contact you, couldn’t find one. If there is a link for you, maybe you can post or just post a comment and we can figure a way to connect. Think you were last in Florida. Saw you in a fun interview a few years ago. Ruby Rims did a nice one too.
Velvet Times