#TrocaderoTransfer #disco #LGBTQI #SanFrancisco #history
"The trailblazing San Francisco nightclub that defined 'sleaze'
The Trocadero Transfer holds a notorious place in San Francisco nightlife history
As the sun was rising over the legendary San Francisco dance club Trocadero Transfer in the late 1970s, resident DJ Bobby Viteritti had a morning ritual. By that point he’d been playing for hours, but many of the 1,500 dancers who packed the club weren’t prepared to go home until 8 a.m. Light flooded into the space from the eight skylights, pinging off a massive cluster of disco balls.
(. . .)
A team of staffers holding tarps perched on the roof of the building, surrounding the skylights. Into a walkie-talkie, Viteritti would say '1, 2, 3, blackout,' and the tarps would unfurl, blanketing the club in darkness as songs like Vicki Sue Robinson’s 'Turn The Beat Around' or Dan Hartman’s 'Relight My Fire' blared out of the club’s 240 speakers.
(. . .)
Initially, the Trocadero Transfer started as an after-hours club, running from 11 p.m. until mid-morning. At the beginning there was no alcohol license, so the club only served juice. In 1978, membership cost $75 per year, with a weekend night of dancing costing $5 for members and $15-20 for guests. Patrons brought their own 'party favors': The smell of amyl nitrate poppers ('Aunt Ethyl') filled the air, and street drugs like MDA ('Mary Don’t Ask'), crystal meth, acid and cocaine ('Carol') were popular choices. One night, the staff threw a sheet of acid in the butter for the popcorn served by the bar.
'The police left us alone. The theory was all the degenerates and drug addicts were under one roof, so the city is safe,' Viteritti told SFGATE.
The crowd was a cross section of San Francisco’s queer community, with areas of the club segmented for different groups — there was an international area, 'bear country,' the gossip corner, the fan-waving dancers, the Levi’s-wearing 'Castro clones' and the leather crowd. The wildest things happened on the balcony. You knew it was a good party if the walls started to sweat."
https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/san-francisco-nightclub-sleaze-22319725.php
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