&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Question_book-new.svg){kind=small} | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2009) |
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Electric_Circus_wordmark.svg){kind=small} | |
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:DayGlo1.jpg) Dayglo art inside The Electric Circus | |
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| Address | 19-25 St. Marks Place |
|---|---|
| Location | Manhattan |
| Coordinates | 40°43′45″N 73°59′19″W / 40.729169°N 73.988682°W |
| Type | Nightclub |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1831 |
| Opened | 1967 |
| Closed | 1971 |
The Electric Circus was a nightclub located at 19-25 St. Marks Place between Second and Third Avenues in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City,[1] from 1967 to August 1971. The club was created by Jerry Brandt, Stanton J. Freeman and their partners and designed by Chermayeff & Geismar.[2] With its invitation (from one of its press releases) to "play games, dress as you like, dance, sit, think, tune in and turn on," and its mix of light shows, music, circus performers and experimental theater, the Electric Circus embodied the wild and creative side of 1960s club culture.
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 mixed-media pleasure dome, and its hallucinogenic light baths enthralled every sector of New York society."[3] Its hedonistic atmosphere also influenced the later rise of disco culture and discotheques.
Experimental bands such as The Velvet Underground, jam bands such as The Grateful Dead, soul acts such as Ike & Tina Turner, and avant-garde composers such as minimalist Terry Riley and electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick played at the club. Other bands played there before they were famous, such as Raven, the Allman Brothers Band, Sly & the Family Stone, and The Chambers Brothers.
- ^ "Discotheques and Clubs of the 1970s/80s » MacArthur's Disco" Archived 2012-12-09 at archive.today at DiscoMusic.com. Retrieved on August 9, 2009.
- ^ Stern, Robert A. M.; Mellins, Thomas; Fishman, David (1995). New York 1960: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Second World War and the Bicentennial. New York: Monacelli Press. p. 258. ISBN 1-885254-02-4. OCLC 32159240. OL 1130718M.
- ^ Lobenthal, Joel. Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990)