Friends pave the way for disco era
Picture a 1970s New York nightclub where Stevie Wonder flew in to regularly celebrate his birthdays. And a club that had actress Elizabeth Taylor, award-winning songwriters Ashford and Simpson, pop art pioneer Andy Warhol and Chic band co-founder Nile Rogers as patrons too.
No, not Studio 54! The dance clubs were a part of The Best of Friends’ empire of impactful and memorable New York nightspots — Leviticus, Othello (later renamed Justine’s) and Bogard’s in Manhattan, Lucifer’s in Queens, and Brandi’s in Brooklyn.
They were eight local college students — who began their business reign years before Studio 54 and America’s disco craze.
The Best of Friends deftly analyzed New York’s late-night entertainment scene in 1971, found a key niche, and invested in a then sought-after product — after-work and weekend nightspots that morphed into discos, featuring mesmerizing lights and infectious, danceable music.
Through its nightclub and discotheques, The Best of Friends catered to hundreds of thousands well-dressed patrons more than a half decade before discos and dance music became linked to the ill-fated Studio 54 nightclub, and Hollywood’s critically acclaimed, disco dance-drama “Saturday Night Fever” in 1977.
In conjunction with this year’s 50th anniversary of TBOF’s nightclub beginnings, group member Noel Hankin has released a book called “After Dark: Birth of the Disco Dance Party,” which tells of TBOF and details the monumentally successful venture.
Sponsored by the SIP NYC black-owned wine and spirits marketing firm and TMI & Partners, the book signing, and panel discussion will be held Dec. 2 in Brooklyn at the Simpson restaurant, 673 Atlantic Ave., near the Barclays Center, from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Hankin, a TBOF co-founder, will be joined at the affair by a group of panelists — including TBOF partner Mal Woolfork, New York bar owner Calvin Clark, and Coviello Salines, the owner of the naturally blue Amour Geneve brand of wine.
Visit bit.ly/afterdarkbooksigning, discoafterdark.com, and call James Frazier at info@thesipny.com for more information.
“It’s a story that’s never been told,” said Hankin, who proudly says the “After Dark” book “sets the record straight — letting the world know the role we played in creating the disco craze, that we were the originators; the first.”
The TBOF clubs attracted celebrities, radio disc jockeys, music industry executives, notorious gangsters and thousands of everyday people, all with similar goals — to network, dance and have a great time.
Hankin, a retired senior vice president for the Moet Hennessy USA importers, came to America from Jamaica at age 3.
“Discotheques existed before us, but none of them created a disco craze. Black folks created what became the disco craze,” Hankin said, describing disco music as “a mashup of R&B, soul and funk.”
“I’m talking about the early disco, not the electronic stuff that came later. That early disco music, which had lyrics, had vocals, and had melody, that’s what’s still popular today.”
As a tribute to that memorable music of the 1970s, Hankin includes an appendix of favorite songs from the Leviticus nightclub in “After Dark.”
Curated by two TBOF partners, Danny Berry and Charles “CP” Perry, the songs included “Dance, Dance, Dance” and “Le Freak” by Chic, Dennis Coffey’s “Scorpio,” Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” “In the Bush” by Misique, and “Soul Makossa” by Manu Dibango.
TBOF members — President Tony Cooper, and members Hankin, Andre Smith, Woolfolk, Berry, Harry Felder, Perry and Wayne Scarbrough — met and bonded while they were students attending Queens College, Hofstra University, the Fashion Institute of Technology, tdhe New York Institute of Technology, St. John’s University, Fordham and Pace.
Before delving into the nightclub business, TBOF members were busy promoting concerts, featuring R&B bands Junior Walker and the All Stars and the Jimmy Castor Bunch, Latin stars Eddie Palmieri, Joe Cuba and others. They also attended and hosted house parties and fraternal events — paying keen attention to the process of how to present a dance affair.
Later, while working for the Young and Rubicam ad agency, Hankin attended an after-work birthday party at the staid La Martinique club in the fall of 1970 and found a remarkable occurrence — “Black folks dancing midweek like it was Saturday night.”
He had already come to grips with the lack of after-work entertainment in Midtown, despite the growing number of African-Americans and Hispanics employed by corporate firms following the discrimination-prohibiting Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The sad norm for the increasing number of black corporate workers — with newly gained disposable income — was to head home after work, because “there was no place where they felt comfortable.”
But the La Martinique birthday party was out of the ordinary, Hankin recalled vividly.
“It was so exciting to me. And they were dancing to recorded music, which was relatively rare for Midtown.” At the time, dancing in Midtown usually took place in a hotel ballroom, accompanied by live music.
He quickly relayed the discovery to TBOF members, who decided to start their 1971 dance club venture in a venue smaller than La Martinique — the nearby, smaller Ginza club on a Thursday night. And it worked!
“It was a very exciting experience for those who attended. It was almost euphoric! We played the music we knew our people would embrace, and keep them on the dance floor,” he said of the dances at the Ginza events.