If you were lucky, celebrities like Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, or Salvador Dalí might be in attendance on any given night. Knockers had one benefit over clapping: You didn’t have to put down your drink to use them. On the tables would be souvenir knockers, a small wooden ball on the end of a stick emblazoned with the club’s name, which patrons would tap on the table when they were pleased with a performance or wanted to call a waiter. Located in what was then a remote edge of the Lower East Side, it was not far off the Bowery, back when the Bowery was more skid row than Standard Hotel.īut once you made it there, you’d descend the steep stairs into an elegant, transporting nightclub decked out in the height of mid-century kitsch: mirrored columns, plastic palm fronds, elaborate banquettes, and white tablecloths.
A basement nightclub at 82 East Fourth Street, it wasn’t much to look at from the outside. If you were an adventurous visitor to New York City in the 1950s or 1960s, you might have found your way to the 82 Club. (Top) A postcard from 82 Club (New-York Historical Society) (Above) A brochure from the Club, which was known interchangeably as 82 Club and Club 82 (Courtesy of Joe E.
