In this week’s Magazine, the spirited images capturing nightlife in the ’70s on Chicago’s South Side evoked recollections from our staff about their own clubbing heydays:
Senior Features Editor Brenda Butler: “If I could turn the beat around, my favorite memories were disco dancing at the Paradise, on Broadway. The swankiest club was Faces on Rush Street, where you would see everybody who was anybody; and Dingbat’s, a great after-work setting where Mr. T reigned as a most-favored bouncer. On the South Side, High Chaparral and Burning Spear, to hear jammin’ R&B groups. For later-night, more mellow clubs like Tiger Lounge and Godfather I and II.
“Attire? Miniskirts, dangling earrings, platform heels, bobbed hair with bangs. Sounds like now, doesn’t it?”
Deputy Editor Jeff Lyon: “Have to do it by decades: ’60s, Big John’s, Chances R, Plugged Nickel, Quiet Knight, Mother Blues. Biddy Mulligan’s; ’70s, Zorine’s, Pump Room, Pepitone’s, Hotsy-Totsy Club, Bar Double R; ’80s, 2350 Club, Mr. Kiley’s, Sterch’s. Then got married.”
Production Assistant Anna Seeto: “Amazingrace in Evanston had some great acts. I believe it was a coffeehouse–a smaller, more intimate atmosphere.”
Art Director David Syrek: “My clubbing days in the late ’80’s started at Medusa’s on Sheffield in Chicago. We would drive in from school, eat as cheaply as possible, then go to dance. We would arrive at 11 and emerge bleary-eyed as the sun came up. I also spent a lot of time at Berlin. Alternative music, alternative people. The bartender, Donnie, was a friend, so the drinks were free and the music was great–the edgier side of dance music, New Wave, punk and the emerging electronic sound, much of it from Chicago’s Wax Trax label.”
