Max's Kansas City
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The club reopened in 1975 under new ownership and - under the direction of Peter Crowley - Max's Kansas City became one of the birthplaces of punk rock, featuring bands like Cherry Vanilla, The New York Dolls, Blondie, The Ramones, The Misfits, The Dictators (who were falsely rumored to have been banned from playing there), Wayne County, The Fleshtones, and Patti Smith, as well as out-of-town bands in the same vein such as The Runaways and The Damned. After the breakup of the Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious played many of his solo gigs there.
Max's Kansas City closed its doors for good in November 1981. The building survives and now houses a deli.
In 2001, Yvonne Sewall-Ruskin established the Max's Kansas City Project in memory of the late Mickey Ruskin who fathered two of her children. To honor the spirit inherent in Ruskin's philosophy of helping artists in need, the project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit provides emergency funding and resources for individuals in the arts in crisis and empowers teens through the arts. [1]