Mudd Club
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Mudd Club was a TriBeCa nightclub that was opened in October 1978 by publisher Steve Mass, art curator Diego Cortez and singer Anya Philips. The Mudd Club, located at 77 White Street in downtown Manhattan, quickly became a major fixture in the city's underground music and counterculture scene. It was named after Samuel Alexander Mudd, a doctor who treated John Wilkes Booth in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln's assassination.
In order to secure the space for the Mudd Club (a loft owned by artist Ross Bleckner), Steve Mass described the future venue as cabaret. Mass claims to have started the nightclub on a budget of only $15,000.
The club featured a bar, gender-neutral bathrooms, and a rotating gallery on the fourth floor. Live performances showcased punk rock, new wave, and experimental music.
The Mudd Club acquired a chic, often elitist reputation and was frequented by many of Manhattan's up-and-coming cult celebrities. Individuals associated with the venue included Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Byrne, Arto Lindsay, Lydia Lunch, and Klaus Nomi. The Ramones mentioned it in the song "The Return of Jackie and Judy", Frank Zappa poked fun at it with a song titled after the club that appeared on his albums You Are What You Is, and it is also mentioned by the Talking Heads in their 1979 song "Life During Wartime".
Steve Mass has since moved on to open the Mudd club in Berlin in 2001(Grosse Hamburger Strasse 17), to be seen most nights standing quietly at the end of the bar sipping red wine. This Berlin club is considered an intimate venue for touring bands.
