HISTORY LESSON (authentic) NYC Nightlife Jim Fouratt at Hurrah where my nightclub creations began

This is a picture taken by Trix Rosen in 1979 of Jackie Rudin and me at Hurrah. Hot, no? Jackie was the person who introduced me to Robert Boykin and Barbara Lackey who were running HURRAH. The club had been a "beautiful people's" insider nightspot and the most important one in NYC until the day Studio 54 opened. (background: Arthur Weinstein employed by Robert B. to bring new "beautiful people" into HURRAH. "Fresh Meat" those who were not given access would say. Arthur had access to HURRAH's private membership list. In the days before cell phones, facebook, etc. one of the most valuable assets of any successful club was its membership list. Arthur had met these two guys who said they were going to open a club on 54th street. He sold, for a nice sum, Hurrah's deeply protected membership list. Arthur just happened to have it in his back pocket.  Od all those creatures of the night I knew back then,  Weinstein and his beautiful, creative wife Collen deserve the Hollywood narrative biofilm as seen through the art of say, Scorsese. Casting would be a hoot.) Almost overnight HURRAH was a dead zone, R/B tried to reinvent HURRAH putting in a live theatrical show in the early evening. (Tom Eyen's "Way Hannah's Skirt WON'T STAY DOWN !" with Helen Hanft, WOMEN Behiubd BARS with Divine, etc. People came but left when the performance was over to go to Studio.54. Next, R/B brought red-hot publicist/artist manager Jane Friedman (Woodstock, Patti Smith, et.c) and her pal Henry Schiller to do another makeover.  Jane and Henry's concept was to have a "Classic Rock Disco" with WNEW's superstar radio personality MEG GRIFFEN spinning the radio records. Along with disco DJ Jeffery Brown. Meg was adventurous at WNEW.She would not only play the radio "rock chart Hits" of the day but would also work Ramones, etc. into her playlist. But it did not catch on in the way RB hopped. Hurrah was in trouble. One night Jackie asked me to come dancing with her at Hurrah.She said she wanted to intro me to R/B. She knew I needed a job having come back from LA, not a movie star. We met, and Jackie's intro was "here is Jimmie .. he will know how to turn this club around!" Note: I had never been in the nightclub business. But I was intrigued with the pop culture politics of doing nightlife club. Cultural work I thought. We set up a meeting .. I came prepared and worked out a deal that made me creative director of the club in charge of everything, including staffing, but not the bar nor the cash register. Th biggest fight was over their disco DJ (Jeff Brown) they wanted to keep (he was a very good DJ and very good looking ..but his style of disco was more the Saint and Studio and i heard a different dance beat), I brought in Sean Cassette and Mark Kamins. But that is another story for another time. My concept of art, live music/performance, fashion and great beats worked, and they made dance floor history. (It was the beginning of the template that became Danceteria, Peppermint Lounge, et.c) . HURRAH once again became the hot spot of not the "beautiful people" but of the creative community that was a part of the Mudd Social Club, and the remains of Max's Kansas City art crowd Fashion and art were in .. the motto was Dress up/come up. Later Jackie lost her job selling ads to the music industry for the Village Voice. AIDS Crack and MTV took its toll on the adventure of nightlife etc .. And my world turned, as did Jackie's\. We remained friends up until recently when she reinvented her history and life and became downtown's version of a paparazzi picking up many of the rude habits of Ron Galella and the DIY punk attitude of just click and post the picture as fast as you can. Unlike say Patrick McMullen or Dustin Pittman who both had chronicled nightlife and fashion and society up and downtown for years.Each took the time to edit their work to capture the self-image fantasy beauty the participants had of themselves. I remember thinking: We all have the right to reinvent ourselves. But the Jackie I had to know for 40 years became someone I did not know or particularly like. Nor could I continue to collaborate when confronted by others to confirm her self-confabulated history. We parted company. Jackie found a whole new generation of people to click away at, and they love her documentation of themselves. C'est la vie. We had at one point promised each other we would grow old and find ourselves sitting in big rocking chairs on some porch somewhere rocking away and remembering "those fabulous days." Life is complex and friendship has its ups and downs. But I still believe if either one of us was in trouble I trust we would be there for each other. I would.