[History & Culture] [Crisco's Disco]
Original Sign (from the famous Gay bar?)
Vintage 22 x 25 inch cardboard sign with a large image of a can of Crisco brand shortening, from or related to the famed Crisco Disco which operated in the 1970s and into the 1980s. In his book "Turn the Beat Around," Peter Shapiro recalls the club's giant Crisco can DJ booth, the sleaze, the "wanton open sex," and the drugs. Everyone, said music producer Ian Levine, was "drugged out of their mind, completely drug fucked. No one ever got to go home with anyone because they were just out of it." Though the disco was commonly known as "Crisco's," we have not located another example of a Crisco Disco sign using this spelling (with apostrophe). Also, the given address here is not that of the original club and we think it was therefore most likely created for a tribute incarnation (one of several of which we are aware in both New York and elsewhere) after the shuttering of the original location on 15th St. In very good condition, with corner and other scattered wear including a few small moisture stains at lower right, small area of surface paper lift at bottom left and some surface scratches. (10968)Ephemera