The Crisco Disco was a

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

discotheque notable in the history of modern

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

and

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

cultures. The venue was an important gay club located at 15th Street and 10th Avenue in the " Meatpacking District", a neighborhood in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

that runs roughly from West 14th Street south to Gansevoort Street, and from the Hudson River east to Hudson Street. It operated from the 1970s to the 1980s during the disco era, and it has been compared in importance to other NYC clubs such as Paradise Garage. In 2015, Michael Musto listed Crisco Disco as one of the eight "...edgiest YC venuesthat shall never be recaptured." The club had a large DJ booth where DJs would mix records for the dancers. As a DJ booth, the club constructed a giant, mock vintage can of Crisco shortening. Around the time of the gay liberation movement, men commonly used Crisco as a

lubricant A lubricant (sometimes shortened to lube) is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, ...

for anal fisting since it was inexpensive and widely available. It was prominently featured in gay pornography such as '' Erotic Hands'' (1980) before specialized products became available. As a result, "Crisco" became a euphemism for fisting in gay slang. According to Drew Sawyer, in the 1970s, cans of Crisco were "so synonymous with gay sex that discos and bars around the world took on the name, such as Crisco Disco in New York City, one of the premiere clubs during the 1970s and early 1980s." A 1998 book entitled ''Gay Macho: The Life and Death of the Homosexual Clone'' states that "many circuit bars, discos, and sex clubs had names that evoked sexual experience", including "Cockring, a popular nonmembership dance club". Bill Brewster's history of DJ culture states that in New York City clubs such as Crisco Disco, Mineshaft and

Anvil An anvil is a metalworking tool consisting of a large block of metal (usually Forging, forged or Steel casting, cast steel), with a flattened top surface, upon which another object is struck (or "worked"). Anvils are massive because the hi ...

, "dancing took second place to sex".Brewster, Bill. ''Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey''. Grove Press, 2014. p. 222

References

1970s establishments in New York City 1980s disestablishments in New York (state) 1980s in Manhattan Defunct LGBTQ drinking establishments in New York City Defunct LGBTQ nightclubs in New York (state) Electronic dance music venues Gay culture in New York (state) Meatpacking District, Manhattan Nightclubs in Manhattan {{LGBT in New York Fisting subculture

See also

References