The Peppermint Lounge: ‘Where the Peppermint Twisters Meet’
The Beatles, Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn, Sinatra — and John Wayne — Twisted at the Trendy Discotheque: ‘New York Groove’ Book Excerpt
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High Society discovered rock and roll at the Peppermint Lounge, 128 West 45th Street, one rainy night in 1961. Joey Dee & the Starliters were on stage, and the young, raucous crowd was doing the Twist, the dance craze popularized by Chubby Checker’s 1960 number-one hit.
“The Peppermint Lounge was in the Theater District,” Dee told the Cape May County (NJ) Herald, “and one night in October of 1961, there was a torrential downpour as the theaters were emptying, and some of the theater crowd came in to get out of the elements.
“They saw the kids and some of the sailors from the Brooklyn Navy Yard dancing, so some of these society people got up and joined them in doing the Twist. A journalist — Cholly Knickerbocker — was there and he wrote about it the next day. All the stars started coming to the Peppermint Lounge. You name it; they were there.”
