there's no such "Cat Scratch Club" in NYC- Page 2

[Marquise]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 9:03am

lol!
i totally forgot i wrote that!

[mikewood]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 11:32am

When I say Vegas flash I don't mean a showgirl atmosphere such as "Bite" with those type of production values, but the club depicted in the Rent movie simply reminded me of an Olympic Gardens or Spearmint Rhino in Vegas, certainly not a casino show however. It's safe to say all strip joints are sleazy though some portend to more "upscale" than others. However, NYC strip joints in the mid to late 90's were bad, bad places....so I still would like to think that the club depicted in the movie was as much a dream to Mimi as the Tango Maureen sequence was for Mark....a character choice where she was romanticizing the grim path her life took.

[SuddenlyTrey]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 2:08pm

I love reading all this!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 2:48pm

I was actually just at the Pyramid Club last night -- they still do the 1984 dance party on Friday nights, and the club looks pretty unchanged. Years ago, they used to have strippers,and that actually would have been a good place to film that sequence.

And while there was never anything like what Columbus depicts, there were a couple of S&M/fetish clubs in the East Village. One used to be on B/13th. That was always what I approximated in my mind as being where Mimi worked. It was very small, had a small thrust stage where various "acts" would perform (you name what)and there were a couple of poles on a bar in the back.

[Marquise]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 3:18pm

~ god i can't believe they still do 1984 on friday nights.
i used to have so much fun in that place
~ *sniff...sniff*~

[boatsintheghetto]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 10:04pm

haha what ya'll are saying bout the club being too like richy or whatever....hello its a movie, not the play, movies dont like drubby dumpy stuff, they like glamour, even in a strip club in a movie about the poor life of NYC.... know what i mean? though i really dont know much about the NYC strip club scene haha

[Jon]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 10:45pm

Nowhere near the East Village, but I remember in the mid-90's there was an underground dance/strip/fetish club in Tribeca, where celebs like Drew Barrymore used to show up on occasion. It had girls in animal costumes dancing in cages, etc. The type of place you might find Mimi doing a lawnchair/handcuff dance. It was just south of Canal, just west of Broadway - a couple of blocks from Chinatown.
Updated On: 11/26/05 at 10:45 PM

[Marquise]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 11:44pm

"haha what ya'll are saying bout the club being too like richy or whatever....hello its a movie, not the play, movies dont like drubby dumpy stuff, they like glamour, even in a strip club in a movie about the poor life of NYC.... know what i mean? though i really dont know much about the NYC strip club scene haha'

~ now try posting that again, but this time in ENGLISH


Updated On: 11/26/05 at 11:44 PM

[Ebonic_Singer]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 1:35am

Boo go back to memory lane! This thread is very interesting and a glimpse not really seen into the East village in the late 80's/early 90's.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 1:38pm

I started this thing, and I'm glad it's provoked nostalgia. It was a different NYC then, no? No, I wasn't calling the filmmakers on the lack of a "real" club named Cat Scratch. I meant, as many have backed me up, Margo in particular, the Scores-esque ambiance simply didn't exist.

Actually, if Columbus had simply listened closely to all the lyrics about where Mimi worked, he would've come up with something approximating what many posters have suggested. "Tie me up" and "I didn't recognize you without the handcuffs..." This was decidedly alternative entertainment, far removed from FLASHDANCE.

I'm the last person to defend Columbus, but I suspect he felt the material needed balance, i.e. there was so much inherent grit (needle shots, authentic-enough AIDS death scenes, strung out feverish folk near death) ... he wanted the prettier stuff to be ... well, prettier. Even Larson wasn't adverse to rose colored glasses, as many have pointed out.

That said ...since "Tango Maureen" showed a really creative take on that song... Maybe, as someone opined, we could've seen Mimi's real working gig, and then her fantasy version? It would've also told us that Mimi'd had her own dream. But wait--that's SWEET CHARITY, isn't it? Whatever.

[nydirector2]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 4:20pm

Guess what!?!?!?!

People don't sing either in the East Village when they can't pay their landlord!!!

Oh My God!!!!

[Plum]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 4:38pm

Nuh-uh. Listen, no one here is calling for total realism, because total realism makes a boring-as-hell movie. Even editing of a documentary is alteration of "reality". But people expect consistent rules within the reality of the show. So if the world of the show is a gritty East Village where people sing, well, the grit should be consistent. That's all.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 4:40pm

This thread makes no sense to me. So what if there is no CAT SCRATCH CLUB in NYC?!? In Spider-Man, it takes place in NYC but there is no DAILY BUGLE . It is a movie people not real life.

Updated On: 11/27/05 at 04:40 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 6:37pm

Jon, that club was called The Blue Angel. I remember seeing two dancers in Mini mouse costumes doing a striptease and simulating a lesbian sex act! Strange but fun place!

[Luvinbroadway]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 8:22pm

I have very fond (albeit blurry) memories of "The Cat Club" on Broadway around 12th street (near the STrand).
It was a hot spot in the Mid 1980's and did feature cages (2 if my memory serves me right)!

[weezarian]

Posted: 7/21/06 at 12:19am

the scene was filmed on the main dance floor stage at a club called the crib in san francisco.

www.thecribsf.com

i know because i go there and it was shut down for about a week for the filming.

:P

just thought you'd like to know.

[blaxx]

Posted: 7/21/06 at 1:26am

Nuh-uh. Listen, no one here is calling for total realism, because total realism makes a boring-as-hell movie.

Oh, I wish Columbus could have read that before filming a boring-as-hell movie.

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 7/21/06 at 2:23am

Jerby, I'll scratch your cat

[rickydrummer]

Posted: 7/21/06 at 11:25am

"There's no Cat Scratch Club?! Next you're going to tell me there's no performance space with a giant metal sculpture inside."

Well, slightly unrelated, but the Christmas sculpture the stage set is based on really exists on Avenue B and 6th street in a community garden. It has all kinds of crazy objects propped up into it -- flags, toys, religious objects, pop culture items.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/21/06 at 11:30am

Wow, eight months later, I really still care.

It's done. Get over it, people. I honestly laughed when I saw that this thread was back.