The Bottom Line, a Historic Nightclub, Calls It Quits
By James Barron | Jan. 24, 2004

The Bottom Line, the Greenwich Village music club that was a launching pad for the likes of Bruce Springsteen and other rock stars, finally shut its doors on Thursday after almost three decades as a music industry landmark, its lawyer said yesterday.

The lawyer, Mark Alonso, said that the club had vacated its space on West Fourth Street, ending a long-simmering landlord-tenant fight that boiled over when New York University took the club to court last fall over its failure to pay more than $185,000 in back rent. N.Y.U. owns the building that housed the Bottom Line, a longtime showcase for unknowns and well-knowns that had fallen on hard times in recent years.

''There was no formal eviction,'' Mr. Alonso said. ''We just turned over the premises.'' Of the club's owners and N.Y.U., he said, ''They parted amicably.''

A spokesman for N.Y.U., Josh Taylor, said, ''It's a sad day for everyone.''

And musicians whose careers had been given a boost at the Bottom Line mourned its closing. ''This is a kind of a grieving period for all of us,'' said Will Lee, a guitarist in the band on ''Late Show with David Letterman.'' ''It was a fight everybody didn't want to lose, but I guess it's over.''

David Johansen, who was the lead singer of the New York Dolls in the 1970's, said the 400-seat club with the postage-stamp-size stage had somehow been more than just a place to perform. ''It's been essentially my living room,'' he said. ''I was very comfortable on that stage. I never really had to think before I walked out; it came naturally to me.''

The club's shutdown came six weeks after a judge set a deadline for it to pay its back rent or face eviction, a deadline the club missed. N.Y.U. went to court saying that the club's owners had ignored a university proposal for a new lease that would have raised the rent. N.Y.U. officials maintained that the Bottom Line, which opened in February 1974, was paying about half what comparable retail space now goes for.

Allan Pepper, who opened the Bottom Line with a partner, Stanley Snadowsky, did not answer a request for comment that was placed with Mr. Alonso yesterday. In September, Mr. Pepper said that the Bottom Line's business dropped off after the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. He said that he had covered the payroll and taxes with about $50,000 in insurance money and emergency aid. He also said the club had paid its monthly $11,000 rent regularly since June.

There had been talk of finding new backers, of arranging a payoff schedule on the back rent. But yesterday, there was only a goodbye message on the club's Web site, www.bottomlinecabaret.com. It thanked fans who had shown support for the club by signing petitions, buying T-shirts and attending performances.

''The Bottom Line has always been about the music, and we find fulfillment in knowing that we have stayed the course and remained true to our vision,'' the message read.

Bottom Line regulars agreed with that idea as they reflected on the closing. ''I just think it's really the end of an era and a type of approach to presenting music that I hope will not die out entirely,'' said Terre Roche of the Roches, a group that began appearing at the Bottom Line soon after it opened. ''Allan had his own way of doing things, and he stuck to his guns.''

And the club, she said, ''wasn't just about what was popular -- he presented things that you wouldn't think would be on the same stage.''

A generation ago, the Bottom Line was a make-or-break stop for new musicians and a stomping ground for established acts. ''For myself, that was a major experience for my group, playing at the Bottom Line,'' Ms. Roche said. She had a party for her 50th birthday there in April. ''I'm very glad to have been able to do that before they closed.''

Many musicians had anticipated the closing even as they dreaded it. ''We never knew what day the ax was going to fall,'' said Richard Barone, the director of ''The Downtown Messiah,'' a modern interpretation of the Handel masterpiece that had been staged at the club for the last six winters. ''We all knew it was coming.''

Mr. Barone said that when he heard on the radio that the Bottom Line had closed, ''my first thought was New York had lost a sacred place like Lourdes or the Taj Mahal.''

''This was where I saw all the rock gods I came to New York to be near: Captain Beefheart, Lou Reed, the Roches,'' he said.

Ms. Roche said she had hoped the club would be rescued. ''You figured somebody was going to step in,'' she said. ''Allan helped foster us by giving us gigs on a regular basis, so I feel a real debt of gratitude to him and the club. I'm going to miss it.''

The Capitol Theatre: A Founding Father’s Reminiscence

Palm Beach Gardens, FL, July 29, 2007—First a little background on me and co/founder John Scher. I started producing concerts in 1968 with Blood, Sweat & Tears at Westchester County Center, White Plains, NY. I then continued with concerts at the South Mountain Arena in West Orange, NJ, in 1969 & 1970 with Iron Butterfly, Richie Havens, Chambers Brothers., Creedence Clearwater, Chuck Berry, Sly & Family Stone, Steppenwolf, Ten Years After and Livingston Taylor.

I met John Scher in 1970. He was producing small concerts at the Embassy Theatre in Orange, NJ. His full time job was as a booking agent for Monarch Entertainment Bureau in East Orange, NJ. They booked local talent for weddings, parties, schools & colleges, etc. When Otto Sternberg, the owner of Monarch, retired he was in his 70’s. John was working for him taking care of the younger acts and he bought half the company when Otto retired. I came in and bought the other half in 1971. I had met John when I produced Livingston Taylor at the South Mountain Arena in West Orange. Kate Taylor, Livingston (and James) Taylor’s younger sister was his opening act. Just for a goof I wanted to do something to liven up the show. I contacted Monarch and John Scher. He recommended “Mr Jigs, the Worlds Smartest Chimp”. The chimp was a big hit and John and I became friends.

At Monarch we booked college shows with the Byrds, Canned Heat, Mountain, Emerson-Lake-Palmer, Ike & Tina Turner, Allman Brothers, etc. We then did a Folk Festival & a Bill Cosby show in White Plains. Our biggest effort in 1971 was a very controversial show with the Jefferson Airplane at Wall Stadium in South Jersey. We sold a fair amount of tickets when the town decided to stop the show. We had spent much of the ticket money for advertising, etc. by then so we were in “deep shit” at the time. The show was set for August 15th and this order from the Township Committee was on July 28th. We hired a good Attorney from Asbury Park and went to court. On August 5th we won in the Monmouth County Court. The Asbury Park Press, the major newspaper in the area, ran a front page headline (in green ink) stating “The Airplane Will Fly”. We could not have bought better publicity and the show was a huge sell out. In fact it was like a minor Woodstock as the fences came down and most of the kids got in free due to the overwhelming crowd. We even had the Hells Angels show up at the front gate. About 30 of them demanded to be let in. I was in the press box above the stadium and the front ticket man called me and asked what he should do. I asked to speak to the “head Angel”. I told him to look up. At the time there were helicopters from the NJ State Police flying above and keeping an eye on things. I told him that if they forced their way in that was just “what the pigs wanted”. After a meeting with the other Angles they decided to ride off in the sunset. I did a deep sigh of relief since there may have been some big trouble with the Angels there. (See Altamont) This was the last show that they allowed in Wall stadium.

By then John and I were looking for something new. The Fillmore East had just closed and we both saw an opening for another theatre of this type in the New York-New Jersey area. Problem was that just about all the movie theatres had contracts with the movie distributors that required them to play the movies on weekends. And weekends were the best time to produce Fillmore type shows. One day my assistant Barry Katcher called me and asked me to meet him at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic. I was a little taken back when arriving since they were showing porno pictures. But when I walked in and saw 3140 seats all on one floor with a stadium type back that went up to a wall that was so small I knew the acoustics would be super. It had been an old vaudeville house complete with back stage dressing rooms and all. Not just a building that ran movies. I called John right away and we met with the manager of the porno movies. He explained that they rented the films on a flat fee and not a percentage of the gross as the “straight” movies worked. We just paid him $100 more a night that he would have made on the porno showings and we had a deal. This was a no brainier for the porno movie manager since most of his business was during the week and in the daytime. I guess this is when the men snuck away without their wives knowing it. Weekends were out of the question for most of their clientele.

So in 1971 we opened the Capitol Theatre. I think that the first show was Humble Pie & J. Geils Band. John handled performer contacts & the backstage scene. I took care of the public aspects from the stage out, like security & advertising. Our idea was to hire as many of the people that worked at the Fillmore in NY. This included the stage people, Pig Light Show and outside security guys. We thought- “why try and invent the wheel” since these people had already been trained by the best- Bill Graham. Head Ushers originally were Bob Pedone and Jim Tierney. Later A.J. Giegerich replaced Jim. Stage Security head was Lonnie Franks with Paul Zablow replacing him in 1972. Sound was Central Jersey with Phoenix Sound replacing them the next year. Stage Manager was Chris Gale, Backstage Hostess was Debbie Faulconbridge, House Photographer was Steve Toth, original outside security were headed up by Arthur Berman, Barry Kantor, Irving Weiner, Tom Sorg and Joe Golden. Pig Light Show was brought from the Fillmore. Our Legal Counsel was Stanley Snadowsky. He and partner Alan ran Folk City in the Village. Our Executive Secretary was Amy Polan, Lighting Directors were Harold Klein and Moyssi and my now wife Barbara was our Box office Assistant.

We produced two shows a night on Friday and Saturday nights. Therefore we were able to offer acts like the Grateful Dead over 6,000 seats and a small intimate acoustically perfect theatre. In 1972 we bought the Capitol from a Dr. Samuel Harris and took over the adjacent stores and movie theatre. We had to honor, until the end of the year, the lease the theater had with Passaic Cinema, Inc. for the showing of the X rated movies during the week. It was a strange combination. Porno films and Rock Concerts. Strangely enough, we were not the city father’s favorite business in the city of Passaic, NJ....

John and I also started producing large outdoor concerts in Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City. We worked together until 1973 until we had one of those silly disagreements that we all look back on and say “what was that all about??” Somehow John got some season tickets to the NY Knick games at Madison Sq. Garden. I think he got only 2 but wanted to keep both for himself and girlfriend Sherri. I also was a big basketball fan and wanted the tickets- or a t least one of them- too. We decided to break up our partnership. Since John held 51% of the stock in Monarch Entertainment, I had to accept a buyout.

I then opened up the Twin City Ballroom in Elizabeth, NJ with NY promoter Howard Stein. It was an old skating rink with no seats. We had the usual half dozen arrests for possession of marijuana and the opening show did draw over 4,000 fans to see J. Geils Band & Black Oak Arkansas but the city of Elizabeth did not want us there. We did a few shows there but they didn’t catch on. My girlfriend Barbara and I were fed up with the NJ winters and moved to Florida. I did a few shows there but the West Palm Beach area did not support many of the acts that I promoted in the NY area. Plus the only theatre I could find was only 800 seats and in the town of Palm Beach. It too has been torn down and is now shops and offices.

—Al Hayward, Co-Founder