New York Was Such A Pity, But At Max's Kansas City, We Won...

(Part 1 of several...)

So, it's probably "No Surprize" (the Aerosmith song that this entry's title is taken from) to you all that I have this mild obsession with famed New York City nightspot Max's Kansas City (that sadly no longer exists).  "The back room" at Max's was the coolest, hippest place to be in the city circa 1972, and the great club, owned by Mickey Ruskin, was the home away from home for a slew of rock's most infamous players and their fabulous counterparts.  Max’s opened at the end of 1965, and quickly attracted its New York School neighbors – artists, painters, sculptors, fashion designers (Betsey Johnson being one), and then Andy Warhol. After Andy and his Factory crew regulars started to frequent there, others quickly followed. The Glam Scene of the early 70's brought some of rock's elite to Max's, not just to dine on Lobster and chick peas and luxuriate in the back room, but also to perform.  The New York Dolls, The Stooges and Aerosmith were regulars, and developed quite a following based on their early performances there.  Bruce Springsteen, Gram & Emmylou, Tom Waits and many others passed through in the early 70's, before Max's became the stomping ground for predominantly punk rock and new wave groups in the late 70's (after Mickey was no longer the owner). But it wasn't just the well-known faces that, in perusing the books "High On Rebellion: Inside The Underground at Max's Kansas City" and "Max's Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock n' Roll", I found so compelling; it was also those Max's regulars that, infamous at one time, are relatively unknown, people like Wayne County and tragic Warholian Andrea Feldman, who, at 24, committed suicide by jumping off a building. There were so many fabulous people, and great photographers like Anton Perich, Leee Black Childers, and Danny Fields (only to name the most ubiquitous) were there to capture it all. Mickey Ruskin was a unique club owner in that he was a true patron of the arts; Lou Reed fondly recalls living on Mickey’s hospitality at Max’s to keep him alive: “Mickey, thin, hawk-faced, dark stringy hair severely parted and forever hanging over his right eye, was personally responsible for my survival for three years because he fed me every day. While I sometimes showed up for the five PM buffet, it was actually the ‘tab’ that made it possible for me and a small army of other artists to exist just to the left of the line that defines more extreme modes of criminality… People thought the Velvet Underground really existed, this appendage of Warhol’s. But we were broke, totally and completely and always had been. Money went for drugs or drink—not food. And there was never any money. But there was always Mickey and Max’s. We had a home in Mickey’s game room, this extension of his psyche, his home. He was interested in artists. He liked them. He wanted them to have a place. He wanted them to survive…”

Max's postcard (notice some fabulous faces here?) put together by Leee Black Childers:

 Oliviero Toscani and Donna Jordan:

Alice Cooper:

Dorothy Dean & Jackie Curtis:

Pristine Condition:

Tinkerbell:

Viva and Andy Warhol:

Joe Sallessandro:

Photographer Leee Black Childers and Ava Cherry:

 
Unidentified, Jackie Curtis, and Richard Harris, 1972:

Bob Colacello & Gerard Malanga, 1970:

Elodie & Jean-Pierre Kalfon, 1974:

A conspicuous and debonair Mick Jagger:

 The Dolls live at Max's:

Television's Tom Verlaine and Patti Smith:

Iggy & Lou x 2:

Johnny fuckin' Thunders:

Heartbreakers-era Johnny Thunders:

Celebratory David Johansen:

BFFs Patti Smith & Robert Mapplethorpe:

Back room regulars:

The center aisle: 

John Waters:

 

David & Cyrinda Foxe....Max's golden couple:

 

Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris...a much beloved duo that I would kill to have seen here:

 THE BOSS, before he was, well, The Boss:

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful Bebe Buell, often seen at Max's with her steady partner, Todd Rundgren:

 

Andrea Feldman:

 

All images posted here = scanned by me. Further reading?  Get "High on Rebellion: Inside The Underground at Max's Kansas City", or "Max's Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock and Roll".  As usual, please contact me if you would like a photo in my original scanned size (usually very large).

Photographer credits:

1 - Leee Black Childers

4-6, 8, 9, 11-14, 17-22, 26, 28, 29-33, 46-51, 53-55 - Anton Perich

7 - Brigid Berlin

10 - Billy Name

15, 16 - Elliott Landy

23-25, 34-36 - Danny Fields

27 - Stephanie Chernikowski

37-43, 45 - Lily Hou**

44 - Chuck Pulin

 52 - Archie Strips

**Please note that Lily Hou has prints available of her photos, including unpublished ones.**