The club was first opened around the corner from its current location in 1919 by Lou Brecker, and was host to the likes of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and Frank Sinatra. In later years, Sting, the Rolling Stones and Beyoncé appeared at Roseland.
Messages left for the club’s owner, Laurence Ginsberg, were not returned on Saturday. A promoter said in an interview on Saturday that someone connected to the club had confirmed its plans to close. The promoter asked not to be identified because he wanted to allow the owner to make an official announcement. And John Scher, a longtime concert producer, said he had heard weeks ago about Roseland’s closing.
Steve Martin, a booking agent who organized shows at Roseland for bands like Squeeze and Dream Theater, said he would miss the club, a venue where most of the crowd must stand during the shows.
“It’s a loss,” he said. “Roseland always had a great feeling for the bands and for the audiences.”
The club, on West 52nd Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, is something of an anomaly in an area dominated by high-rise office buildings and expensive hotels. The long, narrow interior, which can hold more than 3,000 people, was never known for great sight lines or acoustics.
A sign on the front of the club on Saturday listed upcoming performances by bands like Simple Minds, Danzig and New World Punx.
In its earlier days, Roseland featured dance marathons, jitterbugging and jazz. Those who took to the dance floor included Betty Grable and Bill Robinson, also known as Bojangles.
The club long had a reputation for romance. More than 700 plaques on the wall commemorated married couples who had met there.
It was also a place where people could go for a more casual type of companionship; hired taxi dancers charging anywhere from a dime to a dollar, depending on the decade, were available for a turn around the room. Mr. Brecker ran the club until his death in 1977, when his daughter, Nancy Brecker Leeds, took over.
“The first thing I tried to do was to get rid of Roseland’s image as a haven for lonely hearts,” Ms. Leeds told The New York Times in 1981. She introduced disco to the club, and in the late 1970s and early 1980s, about 10,000 people a week danced at the club, Ms. Leeds estimated.
Ms. Leeds sold the club in 1981 to a developer, Albert Ginsberg. His son, Laurence Ginsberg assumed control of the place, and soon, live bands began assuming a more prominent place in the club’s schedule.
Yahoo Local News – New York Times
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