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Nelson Sullivan
John Nelson Sullivan (March 15, 1948 – July 4, 1989) was an American videographer who chronicled life in Downtown Manhattan’s arts and club scene from 1976 until his death. His hundreds of videos documented daily life in the city, nights out on the town and private moments with friends in the local entertainment community, including RuPaul, Keith Haring, Sylvia Miles, Larry Tee, Susanne Bartsch, Tom Rubnitz, Lady Bunny, Phoebe Legere, Michael Musto, Ethyl Eichelberger, John Sex, and Michael Alig.
Viewed today, Sullivan’s video record of his life represents a pre-Internet form of vlogging, while his frequently used technique of turning the camera to face himself clearly anticipates the modern selfie.
In 2012, Sullivan’s video archive was received as a donation by the Fales Library & Special Collections at New York University. Edited versions of select tapes may be viewed on the YouTube channel 5NinthAvenueProject.
Sullivan was born in Kershaw, South Carolina, on March 15, 1948. He was the younger of two sons in a family that was attached to a large cotton fortune. When he was about five years old, Sullivan’s family moved next-door to the family of another young boy, James Prioleau Richards III. “Dick” Richards was to become his lifelong friend, artistic partner, and the person most responsible for preserving Sullivan’s archive. Richards recalled, “We were both clocked as sissy/queer early on, which didn't make for a pleasant school experience.” However, he noted that even their small town offered opportunities for cultural advancement: Sullivan’s mother secured teachers to instruct him in art and the piano, and both boys were well read. Films at the town cinema and shows on television offered tantalizing possibilities of a glittering life far away. These elements, Richards said, “are the deep background for Nelson’s video art — loving to go out to experience the glamour of nightclubs and theater after having envied it so long; relishing the freedom that a large city gives for self-expression that a small town scorns.”
After graduating from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, with a degree in English, Sullivan moved to Manhattan in 1971. While many men his age were being sent to the Vietnam War, Sullivan was classified 4-F as the result of injuries he received in a near-fatal fall into an abandoned gold mine as a youth. This allowed him the freedom to undertake post-graduate studies, including film school. Sullivan also ran his own hair salon, with a summer location on Fire Island. Later, Sullivan became a cab driver in Manhattan and then a part-time music consultant at Joseph Patelson Music House, a classical music specialty store in the shadow of Carnegie Hall. The flexibility of working part-time gave him the freedom to explore the city’s late-night entertainment scene. In 1981, Sullivan rented a creaky three-story house at 5 Ninth Avenue in the Meatpacking District, which was then still many years away from its rebirth as a fashionable area.
Larry Tee, Sullivan’s friend and one of his last roommates, recalled in 2021 that the “dilapidated turn-of-the-century building” was “made from pieces of old ships, and thus you could see through holes in the floor to the floor below, in certain places.”
In 1981, Dick Richards, James Bond, and Potsy Duncan used newly available home video equipment to create a weekly television program, The American Music Show, which was cablecast on Atlanta’s public access television channel. On a visit to Atlanta, Sullivan was impressed with Richards’ new video camera and soon bought his own set. The equipment consisted of a shoebox-size camera held on the shoulder and a recorder deck and battery pack hung from a shoulder strap. (Later, Sullivan used lighter and more maneuverable Kyocera and Ricoh 8mm camcorders.)
In 1983, Sullivan began videotaping his excursions to booming nightclubs like the Saint, The Limelight, Danceteria and Tunnel, as well as dives like the Pyramid Club and C.B.G.B. In addition to stage shows, he captured backstage intimacies and after-party antics. He videotaped the rotating cast of characters who made their way to his home. And he taped long walks with his rescue dog Blackout through the sleepy predawn streets after nights of clubbing, and evening strolls along the Hudson River piers as the sun set.
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Nelson Sullivan
John Nelson Sullivan (March 15, 1948 – July 4, 1989) was an American videographer who chronicled life in Downtown Manhattan’s arts and club scene from 1976 until his death. His hundreds of videos documented daily life in the city, nights out on the town and private moments with friends in the local entertainment community, including RuPaul, Keith Haring, Sylvia Miles, Larry Tee, Susanne Bartsch, Tom Rubnitz, Lady Bunny, Phoebe Legere, Michael Musto, Ethyl Eichelberger, John Sex, and Michael Alig.
Viewed today, Sullivan’s video record of his life represents a pre-Internet form of vlogging, while his frequently used technique of turning the camera to face himself clearly anticipates the modern selfie.
In 2012, Sullivan’s video archive was received as a donation by the Fales Library & Special Collections at New York University. Edited versions of select tapes may be viewed on the YouTube channel 5NinthAvenueProject.
Sullivan was born in Kershaw, South Carolina, on March 15, 1948. He was the younger of two sons in a family that was attached to a large cotton fortune. When he was about five years old, Sullivan’s family moved next-door to the family of another young boy, James Prioleau Richards III. “Dick” Richards was to become his lifelong friend, artistic partner, and the person most responsible for preserving Sullivan’s archive. Richards recalled, “We were both clocked as sissy/queer early on, which didn't make for a pleasant school experience.” However, he noted that even their small town offered opportunities for cultural advancement: Sullivan’s mother secured teachers to instruct him in art and the piano, and both boys were well read. Films at the town cinema and shows on television offered tantalizing possibilities of a glittering life far away. These elements, Richards said, “are the deep background for Nelson’s video art — loving to go out to experience the glamour of nightclubs and theater after having envied it so long; relishing the freedom that a large city gives for self-expression that a small town scorns.”
After graduating from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, with a degree in English, Sullivan moved to Manhattan in 1971. While many men his age were being sent to the Vietnam War, Sullivan was classified 4-F as the result of injuries he received in a near-fatal fall into an abandoned gold mine as a youth. This allowed him the freedom to undertake post-graduate studies, including film school. Sullivan also ran his own hair salon, with a summer location on Fire Island. Later, Sullivan became a cab driver in Manhattan and then a part-time music consultant at Joseph Patelson Music House, a classical music specialty store in the shadow of Carnegie Hall. The flexibility of working part-time gave him the freedom to explore the city’s late-night entertainment scene. In 1981, Sullivan rented a creaky three-story house at 5 Ninth Avenue in the Meatpacking District, which was then still many years away from its rebirth as a fashionable area.
Larry Tee, Sullivan’s friend and one of his last roommates, recalled in 2021 that the “dilapidated turn-of-the-century building” was “made from pieces of old ships, and thus you could see through holes in the floor to the floor below, in certain places.”
In 1981, Dick Richards, James Bond, and Potsy Duncan used newly available home video equipment to create a weekly television program, The American Music Show, which was cablecast on Atlanta’s public access television channel. On a visit to Atlanta, Sullivan was impressed with Richards’ new video camera and soon bought his own set. The equipment consisted of a shoebox-size camera held on the shoulder and a recorder deck and battery pack hung from a shoulder strap. (Later, Sullivan used lighter and more maneuverable Kyocera and Ricoh 8mm camcorders.)
In 1983, Sullivan began videotaping his excursions to booming nightclubs like the Saint, The Limelight, Danceteria and Tunnel, as well as dives like the Pyramid Club and C.B.G.B. In addition to stage shows, he captured backstage intimacies and after-party antics. He videotaped the rotating cast of characters who made their way to his home. And he taped long walks with his rescue dog Blackout through the sleepy predawn streets after nights of clubbing, and evening strolls along the Hudson River piers as the sun set.