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The Limelight
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The Limelight
The Limelight was a chain of nightclubs owned and operated by Peter Gatien. It had locations in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, London and Hallandale, Florida.
Peter Gatien opened the first Limelight nightclub in Hallandale, Florida, in the 1970s. The club was featured in the Jerry Lewis movie Hardly Working. Following a devastating fire on the early morning of May 6, 1980, Gatien chose Atlanta for his next incarnation of the club. The Atlanta Limelight opened in February 1980. It was housed in a strip mall at the former site of the Harlequin Dinner Theater.
The Limelight in Atlanta was a high-profile Euro-style night club designed and built in partnership with Guy Larente from Montreal, Quebec who helped in the build of the Limelight series. The Limelight in Atlanta hosted many notables and celebrities over the years. A single photo taken in June 1981 skyrocketed the focus on the club, when celebrity photographer Guy D'Alema captured an image of Anita Bryant dancing the night away with evangelist Russ McGraw, known in gay communities as an activist. Several hundred newspapers and magazines ran the photo with the headline “Anita Upset Over Disco Photo”.
Peter Gatien relished the publicity. The club hosted many Interview Magazine events that brought names like Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, Debbie Harry, Burt Reynolds, Ali MacGraw, and Village People's Randy Jones, among others to the club. Other celebrity sightings included Tom Cruise, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, Pia Zadora, Shannon Tweed, Gene Simmons, Rick Springfield and Mamie Van Doren, to name but a few. The club also served as a location for Hal Ashby's film The Slugger's Wife (1985), which starred Rebecca De Mornay.
In 1983, when Gatien relocated to New York to open another Limelight club, his brother Maurice managed the Atlanta club. Maurice reportedly had less talent for running a nightclub than Gatien. "Peter was the brains behind the operation," according to house photographer and publicist Guy D'Alema. "Maurice ... didn't want to spend a dime and didn't have a creative bone in his body." The Atlanta club was located next to a 24-hour Kroger grocery store, which became known widely as "Disco Kroger."
In July 2010, several former Limelight employees – including Randy Easterling, Jim Redford, Noel Aguirre, and Aron Siegel – along with a few of their regular customer dancers – including Jonathan Spanier and Bret Roberts – produced "One More Night at the Limelight", a 30th Anniversary Party, at The Buckhead Theatre, formerly The Roxy Theatre. Due to the party's success and great attendance, combined with the untimely death of one of its organizers (Spanier), the remaining team produced another party, "Limelight Revisited: Déjà vu Discotheque", on August 6, 2011, at Center Stage Atlanta in midtown Atlanta.
The Limelight in Chicago was housed in the former home of the Chicago Historical Society; the building itself is a historic structure. It was opened in 1985, and became Excalibur nightclub in 1989. The steps to the entrance led to a hallway lined with museum cases that housed carnival like models dancing and generally moving about. There were several levels to the club. The main dance floor had a stage for the DJ. There were several private rooms that often played host to a bevy of celebrities both in music and in sports. The alternative music scene was critical at the Limelight as it played late into the 5 a.m. hour in Chicago on Saturday nights.[citation needed]
From 1985, the Limelight in London was located in a former Welsh Presbyterian church on Shaftesbury Avenue, just off Cambridge Circus, which dates from the 1890s. The London club's decline in popularity led to the club being sold as a going concern, eventually being taken over in 2003 by Australian pub chain The Walkabout, which converted it into a sports bar. In 2013 the Walkabout eventually ceased trading and the premises is empty and awaiting conversion to a new performing arts use by the charity Stone Nest.
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The Limelight
The Limelight was a chain of nightclubs owned and operated by Peter Gatien. It had locations in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, London and Hallandale, Florida.
Peter Gatien opened the first Limelight nightclub in Hallandale, Florida, in the 1970s. The club was featured in the Jerry Lewis movie Hardly Working. Following a devastating fire on the early morning of May 6, 1980, Gatien chose Atlanta for his next incarnation of the club. The Atlanta Limelight opened in February 1980. It was housed in a strip mall at the former site of the Harlequin Dinner Theater.
The Limelight in Atlanta was a high-profile Euro-style night club designed and built in partnership with Guy Larente from Montreal, Quebec who helped in the build of the Limelight series. The Limelight in Atlanta hosted many notables and celebrities over the years. A single photo taken in June 1981 skyrocketed the focus on the club, when celebrity photographer Guy D'Alema captured an image of Anita Bryant dancing the night away with evangelist Russ McGraw, known in gay communities as an activist. Several hundred newspapers and magazines ran the photo with the headline “Anita Upset Over Disco Photo”.
Peter Gatien relished the publicity. The club hosted many Interview Magazine events that brought names like Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, Debbie Harry, Burt Reynolds, Ali MacGraw, and Village People's Randy Jones, among others to the club. Other celebrity sightings included Tom Cruise, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, Pia Zadora, Shannon Tweed, Gene Simmons, Rick Springfield and Mamie Van Doren, to name but a few. The club also served as a location for Hal Ashby's film The Slugger's Wife (1985), which starred Rebecca De Mornay.
In 1983, when Gatien relocated to New York to open another Limelight club, his brother Maurice managed the Atlanta club. Maurice reportedly had less talent for running a nightclub than Gatien. "Peter was the brains behind the operation," according to house photographer and publicist Guy D'Alema. "Maurice ... didn't want to spend a dime and didn't have a creative bone in his body." The Atlanta club was located next to a 24-hour Kroger grocery store, which became known widely as "Disco Kroger."
In July 2010, several former Limelight employees – including Randy Easterling, Jim Redford, Noel Aguirre, and Aron Siegel – along with a few of their regular customer dancers – including Jonathan Spanier and Bret Roberts – produced "One More Night at the Limelight", a 30th Anniversary Party, at The Buckhead Theatre, formerly The Roxy Theatre. Due to the party's success and great attendance, combined with the untimely death of one of its organizers (Spanier), the remaining team produced another party, "Limelight Revisited: Déjà vu Discotheque", on August 6, 2011, at Center Stage Atlanta in midtown Atlanta.
The Limelight in Chicago was housed in the former home of the Chicago Historical Society; the building itself is a historic structure. It was opened in 1985, and became Excalibur nightclub in 1989. The steps to the entrance led to a hallway lined with museum cases that housed carnival like models dancing and generally moving about. There were several levels to the club. The main dance floor had a stage for the DJ. There were several private rooms that often played host to a bevy of celebrities both in music and in sports. The alternative music scene was critical at the Limelight as it played late into the 5 a.m. hour in Chicago on Saturday nights.[citation needed]
From 1985, the Limelight in London was located in a former Welsh Presbyterian church on Shaftesbury Avenue, just off Cambridge Circus, which dates from the 1890s. The London club's decline in popularity led to the club being sold as a going concern, eventually being taken over in 2003 by Australian pub chain The Walkabout, which converted it into a sports bar. In 2013 the Walkabout eventually ceased trading and the premises is empty and awaiting conversion to a new performing arts use by the charity Stone Nest.
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