The Saint
As the 1980s dawned, a new club called The Saint opened in Manhattan that would dwarf most previous clubs in sheer scope and scale. For its primary clientele, middle to upper class white gay men, The Saint was THE club. Within three weeks of The Saint's opening, 3,000 men had paid $250 to become members. The Saint was seen as representative of a proud, liberated New York City gay community. Unfortunately, the devastation wrought upon the clientele by AIDS would also tie the club to the disease in the minds of many and eventually bring about its closure. Despite ongoing yearly Saint-At-Large parties honoring its legacy, The Saint has not returned.
In the early days of the development of Disco, an affluent, mostly white gay community shuttled between Long Island's Fire Island in the summer and Manhattan in the winter patronizing clubs that catered specifically to their community. These clubs included the Ice Palace and Sandpiper on Fire Island and Flamingo and 12 West in Manhattan. Bruce Mailman, owner of the New St. Mark's Bathhouse and the off-Broadway theater Astor Place, decided to create a Dance club catering to the gay community that would tower over all others. The Saint, a 50,000 square foot tri-level entertainment complex, opened for business on September 20, 1980 at 2nd Avenue and 6th Street in the building that had previously housed the legendary Rock concert hall Fillmore East. A $4.2 million makeover prepared the building for its new role as a Dance venue. A massive 76 foot high dome capped the 4,800 square foot main dance floor. The dome would appear either transparent or opaque depending on the light source being used. A planetarium projector was in place that could at any moment project images of the night sky or a gorgeous sunrise onto the huge dome. The dome also included a small stage for live performances. The Saint deployed a massive sound system that featured nearly 500 speakers. This was a club like no other. Within several months, The Saint's primary rivals, Flamingo and 12 West, had closed down.
The music most often heard at The Saint evolved out of 70's Eurodisco developed by Giorgio Moroder, Cerrone, and others. This music came to be known as Hi-NRG and was identified by its reliance on quick beats, soaring melody, strings, and lyrics of romantic love gained and lost. Thelma Houston, Linda Clifford, Donna Summer, Sylvester, Divine, and the Weather Girls were among the artists revered by those who danced at The Saint. Ian Levine, owner of Heaven, The Saint's counterpart in England , was also a Dance music producer. Levine worked with artists such as Miquel Brown, Earth Kitt, Hazell Dean, and Evelyn Thomas to develop recordings specifically for audiences at The Saint and Heaven. The result was simultaneous Hi-NRG hits on both sides of the Atlantic.
When the dark cloud of AIDS began to grip America's gay community in the mid-1980's, New York City was not spared. Some estimate that nearly half of The Saint's members perished from the disease by the end of the decade. AIDS was so rampant that some began referring to it as 'Saint's disease.' The government of New York City responded to the epidemic by closing down a number of facilities it considered high-risk in spreading the disease. One of these was Bruce Mailman's New St. Mark's Bathhouse which closed in 1985. Around the same time The Saint began admitting heterosexuals as members for the first time to boost declining membership. The Saint struggled on for a few years but finally closed with a nearly 48-hour party April 30 - May 2, 1988. The operating life of The Saint faded out with Jimmy Ruffin's Hold On To My Love and the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The Saint reopened for a brief period in 1989 without its dome but closed permanently 4 months later. In 1994, 5 years later, Bruce Mailman, owner and operator of The Saint, was also claimed by the AIDS epidemic.