Oil Can Harry's

I worked at OIl Can's in 76-77,as a bus boy, and bartender and doorman, decorator,and more. It had a curtain as you came in, and the long bar was on the right,and the dance floor was down three steps on the left, we put int he back bar a year later when the need called for it, and we went through lathe and plaster to open it up.
The clientele was not asians but hot men who wanted to dance, and th emusic was fabulous, john hedges, tom ? and more, sylvester performed a couple of times there,and th sound was designed by bruce tronson...incredible, I helped bruce put little tube lights on all the mirrored posts,and I used to design the decorations for the holidays....It was owned by Bobby Cherot and Terrry...,and he was a terrific guy.

Prior to Oil Can Harry's, the gay Asian club was the Rendezvous on Sutter a block or two off Powell St. When the Rendezvous closed (and it needed to since it was a fire trap waiting to happen), Asians moved to Oil Can Harry's. For a bit, Oil Can was a mainly Asian disco.

The club was on the corner of Larkin & Ellis. It was the largest dance floor In SF at the time. The name was Oil Can Harry's Marathon Ball Room. I spun there In 79-80. The division between the leftside(Dance floor & Juice bar) and the right side(of age only) was a screen, not a curtain. Good light show, and a sound system that you could feel on your skin. Sadly those days are gone!

one of the first clubs i ever went to due to my age at the time. I remember being mesmerized and falling in love with the whole atmosphere. If I'd only known then what I was about to discover over the next few years!!!

The actual address was 709 Larkin @ Ellis. Check out the SF Disco Vault page that I have set up on my web site. There are photo scans from old SF disco magazines as well as DJ Michael Lee's old disco sets from Buzzby's and Bones nightclub.

http://twitchrecordings.com/page23/page23.html

I went a few times and thought it was pretty slick. Bar on the right with 3 crystal chandaliers down the length of the bar, dark walls and to the right I think there were a couple of steps down to the dance floor. Great music, great club. There was a disco dancer on a tiny platform, skimpy shorts and a beautiful body - same guy usually. Small world story - One bartender was Nate. Before he bartended he was assistant manager at a Denny's in San Mateo and hired me as a waiter at Denny's when I was in college. Nate busted his "straight" boss who didn't recognize Nate when he ordered a drink from him. He left real quick - haha.

The owner of this place Oil can Harry's also had an Oil Can in LA so he opened one in San Francisco in 1977; it was the hotest disco for about a year and then it was gone

I went here a few times. If I remember correctly, the main bar was on the right as you entered the door and the dance floor was on the left? It seems like there were curtains between the two???

Correction, it was on Bush Street

Was located on the north side of Pine Street just off Polk Street going toward Larkin.

i went there and i was mainly an gay asian club
good music

One of the first discos I went to. Incredible sound, but it was in a neighborhood you wouldn't want to go to alone.