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Disco Music > Discotheques and Clubs Index > Ice Palace
Ice Palace
Fire Island (Long Island),
New York
DJs:
Roy Thode
John Ceglia
Not to be confused with the Ice Palace on 57th Street in New York City.
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COMMENTS ON THIS DISCO / DISCOTHEQUE / NIGHTCLUB
Ice Palace was on 57th between 7th and 6th and Frank Houlihan was their DJ for ages...
yes the ice palace was there. naturally i was there a few times. there is also (still today as far as i know) a disco in cherry grove called the ice palace. dont know which came first. the one on fire island looks like it's been there since the dawn of time.
The Ice Palace on 57th Street was a magical place.........Saturday nights, originally Bobby DJ and Frank Hulihan were the main attractions.....On Sundays, Frank Hulihan was the resident DJ, however, you could certainly hear Wayne Scott, Scott Blackwell, Henry Winslow and a slew of other "old school" maestros that were FIERCE............
Sunday's had a mixture of pure gay and pure straight folks who co-mingled in perfect HARMONY.............There was a guy at the door Dominic who looked like BIGFOOT from the Six Million Dollar Man TV series.........
The place was totally fierce! It had strobe lights flashing from the floor so when they flashed, YOU FLASHED....
The first time I went to the Ice Palace, Syvia's Automatic Lover was playing and Frank Hulihan mixed it into Boris Midney's "Baby Love (I'm Gonna Love you baby, I'm Gonna Dance with you tonight....Baby Love...........)
Totally off the wall......You could hear songs like, Paul Parker's "Right On Target," BB Band, "All Night Long....", Lisa's Disconet Mix of Jump Shout.....Eloise Whittaker's "Don't Turn Your Back On Love," "Time Bandits" "You've Got To Live It Up," Patrick Cowley's Disconet Mix of "Thank God For Music..." ah, the list goes on and on...............................
This was a magical place...I use to go on Sundays for the last 4 years it was open and I never missed a Sunday..........You could hear, "Laura Branigan's Solatiare...."Oh Romeo's THESE MeMORIES, haunting me.....!!! Irene Cara's Flashdance....It's Raining Men played back and forth to enlongate the intro to screams on the dance floor.....
Those magical Pina Coladas.......So much to say about this magical "long lost" club.....
The Ice Palace closed and became a Black Club called "The Silver Shadow" owned by the folks who owned Bentleys and the Red Parrot......Originally the owners of the Ice Palace also opened The Red Parrot, however, they probably sold them both to new owners who were prime providers of Black R&B type clubs.....
The last night at the Ice Palace Frank Hulihan tore that club up..........He mixed like he never mixed in his entire life......He did a mix with Love & Kisses, You'll Never Know How Much I Love You and Sharon Redd's In The Name Of Love that you had to be there to hear...I don't have the proper language to to it justice, however, it was one for the record books...
You see, DJs back then, mixed for musical content, musical drama and an obvious collaboration of musical integrity....They did not have to think about all these stipulations, them came to them by osmosis....Djs knew what they knew...
Today being a DJ is totally BORING......You mix beats and at the end of the night, you could swear all you heard for 14 hours (if you stay that long) was one DAMM LONG SONG.............
Back then, you almost wanted to make a song list everytime you went to hear Robbie Leslie play at the Saint....You wanted to go to Vinylmania and Rock & Soul and buy all the records you heard because you could actually say you heard that song or this song...
Today, you don't have a clue what to say about what you heard..................
I am glad to have lived during the Ice Palace, Underground, Xenon, Studio 54, Palladium, The Saint, River Club, The Monster (in its hey day..) The original LIme LIght.....etc..................
Chao!
Alex
Etched in my memory is the first Saturday night I spent at the Ice Palace Fire Island. Roy Thode was spinning. We were all drinking and very, very high. The most beautiful people I'd ever seen in one place were still dancing, in the club and overflowing all over the patio around the pool; mostly shirtless. The sun was coming up and casting a barely pink light on the water and all of the people and it was just a very, very beautiful time and a beautiful time to be alive. As far as Ice Palace NYC, I was there with Alex when Frank played the last night. That was one of the most memorable evenings for all of us who stayed. Indeed, The Bentley's guy (an Italian who also owned the Copacabana) bought the club and try as they might, Jimmy and Donald couldn't make The Red Parrot reprise what happened at the Ice Palace.
I TOO FREQUENTED THE ICE PALACE. DAVID TODD ALSO PLAYED TERE. I AGREE WITH ALL OF THE ABOVE COMMENTS AS THE MUSIC WAS GREAT AS WERE THE DJS WHO SUPPLIED US DANCERS OF SUCH A WONDERFUL TIME
NO ONE HAS MENTIONED T DANCE ON SUNDAYS..... THE BEST ... I STILL HAVE MY ICE PALACE T SHIRT RED WITH WHITE LETTERING
The T Dance? O man it was so unreal. after the beach back to nyc to go to ice palace!!! Every Sunday for as long as i can remember. The music and the sounds!! Gloria Gaynor, I met Willis Reed (Knicks) and all the people!! The poppers and all the stuff. Just a sad note of all the friends that were lost. I will never forget them, they live on in my heart and my memory!
I'm not really qualified to comment on the interior of the "Copa" - the club right on the beach that was the only real competition for the Ice Palace Fire Island. But I can tell an all-important anecdote: It burned down suddenly and furiously toward the end of the summer in 1978. I forget the name of the guy who owned it; but it was a case of arson, and was really, really dangerous -- despite there being water on both sides of the island, and the club actually being no farther than 150 feet from the ocean, the burning embers nearly incinerated the dry beach grass and the homes and businesses all around.
It burned so hot that the turntables, office furniture, big old metal NCR cash registers and other metal items were melted. Strange, eh, that the safe was empty when they finally got it open...
Roy Thode actually had the balls to play "Disco Inferno" for about 45 minutes while the Cherry Grove Fire Department got it under control. I never danced there; never even went in the place, 'cause they were the competition.
The next year we all brought 2-man saws and cut the wreckage up and burned it in our fireplaces.
It's not worth Bernie opening up a separate post for it unless there's someone out there who remembers the club in detail.
HI ALL, WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THE ICE PALACE WAS THAT AFTER DANCING, YOU CAN TAKE A DIP IN THE POOL..MICHAEL BRODY OWNER OF THE PARADISE GARAGE HAD A BEAUTIFUL HOUSE IN FIRE ISLAND THE PINES,BUT I THINK THE CLUB WAS IN CHERRY GROVE...THOSE WERE THE DAYS....
Does anyone remember the Ice Palace in Manhattan on 34th Street between 9th & 10th Avenues atop Sky Rink? Early 70's
It was on the top floor of the building, the dance floor was in the middle of the Ice with adjoining stairs to enter.
You could dance in the middle or skate around the dancefloor. They also had waterbeds in a few of the additional rooms. It was a fantastic place.
Yes...I remember the Sky Rink Ice Palace...it was awesome...I remember the scaffolding that you needed to cross to get to the dance floor. The hamburgers and other food out on the balcony overlooking the west side.
It was a wild ride on the elevator then the doors opened to the black light...some of my best times...were had there
Hey Raf,
THANKS!...I knew I wasn't crazy. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I think I even skated one time, that place was magical. Remember the balcony when they cooked BBQ out there?
Yes, I remember the BBQs on the terrace overlooking the West Side and the Hudson River. I wonder if anyone has pictures of that place.
I can almost hear the song "I'm A Fool For You" by the Pointer Sisters ... playing as people danced in dance floor on the ice.
Regards,
SHARE YOUR Ice Palace KNOWLEDGE | MEMORIES
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