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Disco Music > Discotheques and Clubs Index > Infinity
Infinity
633 Broadway
New York, New York
DJs:
Jim Burgess
Bobby "DJ" Guttadaro
Photos of Bobby "DJ" Guttadaro in the DJ booth of Infinity (top left) and dancefloor featuring the neon Disco ball (right) and greek columns (bottom) submitted by Phil LeBash
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COMMENTS ON THIS DISCO / DISCOTHEQUE / NIGHTCLUB
653 broadway @ bleecker street
all i can say is nudity , nudity nudity
THIS WAS THE PLACE FOR ME. JIM BURGESS A TRUE MAESTRO OF THIS ERA. CERRONE, MORODER, BORIS MIDNEY, DONNA SUMMER TO NAME A FEW. THE MUSIC, MIXES, & LIGHTS WERE FLUID & FLAWLESS. 4 MIRRORED BALLS STRETCHED OUT AND ALL THOSE NEON LIGHTS (WOWWWWWWWWW!) OH BY THE WAY THE UPSTAIRS LOUNGE. I WAS ON MY WAY THERE WITH MY CHICK THE NIGHT IT BURNED DOWN FEB. 14TH 197?
This was the only place in the world like it. The neon p**** on the wall, and then get up and dance there. Silver Shoes and all the club characters. i danced on the bar, went upstairs all the time, smoked w*** and walked around like it was nothing. Studio 54 was the most popular but paled in comparison. Most of those wonderful party people arent with us and they live on in my mind and my memory. The Le Clique Parties with the wild invitations and the theme's. Pajama Party,S&M , The Star War parties!!! I went to clubs after that and still do but they are mere imitations, and not even good at that.
no club could compare. studio, xenon pretenders! my only regret is that i didnt find it sooner. spent years going to dress up clubs in westchester, long island and jersey. the upsatirs lounge , oh! my! GOD!! Ameyl Nitrate for all! wow what party nights. anyone remember black dude named greene?
This was the best place for sure. I was lucky to get in once, due to some eyeliner and a gold spoon around my neck....they rest was history and paradise!! I never made to class the next morning with a clear head and failed my exams as well as the rest of the senior year!! Went to a Joe Kauzi Tramps special last week and it was great!!! Wow, I do miss those great times....as today we need another Steve and Ian to jam some creativity into the club designers brains as what is out there cannot even tough Infinity.......I still live and love NYC and if these seen germinates again it will be here!!
Peace people!
653 Broadway
The club was owned by a short dark Brooklyn born Jewish guy named Jay Levy. Levy made his money in the NYC insutance industry. He was a broker. He always wore as bunch of gold chains including the Horn and a gold coke spoon. ALthought he was married, he had an apartment on the side in a new high rise on Third Avenue between 37th & 38th Sts. NYC. In his apt he had a smaller version of the giant neon penises he had in the club. He had huge bags of cocaine and his nostrils were caked with the stuff.
The ubiform for the hot girls in the club back then was matching Terry cloth tank tops and short shorts with high heels. Guys wore sneakers and jeans and usually no shirts. Remember the long bar that ran the length of the room, which had one long rectangular dance floor. At each end of the dance floor were giant water dispensers.
Sex and quaaludes were daily happenings at the club.
The fire that destroyed the club was declared arson and the insurance company wouldn't pay...that's why the club never reopened. The building owner, Martin J. Fine sued the insurance company and it took years..and years. Jay Levy eventually went to jail for insurance fraud. And as a college junior in 1978, before it burned down, I met the most amazing older woman, Leigh, and had the best summer of my life.
Infinity was unique. Had it all. The lights, the sound and air conditioned. One word can describe it..."surreal".
I remember going there in 1977 . . . I was coming from LI but the girl who introduced me to the club was from Starrett City (Bklyn). She told me that I absolutely HAD to take a lude just to get into the mood. So I did & I did . . . I remember falling off the bleachers from the top no less and I also remember a guy trying to do me upstairs. I had borrowed a pair of my sister's black silk pants and I was trying oh so hard to be careful with them. I had a terrific time but I do remember throwing up all the way back to Bklyn because it was my first time experimenting with ludes & I had been drinking, smoking and God only knows what else at the time. So, was it 633 or 653 B'way?? I do recall Bleecker being the cross street. Holla!
I remember the first time I went to Infinity, I was 16 years old. I was the only one that got in from five guys I was with. I had the time of the life there and the girls were hot. The upstairs was something else. Best club I ever went to including Studio and Xenon.
I went there all of the time! The best way to keep and maintain friends in those days was to be a member of a club; everyone would call me on a Fri/Sat. to leave there name at the door. I think we were able to have 5 friends. Lots of fruit(the ones you eat) blended drinks without booze and bananas were the main course. Ludes and sex upstairs in the balcony! I was sick with the flu for the Valentines Day party; alot of my friends were there. I got a call that the place burnt down; it was a big loss.
I rememebr the song Spirit of 76 and alot of Cerrone stuff; met him there once cute but kinda short but the man has lots of talent! I still play his music!
What a great place Infinity was... hung out there 1978 till it burned in Feb 1979...met some cool people... Marilu if you ever read this...you were lots of fun...
Mike R
Oops...almost forgot...first night there I got so trashed ripped the knee of my brand new Sasson Jeans...lol...and then drove home with my buddy and were so out of it that we stopped at a 6th Ave stop light and closed my eyes...when I opened them we were still parked there in the middle lane of 6th with cars wizzing by and our car was completely covered in snow...lol lol lol...those were some crazy times...
Mike R.
I loved Infinity's. I met my best friend in the City on Saturday and had to go back for old times sake to the site where we had the best nights of our lives. We went into a store that is now at that location and the columns are still there of course. I had to touch them. It brought back so many happy memeories. Those were the good old days. Wish we could go back to just one of those nights!!!
Thanks Phil LeBash, your photos of Infinity were like my memories came to life (and it's amazing any of us still have a memory-beauties, ludes, poppers and weed..oh my!)
1976, I was 18 and my friends and I were there every week. We would all meet at my friend Jimmy's place in Jersey City around 10:00. There we all were: guys, girls, white, black, latino, gay, straight. We were good friends and we covered each others back. We were like a dysfunctional family on a crazy road trip laughing and partying through the Holland Tunnel on the way to Infinity. This place had it all. I remember the DJ in this photo and the music mixes (Donna Summer, The Trammps, Thelma Houston). The people were so diverse: Europeans flew in and made this their 1st stop in NYC, the wiseguys and the wannabees, the queens dancing on the ledge on the mirrored wall, Jim Jensen from the news were all there to party. The lighting and the scent of Halston, Pierre Cardin and Aramis the guys wore.
Most of us stayed in touch until the mid 80's. Jimmy, Joey, Mario, Alex, Carlos, Maria, Delores, Oscar, Anna, Valerie...hope some of you read this and remember those crazy times!!!
WENT ONLY ONCE. CLUB WAS GREAT, BUT OR CAR GOT BROKEN INTO , AND THEY STOLE EVERYTHING. LEFT MY PAY ENVELOPE IN GLOVE COMP, STUPID MOVE. AND ALSO EVERYONES COATS. THANK GOD THE CAR WAS STILL THERE.
I was 16 the first time I went to Infinity. How I got in was another story. As I walked in I can still remember the massive size, the DJ booth just hanging in the mid air....shirtless guys dancing on the wall with full glass walls behind them ..and yes.."Disco Inferno" blasting from the soundsystem. After somtime I found my way up the tiny hidden staircase behind the DJ booth and low and behold there were mattreses all over the place on the floor. there were Couples having sex while the audience true to concert venues had their Lighters up around the mattresses for additional lighting.
Nothing could match it today.
Long Live the Inferno
The best club of all time. I was there all the time. The crowd was great, everyone just having a good time, no trouble makers. At the DJ booth, if you waved your hand in font of your nose the sound guy would hand you a bottle of crap to inhale. I remember the ludes, coke, women & sex upstairs. I don't know how I made it home sometimes. Before it burned down on a fri. or Sat. there was a fire there on a Wed. I was there for both. What a place. Starship, funhouse, and limelight were ok but Infinity was the best. Best music, lights & people.
In the above I meant the light guy. We'll never see another club like that but of cause that was another time. The sex upstairs (and sometimes on the bleachers in the back) no one thought anything bad would happen to you. I have not been in a club in many years I have no idea what their like now but I know how much fun we had in the '70's when Disco was king & Infinity was the place to be.
What can I say and where do I begin.
I was 16 and my 1st NY major nightclub, and I was with my close friend Carlos, and who got us in was Tony DJ(EL Socio) who was a card member of Infinity, we cgot ther by bus from Union City,NJ, I remember that night like if it was yesterday. We just walk right in and only had to pay 5 bucks for being his guests. When we walk in it was surreal. Jim Burgess was spinning of course and the sound system was like punch in your soul. As we working our way towards the dance floor I see what I thought at that moment where 2 girls with long hair grinding and making out, I tell my friend Carlos check this s*** out, and he says to me those are 2 guys not chicks. Well that was a 1st and rather bizarre scene for me at that age. well then ther was the 2 guys on those catwalks dancing with the gold and silver construction boots with the cutoff jeans and the suspenders, amongst the other inhabitants that attended the best CLub ever on broadway and Bleeker I mean this was like a scene from Soddom & Gommorah. And mind you we are straight and under the influence of just the music and the ambience. well as the night progresses Jim slams on Macho Man(village people) which had just been released and he is just pumping the volume louder and louder on that part of the song where it goes into "HEY HEY HEY" you know that part right? well I turm around and the speaker behind me seem like it was going to rip into shreads then at the last "HEY" there was silence and darkness and in my mind I thought thats it Jimmy had busted the system. I was dead wrong because 2 seconds later he slam in the intro to "LETS ALL CHANT". it was just mind blowing and a chapter in my life I will never forget. My fellow Infinity Club dwellers that is my story and I am sticking to it.
love&Peace
To you all.
Ralph The Architech of Sound.
Whatever happened to the gorgeous bouncers that worked at Infinity's?
Infinity... The loss of one of the best record collections on the planet. GLI first crossfaders.
The place burnt before I ever got there.
But in a southern surburb of Dayton, Ohio another Infinity opened. I did my very best (as DJ) to carry on the tradition. From 714's to sex in the bleachers, 3 turntables and wild parties! As well as neon out the a** (64x64 matrix) and custom build GLI top to bottom. Thanks Steve I.
I remeber getting a called from a famous dj at Infinity who could not get the x-fader to work on the new GLI 3880 mixer. Seems he had the audio out accidently coming out of the tape out and not the main out.
Why me? Somehow I got to work with GLI at the 76 & 77 Billboard Trade Shows as resident DJ, helped them with ideas and feedback for the new mixer. I never received any credit. But I got a 3880.
Are you kidding? Ohio? DJ crap that nobody knows what your talking about? Man, I know it was the '70's but give me a break. Infinity was the best. I happy that I was part of it.
Anybody remember the year Infinity opened?
Was it open in 1974?
Infinity was the BEST club of all clubs ever built! No club compared. The scene was just flat out fun... pretty girls, cool guys, the BEST MUSIC anyplace on the planet. I feel melancholy for those days. After Infinity burned down, I tried Platos Retreat. Although satisfying in a "different" kind of way, INFINITY was still #1.
I lived in a loft across the street from Infinity in '77. I was a jazz musician so the disco scene didn't interest me much but I did know quite a bit about that building.
For one, its owner, Martin Fine, had tried desperately to get an oversize variance to convert the building to residential apartments. The fire occurred only a few weeks after the community board rejected his application with extreme prejudice.
I actually saw the small initial fire through the third floor windows about a minute before first fire truck arrived. Because of that I was later interviewed by a couple of arson investigators who told me that the sprinklers had been illegally turned off on that vacant third floor.
In fact, there were actually several fires set in that building. The first company that arrived extinguished the fire I'd seen. They were starting to take up hose when another fire broke out in another location in the building. That's the fire that quickly grew to the uncontrolled inferno that took out that huge building and Infinity with it.
I remember the fire chief yelling at his men through his bullhorn that the building was about go and to to get the hell out immediately. Firefighters bailed out of the building like Keystone cops when there was a muffled explosion and the fire started in earnest.
It remains the most surreal scene of my life. Fire truck after fire truck arrived with sirens wailing for hours. They even brought in super pumpers from Long Island. It was like 17 degrees so all the water they were dumping on the fire was flash freezing on Broadway and anything it touched, which was reflecting the light from the flames on buildings a block away. The fire sounded like a huge angry dog and was burned so hot that it was tossing huge chunks of flaming lumber forty feet in the air where it rained down on the street like meteors. I spent the entire night on the roof of my loft building putting out secondary fires.
Meanwhile there were scores of confused Infinity patrons wandering around the icy sidewalk dressed only in the togas they'd brought with them, as if they thought they might soon be able to get back in the club to retrieve their coats.
As I said, surreal.
So - does anybody remember when Infinity actually opened????
Now you are talking. The best DISCO music, played by the best Disc Jockeies of their time in the best DISCO of the early 70's. Another MOB run operation, it was a victim of "Jewish Lighting" because the boys could get more selling the property(Plus the insurance)than keeping it open. Jimmy Burgess, god bless his soul, was my mentor and lost over 5000 records the day it was torched.
wow what a place
typical saturday night:
hang out watch Saturday Night Live, have a few whatevers before & during
head over to Infinity
party all night till "the last dance"
stumble out the door
If on a Friday night you may go see the Rocky Horror Show at the Waverly, get buzz on and walk over to Infinity.
best sound system
insane lighting
the New Year's Eve parties
any Friday or Saturday nite was amazing
great folks that worked there - John , Web, Maurice, Jim B
enjoyed that spot from its opening to the sad fire
silly stuff you remember :
how you dressed, a pair of white sneakers to dance all nite, jeans, a buttin down shirt with a vest, a tank top, maybe no shirt, maybe just a jock,shorts and a tee. Whatever hit you the music drove you- Idris Mohammed, Georgia Maroder, Grace Jones, Scotch Machine, Cerrone, Afrikanism.
Waiting 20 minutes to get into the bathroom and then there was a party going on in there do.
Chopper, that was an amazing story you told. What a shame that place was burnt down. I was not in New York at the time. While you guys were freezing that night I was in 75 degree balmy weather in Hawaii, but would of traded that all in to experience the times in New York (my home town)after all I read I think Infinity would of been my place to party. Wow!
That fire also took with it Jimmy Burgess' desire, and soul. He was never the same after that. I remember him telling me at The Billboard Conference, that it took a part of him. You could literally see his hurt and disappointment in his face. JEWISH LIGHTNING had struck, like it did to so many clubs, but none bigger than INFINITY.
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