celebrating 35 years in pics- more to come

After celebrating the 35th anniversary I became very melancholy. Grabbed the old photo books and looked at the staff through the years. There were some winners that walked through the doors of Feathers. I remember once asking the waiter for a lite beer and he brought me a bottle of lite beer instead of a case. The ice bucket was too heavy for one waiter so he would made three ice bucket trips. Another waiter was too busy finding dates and shooting shots that he never brought the bartenders glasses- drunk at the end of the night- he would throw them at us...Yes, the colorful characters that walked through those doors would make any rainbow flag look pale in comparison. I have to admit I was a unique waiter. I wanted to bartend so bad that I would collect drink glasses on my tray and pretend to faint. The manager would feel bad for me and put be behind the bar to help the bartenders. I don't know if he was concerned for my health, or upset with all the glasses I was breaking. Whatever the reason I became a bartender. Share your stories and laughs..We would all like to hear it

Antonio Cedeno and Principilo Hangout Ent Presents: Sugarman Apocalypse

Forget Batman and Robin, the new dynamic duo is Antonio Cedeno and Principito Hangout Ent! Last nights SUGARMEN APOCALYPSE Party was outrageous! These promoters delivered big time! I LOVE Antonio’s welcoming hug and Principito’s welcoming smile- it makes my night! You can always count on big smiles and friendly greetings from the security and “In the booth Ray”. Bartenders Paul and Eddie were working the crowd and keeping them all very entertained in the Lollipop Lounge. Providing the sounds was DJ Ricardo. I never met him before, but he is very much as asset to any party setting! The bar tops were filled with candy to satisfy any sweet tooth, and the dance floor was filled with eye candy dancers to satisfy anyone’s ... Pictures paint a thousand words. The crowd was blown away by KFIR’s performance of “D’MATIZED” with the hottest back-up dancers. He was called- pulled out for an encore performance! The crowd could not get enough of this "easy on the eye" next superstar! DJ John Rizzo slammed the sounds and had the floor packed all night. A pleasure surprise was a guest appearance by Lady Tita, Who was caught working the lights! Anytime Lady Tita is in the room there is an air of positivity and joy! Also spotted in the crowd was two time awarding winning film maker L.E. Salas and TLC Pastry Chef Tony (Tone Tone) Albanese. Feathers is definitely turning into the place to be and the place to be seen at. Night clubs come and go, but Feathers holds its own and re-invents itself very few years. They are currently adding TWO bathrooms on the second floor and it is WiFi access...clubfeathers...7777. They redesigned the dressing room and back room area and what makes my heart feel good is that Feathers always remembers its roots and you always feel like you are at home. FEATHERS is HOT and it’s time to check it out! PS....Check out and GOOD NEWS from SCOTT Coming soon>....

In the beginning

July 3th 1983 the world of Feathers was to change with the arrival of the FEATHERETTE’S. Feathers, at the time, was known for its Italian gym body boys and its exclusive performers-drag performers. The old manager insisted that if you perform at Feathers you were not to perform at any other club in the state of New Jersey. They were paid handsomely for their promise and talent. This rule went for the DJ’s and employees as well. As a waiter, bartender, security, coat check or door person you had to go out to FEATHERS ONLY. The manager would ask you where you were if he didn’t see you at the club on your nights off. If you said anything positive about another club or knocked Feathers you were searching for a job and banned from Feathers. We made GREAT money back then, but sold our freedom to make it. I worked stamping hands back then. I would sit on my bar stool and stamp everyone’s hands. I got the nick-name “La Countessa” because I looked so regal stamping hands. I got paid $35.00 a night and free drinks. More importantly, I was a FEATHERS employee! Back then Feather was the place to work. If you worked at Feathers you were a STAR! Anywhere you went people knew your name. The Drag Queen for the 3rd of July canceled out at the last minute- she never returned to Feathers. The manager was in a bind and couldn’t get an act for that night. He sat at the front door with me and waited for the first local talent to walk in- it was Rodger. Rodger was a Carol Burnett drag performer. Carol had retired so Rodger was not exactly in high demand. The managers idea was to do a patriotic show featuring the Andrew Sisters…The manager made it his job to find the PERFECT trio. Rodger was the professional, and Kenny Alton was tapped to be the pretty one. I was tapped to be the third. I didn’t have talent, or look pretty, but I was a body. I was so worried about my reputation, but as Rodger reminded me, “You don’t have a reputation. No one knows who you are.” Kenny Alton had a reputation, but as he reminded me, “I wish I got as lucky as they think I do.” Rodger had us at his apartment the next day rehearsing Andrew Sister songs and choreographing dance steps- steps that would never be seen. Stage fright made me totally oblivious to what was going on around me, never-mind trying to remember step two, right kick… I never performed on a stage, never-mind in drag. I was told to look into the spot light and let it blind you this way by the time the light blindness faded your number would be finished. I took a deep breath, pulled back the curtains and ….I couldn’t find the spot light. The place was so packed, people were sitting on others shoulders! I was panicked! What was I to do now? The music started and I stared at my two new friends and realized I couldn’t let them down. The act came to life! The three misfits fit! We blew the audience away! They were screaming for more! We didn’t have more. Rodger had the DJ play another Andrew Sisters song and told us to just move out lips and kick our feet. It seems an audience can’t watch your feet and your lips at the same time, so if you think you are going to forget the words make a sudden move with your feet and it will distract them from looking at your lips. It didn’t work for me- I looked like a crazy soccer player kicking all over the dance floor. It didn’t matter what we did the crowd loved us. With our success came the end of professional drag. Popping water balloons and pulling off wigs took the place of professional illusionist. We gave them permission to interrupt our act, while the professionals were shocked and upset when the customers did the same to them. Feathers lost its reputation for exclusive performers and gained one as campy performers. Everyone and their brother wanted to put on a dress and we let them. The three of us had our own agenda’s and it didn’t include drag shows. While the professionals looked down their noses at us, we laughed and didn’t really care. The shows gave me a reputation and a following. I became the funny one and became popular from it. I was invited to Fire Island on week-ends, night club hopping during the week nights, and was promoted to bartender. I was the “rags to riches” story. Unfortunately, every story has an ending and mine came when I started dating someone who wanted me to give up shows. I realized then that my fame was temporary and not real. I was a bar star, not a shining star. Every July 3th, for thirty years now I relive those memories in my head and every July 4th the reality of the present finds me. Today, the club continues to draw crowds and is the place to be seen. Italian muscle guys are far and few in between, drag shows have taken on a new life of their own! The memories I hold are only shadows of a past that no one seems to be looking to find. So many came after, but we were first. Without there would never have been a Big Blanche, a Doreen, a Heather Fontaine, a Scott Cooper, an Angel Sheridan and the list continues. ( Sam and I continued shows after Rodger and Kenny Alton were fired. John/ Heather loved dressing up like the "Church lady" and announce our shows and then started to do guest spots. Big Blanche came into Feathers shows when Sam was retiring and I was auditioning replacements...Scott Cooper was a contestant in a Marilyn Monroe look-alike contest...Scott brought in Angel and so on and so on...Tony Mona was our "Vicki Lawrence". He would do a number while us, the STARS, changed outfits...lol) The stage belongs to the future and I LOVE watching it progress, but once a year I like to look back at it's past. I am posting a picture of me and Kenny Alton…It was the night that a new group of FEATHERETTE’S were taking over the stage we created …I remember him turning to me and saying, “Same songs, different lips.” Ain’t that the truth.

35 YEARS AND COUNTING!

35 years! Who says gay men cannot stay faithful- Oh, that’s right I usually do. Last night was an epic event-that little hole in the wall ( If I had a nickel for every time I heard that Feathers was closing I wouldn't be eating Happy Meals anymore.)- turned 35 years old! (ps- if you haven't seen the spectacular remodeling then you are in for a BIG SURPRISE!)A loud round of applause to the staff for making it the place to be! From the moment you saw security guard PAUL’S smile to RAY’S in the ticket booth you knew the night was going to be a good one! Eye candy EDDIE and PAUL had the downstairs electrified with their energy! Okay, so maybe DJ JULIO VIVES had something to do with it. He was crazy with his music! People did not want to go upstairs he was so on! But, I eventually did and LADY TITA out did herself with playing off the crowds energy! She is the essence of a hot Saturday night ! PRINCIPITO PRESENTS provided entertainment that went beyond what I am used to seeing at Feathers. The Dancers were insane! (see pics) and Miss Peppermint- well, what more can I say! LOL. Feathers really struck gold having PRINCIPITO. ANTONIO CEDENO is a hard act to follow, but PRINCIPITO is amazing the crowds at FEATHERS with his parties and entertainment! Speaking of ANTONIO CEDENO, it was GREAT seeing him last night. This is the spirit that FEATHERS creates. Antonio was a bartender at FEATHERS and left to broaden his event promotion business (Events such as SKY HIGH on 46th Street, and the Asbury Park SAND BLAST). But, every anniversary party finds him, with me, cheering to FEATHERS SUCCESS! Shout out to MOIRA, Feathers New Floor manager, JOEY P. and RANDY who had serving hot Hors d’oeuvres all night! I LOVE that idea! So much better than plated food! The dance floor found VINNIE swamped the whole night, between his dazzling personality and being located on the dance floor I don’t think he got much breathing time. BARTENDER SCOTT is my home base. He is such a great guy and always on the ball. Always has a smile and makes you feel so good! Manager EDDIE-what can I say! He trained me to bartend- so many years ago. He has been a GREAT FRIEND and ROCK for me through so many of the events that have hit my life. He has a way of turning life’s hardballs into water balloons and then laughs at getting wet, after all the water dries and we’re still here. . Very rarely do you find a soul that cares, but he does. Whenever I needed to be caught he was right there for me. I started working at Feathers when it celebrated its 5th anniversary and everyone thought it was the last, it wasn’t. Neither was the 10th, or the “unlucky” 13th or the 15th or the 20th or the 25th. For me those anniversaries became jail sentences. I kept waiting to get paroled. I kept praying the place would close so I would be forced to find another way of making a living. I remember decorating for the 20th anniversary vowing that I WOULD NOT BE HERE FOR THE NEXT ANNIVERSARY! But, I was-and the next and the next. My last anniversary was the 30th. It was the right time. The bar needed a change and so did I. As the anniversaries continue, my heart grows softer. I think of all the wonderful people I met there and all the smiles. I think of all the crazy people I met there and wondered why they were the ones that ended up in my bed? I grew up in that place, gained my identity working there. With all the smiles came the tears. I worked there during the A.I.D.S. epidemic and saw so many faces disappear overnight. My heart breaks when I think of the lives we lost before we knew about “safe-sex”. I was there when the dancing was second to the drag shows. People would travel to see FEATHERS performers. (The old manager limited where the performers could perform.) Unfortunately, with the nice came the nasty. Feathers had its share of nasty people. There were times the life was sucked out of me before the front door even opened. I used to dread walking through the employee door. A wise waiter named Dave once said, “Feathers is a place- what you make of the place is up to you.” Dave was GREAT! So, were Rob and “Marilyn” and Gary and so many others. My brain would explode it I tried to mention them all and the effect they had on me. Maybe it wasn’t like being in prison, but it was like being a child at home. You can’t wait to be old enough to move out on your own and then when you do you realize how good you had it. I LOVE the adventures that life has to offer me, but I do like that I have a home to go back to on Friday and Saturday nights. Like Dave reminded me, Feathers is a place. A place you create and make what you want it to be. It can hold GREAT memories, or bad ones. It can be a place where you "come out", or hide in. It can be place where you create your own "click", or sit alone. But, what ever it is you create. Enjoy and know that one day you will out grow Feathers and move on. You will find other interest and places to go, but TRUST ME, it's nice to have a place to call home and go back to visit. Oh, some may look back and be bitter, but you can't blame the place because it's what you made it. So, here is to 35 more years and to all the beautiful souls that make going home that much more enjoyable! ps...Must mention DJ's John Rizzo and Steve Sidewalk! They are rocks that rock!