The Background PART 2

So, as you can tell Feathers is two floors, a basement and an attic. There is actually no leveled floor. If it’s a busy night you can actually see the floor bounce downstairs. So many uneducated customers would constantly complain that someone was going to fall through the floor. We would have to repeat the same story at least 50 times a night! “There are three levels of sub floors between the actual dance floor and the downstairs ceiling. A dance floor needs bounce. No one can fall through the floor.” I know this because after the fire of 1990 we had to repair it. But, it all falls on deaf ears. They would order shots and then repeat…”Someone is going to fall through the floor one day.”
I was speaking with Eddie, the current manager, last night and he reminded me that the original lighting consisted of not only the running light strips, but coffee cans spray painted black on the dance floor ceiling. In the beginning a guy named Joel was our lighting and sound guy- he had to be the father of inventions. There was also an open wall by the dance floor bar. The Kitchen, which is the door by the big bar upstairs, still has the opening for when they had food passing and a pizza oven. We laugh at the thousands the oven is worth and all it houses now is bar rags.
Today, the dressing room and beer room is next to each other, in its day the kitchen was where the beer was stocked and the Dee-Jay booth was next to the dressing room. The performers would just hand the Dee-Jay the music and the show would begin, now the Dee-Jay has to come and collect the music.
The performers at Feathers were the cream of the crop in its day. You were not allowed to perform at Feathers if you performed in any other club in Jersey. You had to be exclusive. The performers were female illusionist. I remember my first time seeing a show at the club. I was amazed that Bette Midler was performing in River Edge, New Jersey. I called my friend Kenny and told him to get his ass to the bar because BETTE MIDLER was in RIVER EDGE. Good thing he got lucky that night because he was going to kill me for dragging him out to see a man dressed as a woman. I was fooled, but the illusionists that Feathers hired was the best! They were brilliant and the place would be packed on show nights.
Kevin Jackson as Diana Ross and Jackie Nicole as Shirley Bassey claimed their success on Thursday. Tuesday was Jimmy Lane as Bette Midler or a slew of impersonations and on Sunday you could find Chakka Savalas as Chakka (she was a riot. She forgot her shoes one night and refused to perform. Hank, the manager at the time told her she was to perform or she wasn’t getting paid. She performed barefoot) and Elgin as Donna Summers.
FYI “Last Dance” was the first song to be played at Feathers when it opened its door.
Other performers were to come, but like Disney has its original five, Feathers had its own. They forged the way for many to follow, and paid the price. More to come…