The DJ booth was in a corner raised above the dancefloor and it sort of looked like a space ship.” There was a small stage for drag shows between the booth and the private lounge. That room also had banquettes around…, an L-shaped bar in the corner and a lounge room off to the side. You then went up about six wide stairs and entered right onto the dancefloor. The main floor had banquettes surround the room with a giant oval bar in the middle and a game room off to the side. Goss recalls, “The bar was two levels, painted in Perrier green. The Bistro was renovated in 1977, and the decor was impressive. The guy left the booth one night and never came back and Lou put on the next record and the next one and the next one, and he just became the DJ by default.” They would just play 45s, they didn’t even have 12-inches. “He used to go to the bar at Bistro when it was first opened, and nobody knows, even Lou didn’t even remember who the guy was who was the first DJ at the Bistro. He originally studied interior design, receiving a degree from Harrington Institute. Goss would become DiVito’s friend and disciple, serving for many years as his alternate.ĭiVito grew up in Oak Lawn, a suburb south of Chicago. Billboard Magazine named him “best regional dee-jay” for two consecutive years.
Back in Atlanta I heard some good jocks but none had the ear that Lou did.”ĭiVito was so good, he became Chicago radio’s first “hot mixer” on WDAI in 1979, recording his sets right in the club. “Lou was the first DJ I ever heard mix on beat and in perfect pitch. Goss was immediately struck by his skill. According to Goss, Davison was a bartender originally, but in 1973 he borrowed money from his parents, leased an old French restaurant called the Bistro, and converted it into a dance club. By the time Goss started going there, it had already been open four years. The Bistro was Chicago’s largest gay disco, and it was Edward “Dugan” Davison’s party. Not Faces, not Zorine’s, not any of those clubs.” It was so big, and it was so popular in Chicago that when touring rock stars and celebrities would come through, that’s where they would go. The Bistro was the pinnacle club in the Midwest and one of the top in the country…. One night Goss ventured farther afield, to The Bistro at 420 N Dearborn St., just north of Marina Towers on the Chicago River. Goss recalls that clubbers had to travel in groups, wearing whistles around their necks to call for help in case of muggings or literal “gay bashing.” Says Goss, “It was scary.” The area was nowhere near as upscale as it is today.
On moving back to Chicago in 1977, Goss started dancing at Broadway Limited and Crystal Blinkers in what is now Boys Town. It was there that an aunt introduced him to clubbing. Goss grew up in Chicago, but between the ages of fifteen and seventeen he lived in Atlanta. Goss is the creator of Disco Museum, a sprawling tribute to the glory days of disco, when gay culture crossed over into mainstream America for the first time.
GAY SEX SHOWS IN CHICAGO GAY BARS FULL
In a basement full of memorabilia, Daniel Goss (51) catalogs his experiences, recording rare mixes and scanning personal photographs. The history of Chicago’s gay dance scene has gone mostly undocumented, despite its undeniable influence on the development of disco, house, and pop music. Daniel Goss on Dugan’s Bistro and Chicago’s First Radio Hot Mixer