Clubbing Around Miami in 1976 ~ DISCO

Disco was the craze and I was shooting for a couple of public relations agencies that handled them, plus doing stories for Miami Magazine. Most of the clubs were along the bay and offered docking for boats for the members. Most of the clubs' membership was made up of younger people, upwardly mobile young professionals driving fancy cars, and I picked up a lot of private parties, as well as corporate work that way.

One club. the Palm Bay Club, had a mostly older membership, and it was a wealthier membership as well, less concerned with showiing off their newest sports car. They knew they had money and their friends knew they had money.

There was a little shop in the lobby that sold a little of everything from the Wall Street Journal to make-up to bathing suits. The lady who owned it asked me to start shooting color pictures as well as black and white. She displayed them, a fresh batch every week, took orders for me and people could pick up their 8x10's or whatever at their covenience in her shop. It was a great deal for me and she used it as a way to entice people into the shop. She didn't want a percentage!

There was one lady well up in her 70's that used to want me to take her out to a delicatesan late Saturday night. She always ordered a pastramie on rye. She always paid. When we'd get back to the club about 2 AM she always invited me up to her condo, but I was tired and never did go. After she'd passed away the doorman asked me why I always turned her down. He told me that the last young man she'd taken a fancy to ended up with a new car and a $100,000 Christmas gift. Still, when you're in your mid-thirties a seventy-something year old woman does look a bit old!