TheCrisco Disco was aNew York Citydiscotheque notable in the history of moderndance,LGBT andnightclub cultures.
The venue was an importantgay club[1] located at 15th Street and 10th Avenue in the "Meatpacking District", a neighborhood inManhattan that runs roughly fromWest 14th Street south to Gansevoort Street, and from theHudson River east toHudson Street.[2]
It operated from the 1970s to the 1980s during thedisco era, and it has been compared in importance to other NYC clubs such asParadise Garage.[1] In 2015, Michael Musto listed Crisco Disco as one of the eight "...edgiest [NYC venues] that shall never be recaptured."[1] The club had a largeDJ booth where DJs would mix records for the dancers. As a DJ booth, the club constructed a giant, mock vintage can ofCrisco shortening.[1]
Around the time of thegay liberation movement, men commonly used Crisco as alubricant foranal fisting since it was inexpensive and widely available.[3][4] It was prominently featured in gay pornography such asErotic Hands (1980) beforespecialized products became available.[5][4] As a result, "Crisco" became a euphemism for fisting ingay slang.[6][7] According to Drew Sawyer, in the 1970s, cans of Crisco were "so synonymous withgay sex that discos and bars around the world took on the name, such as Crisco Disco in New York City, one of the premiere clubs during the 1970s and early 1980s."[8]
A 1998 book entitledGay Macho: The Life and Death of the Homosexual Clone states that "many circuit bars, discos, andsex clubs had names that evoked sexual experience", including "Cockring, a popular nonmembership dance club".[9] Bill Brewster's history of DJ culture states that in New York City clubs such as Crisco Disco,Mineshaft andAnvil, "dancing took second place to sex".[10]