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Old 02-16-2020, 05:01 PM
 
2 posts, read 5,217 times
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A few years ago in the Boston area, I picked up some disco records (at a yard sale) that had the Nimbus stamp on them.

Nimbus
Disco and Show Lounge
154th and the Calumet Expressway
Dolton, Illinois 60419
841-1991

Made me wonder if one of the DJs or a former employee brought them east. Does anyone remember any of the DJs at Nimbus?
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Old 05-21-2020, 06:58 PM
 
1 posts, read 2,619 times
Reputation: 16
Default dingbats for the record

I started there the day they opened, Ron Briskman the owner, was married and lived in the suburbs, had 2 kids at the time and a gay boyfriend in the city, who named the club. Ron also owned a hamburger joint behind Marshall Field on Wabash street. At 12 at night it turned into a Disco, one of the hottest spots in town for the black clients that wanted to come downtown. Ron opened Dingbats to be the hottest white clubs in the city, (sorry just telling the truth). When it opened it was to far south of division for the clubers but close to the gay clubs, like Dugans and Sundays. After several month of being empty, Ron's boyfriend talked him in to trying the gay crowd, and know Mr T. was not there nor was anyone else. During this time we were seeing a fair amount of black coming to the club as they knew about his other property. We were getting a few latino's and gays but the club was very large and weird. What I mean was it was a village of store front in one part of the club as it was previously called Tenement Sq. We had a card reader in one room and a caricature artist in another and a not so good DJ. That's when I suggest heavy advertisement on WVON and a new DJ which happened to be myself, as I had been scouting out other clubs in Chicago BBC, Faces, Phoenix, and Hangge-Uppe. Even got in contact with Dogs of War Danny Davito to get comp Disco 12" records. Today I still have a formidable collection along with my mixing list. So on the story goes on, within 3 weeks you could not get in after 12, we were packed 5 nights a week charging from $5 to $50 at the door, total discrimination on who got in based on looks, dress and gender. We had so much cash we didn't know what to do with it. We hired a new DJ and actually went through several and had a lot of guess DJ's come in. The problem was our bouncers were Chicago police during the day, and had no problem with a fight. If you look up some post it will says Dingbats was violent, that's what they are talking about, but it normally was well controlled. So I came up with the Kiddie Disco on Sundays, the parents could drink and we would baby set, it was great fun my kids were there every Sunday, as we had a great sound system and light show. 60 minuets did a show on it. Still no Mr T, but in walked Lawrence Tureaud who by then was legally Mr T as I understand it. He had heard the rumors about the violence and stated if we hired him we would never have another fight as he hated fighting, and had a calming effect on people, we hired him and never had a issue. How he got to Hollywood is another story, as Chicago's toughest Bouncer.

I left to form a company called Disco Entertainment, installing Discos in bars and traveling around doing colleges, until the day Disco died our tried to, in Chicago at a ballpark, we all know about.

Just some trivia the sound system at Dingbats, 2 Cerwin Vega 16's amps 400 each, Cerwin Vega EQ, 2 technics SL1200 tables, 2 master Cerwin speakers with 4 15" woofers, 2 21" folding horns and 4 super twitters, and a mixing board I made. all in a glass room at the end of the dance floor. Everynight before we opened I would play 3 times a lady and set in the middle of the floor. Just ask Leona the head bartender.
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Old 06-09-2020, 09:59 PM
 
3 posts, read 3,223 times
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Huckleberry's on Division was owned by Barbara Eden
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Old 08-04-2020, 05:58 PM
 
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DJ Jon, all of that is just amazing! Thank you for sharing!!
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Old 08-04-2020, 06:36 PM
 
88 posts, read 79,253 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DwsinTxs View Post
Hey everybody,
I'm working on a novel, and I need to know the name of any disco club that was located in Chicago, in the 1970's....specifically, in 1974

All I need is the name of the club, but if you have firsthand knowledge of it, I'd love to know any other details, the location, names of owners, looks of the club interioir or exterior, if they had any particular 'theme' as far as decor etc etc.

Thanks!

dws
Hello and thanks for an interesting thread! I don't surf around that much so glad I found it. What's interesting is that you wrote the original post ELEVEN YEARS AGO!!!

HAA!!! Knowing a few writers as I do, your novel probably became a best-seller long ago --- or --- is still sitting in a desk drawer somewhere.

To your question, I was as young of a cocktail waitress as could be and in 1978, I worked for Paul Anka and his family at Vegas' hottest Disco "Jubilation!" When I left Vegas in '80 to attend college out east, he invited me to visit his club in Chicago where the incredible staff treated me and a traveling friend like royalty. The club was called "SweetWaters" and it was on Rush Street. Jam packed, happening and on that trip I fell in love with Chicago for the first time.

Granted, I was naive, impressionable and in my early 20's but what a trip! If you are still monitoring this thread, give us an update on your novel. Thanks.
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Old 12-30-2020, 12:57 PM
 
Location: florida
2 posts, read 4,654 times
Reputation: 10
Smile dingbats

So I can help out as I was one of the 1st employees of Dingbats, starting there opening night, it had a hard time as Ron Briskman and his partner at the time had different ideas. terrible DJ as he knew nothing about disco music so the club went from 10-15 people a night, tried to get Latinos did not work, turned it gay for a few weeks no luck there. Since Ron owned the Hangout on Wabash as a black disco at night and a hamburger joint during the days they started to migrate across the river to Dingbats. I told Ron to go on WVON and advertise, that broke the camels back as in weeks we were packed. At that point I became the DJ and between 12 and 4am we had a ball. The problem was we had 2 white Chicago cops as security and they enjoyed good fight, that's way a lot of post say it was violent when it really never was. Then came Mr T and all the stuff stopped as he said he was not a fighter but a negotiator. The club did fantastic with some of the best dancers in Chicago, my favorite being a gentleman from NY doing he Harlem Shuffle who came nightly. The other issue was Ron was gay but had a wife and kids in the suburbs so he often left the club for us to run. So what happened to Mr. T, a club across town called the BBC on Rush street held a toughest bouncer contest where you jumped the bar ran around a bunch of tables and broke down a door. Mr. T who was not Mr. T at the time won the contest, some promoters got with him and off the LA to be a movie star. Just so you now Tero claimed he had over 200 fights in the club but that's just not true it just build his persona up. I felt he was always a gentle giant. One other thing prior to Mr. T we did put togeather a Kiddie Disco on Sundays it was a big hit in fact you can find it on 60 min old films as Ron did a interview about it. All fell apart the day "Disco died in Chicago" because of 2 nuts burning records. It was a fun time with a lot of great friends and DJ's around the city, and my favorite bartender at Dingbats Leonna she is someplace in the windy today as we spoke about a year ago. And yes we had ton's of celebrity. Donna Summers remained a friend of mine till she past away.
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Old 01-03-2021, 01:50 PM
 
1,946 posts, read 7,371,623 times
Reputation: 1396
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonrford View Post
So I can help out as I was one of the 1st employees of Dingbats, starting there opening night, it had a hard time as Ron Briskman and his partner at the time had different ideas. terrible DJ as he knew nothing about disco music so the club went from 10-15 people a night, tried to get Latinos did not work, turned it gay for a few weeks no luck there. Since Ron owned the Hangout on Wabash as a black disco at night and a hamburger joint during the days they started to migrate across the river to Dingbats. I told Ron to go on WVON and advertise, that broke the camels back as in weeks we were packed. At that point I became the DJ and between 12 and 4am we had a ball. The problem was we had 2 white Chicago cops as security and they enjoyed good fight, that's way a lot of post say it was violent when it really never was. Then came Mr T and all the stuff stopped as he said he was not a fighter but a negotiator. The club did fantastic with some of the best dancers in Chicago, my favorite being a gentleman from NY doing he Harlem Shuffle who came nightly. The other issue was Ron was gay but had a wife and kids in the suburbs so he often left the club for us to run. So what happened to Mr. T, a club across town called the BBC on Rush street held a toughest bouncer contest where you jumped the bar ran around a bunch of tables and broke down a door. Mr. T who was not Mr. T at the time won the contest, some promoters got with him and off the LA to be a movie star. Just so you now Tero claimed he had over 200 fights in the club but that's just not true it just build his persona up. I felt he was always a gentle giant. One other thing prior to Mr. T we did put togeather a Kiddie Disco on Sundays it was a big hit in fact you can find it on 60 min old films as Ron did a interview about it. All fell apart the day "Disco died in Chicago" because of 2 nuts burning records. It was a fun time with a lot of great friends and DJ's around the city, and my favorite bartender at Dingbats Leonna she is someplace in the windy today as we spoke about a year ago. And yes we had ton's of celebrity. Donna Summers remained a friend of mine till she past away.


Yes on the kiddie disco!! Lol I was there almost every Sunday afternoon as an elementary schooler. We had an absolute blast! The "kiddie cocktails", the cool neon lights that we would touch and then touch and hold another kid to give him/her an electric shock. And of course the dancing. Never at the time could I have imagined the history making. Can't believe that I was even allowed to go there on my own/with friends. I loved Dingbats . Then it was House Music - but that's another story - "all night long".
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Old 01-15-2021, 10:46 AM
 
Location: florida
2 posts, read 4,654 times
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Went there opening night, had a front row seat
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Old 02-17-2021, 01:37 PM
 
1 posts, read 2,200 times
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Wait a Minute, The Nimbus Disco (Dolton, Illinois) where I worked Security for 4 years, was owned by Phillip Zadenberg. His dad loaned him the funds to convert the old Dolton Lodge hotel into the Nimbus in 1977. We saw huge crowds for some 4 straight Years. Even after Disco Demolition. In 1982 Nimbus saw the end of light and sold out to a nursing home residence early 1983. We averaged over 1100 people on a good Saturday night at $5 bucks a person. Rob Coleman was one of the last DJs. He was out of Gary Indiana. We Worked hard to control the crowds and if the city of Dolton ever enforced that house limit law on capacity we would have been forced to shut down weekly (LOL). The music was nice, Sunday was family afternoon day and Tuesday afternoon to early evening was teen night (NO ALCOHOL). I worked with some good men like Darnell, Melvin, Vincent and Ken. I remember all the side fights and the parking lot confrontations. BUT We never lost a patron, had any gun shootings or sent one person to the hospital . Those were the real old days. Plenty of women and men who all dressed in suits and formal attire. It was the best of times. You will never see a place like that again.

Last edited by Burnham2013; 02-17-2021 at 02:10 PM..
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Old 03-17-2021, 03:21 PM
 
Location: 1 MILE FROM THE BIG MISS
4 posts, read 5,015 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lenny D View Post
Clowns alley 6032 w Belmont chicago, 1972-1975 sat nite fever lighted dance floor , long bars 2nd best sound system in chicago 4am license, always packed best staff best dj in the city plus the best local chicago bands that are still popular today.
Bubbas zone one disco Addison and long chicago 1975-1982 largest sat nite fever dance floor, best, loudest sound system in the city. 2am license and always packed.
best bartenders and staff. owner always bought you a drink. no place today can even come close to the 2 above places

Fondly remember Bubba's ZONE 1 on Addison St on the SW corner at Long Ave I lived close by on Grace St in Mid 1977. A Bowling buddy wanted to Bar Hop and so we visited Bubba's often in the late Fall of 1976. I think one of their bartenders was named "Gill" and he gave us free drinks--usually "Watermelons" as we asked. The atmosphere there prompted us to bring in other associates on a few trips. We enjoyed the dance show put on by what I now think were well trained Disco Dancers doing line dances. We also visited Thirsty Whale on River Road south of Belmont. Nickel Bag was around there somewhere, I think. Never met any women at these bars as they appeared more selective and the John Travolta "Look" was in. Never fit the profile nor could I dance : (
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