Night Fever guest · Season 1, Episode 4
Peter Gatien
The club king behind Limelight, Tunnel, Palladium and Club USA.
Timeline
1952
Born in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.
1980s–90s
Builds a New York club empire: Limelight, Tunnel, Palladium and Club USA.
1990s
His rooms become the home of the Club Kids - and are pulled into the fallout of the Michael Alig case.
Late 1990s
Acquitted on federal drug charges, then pleads guilty in a tax evasion case and is eventually deported to Canada.
2020
Publishes his memoir, Club King.
What they are doing now
Speaks as an elder statesman of New York nightlife, aka the man on every panel about the city's club history.
Connected to
In the episodes
26 mentions across all episodes - S1E2 1 · S1E7 6 · S2E3 6 · S3E6 8 · S4E8 5
- S1E2 · Michael Musto · 1 mention in this episode
Limelight owner; according to the episode, police wanted Alig as a witness against him (heard as just 'Peter'). Links to his Night Fever episode
- S2E3 · Susanne Bartsch · 6 mentions in this episode
Susanne says he briefly backed the second store with a bank loan and she paid him back by working at the Limelight. Links to his Night Fever episode
- S3E6 · Eric Goode · 8 mentions in this episode
Eric calls him his nemesis yet designed clubs for him and liked him; Eric says drugs were part of the Limelight's culture under Michael and Peter. Links to his Night Fever episode
- S1E7 · Rudolf Piper · 6 mentions in this episode
Rival club owner; Rudolf says the clubs competed but owners all visited each other's clubs, except Peter, who as Rudolf tells it never went to anyone else's
FashionSignature eye patch
- S4E8 · Richie Rich · 5 mentions in this episode
As Richie tells it, the feared club owner who told him to look after Michael and complained the Raspberry Smash was breaking the bank
On the scene timeline
November 1983 · 656 Sixth Avenue
Peter Gatien turns a church into Limelight
A deconsecrated Episcopal church on Sixth Avenue becomes the most notorious room in the city, and the first brick of Gatien's empire.
14 May 1985 · 126 East 14th Street
The Palladium opens with art on the walls
Rubell and Schrager's comeback, designed by Arata Isozaki with work by Haring, Scharf and Basquiat.
1990 · US daytime television
The Club Kids invade daytime television
Michael Alig's crew take their looks onto Geraldo, Donahue and Joan Rivers, turning going out into a national spectacle.
1991 · 220 Twelfth Avenue
Gatien reopens the Tunnel
A Chelsea freight tunnel becomes the home of hip-hop Sundays and, later, Junior Vasquez's residency.
1992 · 218 West 47th Street
Club USA opens in Times Square
Gatien's neon fever dream, built as a theme park of nightlife, complete with a slide between floors.
1996 · New York
The Club Kid era ends with the Angel Melendez case
Michael Alig kills Andre "Angel" Melendez and later pleads guilty to manslaughter. The case collapses the scene just as Gatien's clubs face a federal drug investigation.
1998 · Brooklyn Federal Court
Gatien acquitted on drug charges, then pursued for taxes
A federal jury clears him of the drug charges; prosecutors move on to a tax evasion case. The Giuliani-era cabaret crackdown closes the empire room by room.
2020 · Toronto
Peter Gatien publishes Club King
The memoir, written from Toronto after deportation, reopens the argument over who really killed New York nightlife.