I'm sure at one point you’ll be sick of all the chatter about the Limelight film opening this week, but I think it's significant and I'm going to write about it. Maybe there will be a Pacha movie, or a Marquee movie, or a Provocateur movie—but I doubt it. Limelight: The Rise and Fall of New York's Greatest Nightclub Empire is a documentary that deals with certain happenings at that club and the other three joints Peter Gatien owned and operated back in the day.

In the end, it’s more of a crime saga than a movie about any particular club or person. Limelight, Palladium, USA and Tunnel were awash with drugs, waylaid by gangsters, and pushed over a delicate edge that we now seem to have drifted far away from. We—and that “we” has a lot of names in it—tried to create a place where music, fashion, art, and dynamic people from all fields, walks of life, and arenas would mingle and be alive. We ruled over a creative cauldron that had almost a Camelot-like feeling. Until it crashed.

The public wanted our product; they would do anything to get in. Celebrities, politicians, off-duty law enforcement agents, the successful, as well as the young and the useless clamored to join the party. Like most large clubs, we were pushing an international DJ agenda, as well as the social one. The music of that era had bounced around Chicago and Detroit, was kicked to England and came back here energized by a variety of drugs including ecstasy. “X,” as it was known then and now, was the greatest high since Mount Everest. It took humans to a place of love and awareness and at the end, didn't even leave them with a hangover. It was cheap compared to the drugs of choice at that time (coke and heroin) and as far as anyone knew, it didn’t kill anyone.

For the club operators there was an added twist—ecstasy wasn't illegal in NYC. When visited by NYPD, X dealers were not arrested. Few knew that it had been criminalized on the federal level. Did that matter? Not much. Operators don't favor drug dealers because, first of all they are competition, and second because they often fight each other over territory, possibly bringing weapons. Coke and H dealers are the worst and club security devoted themselves to kicking those types to the curbThe X dealers, often club kids, all dressed up in outfits and sporting makeup were less of a threat. Threat was the concern. If they were caught, they were ejected with extreme prejudice but we weren't looking for them as they were...not threatening. That changed in time as organized "crimesters" saw the cash potential. It's a different world now. Club operators worry about stealing, sexual harassment suits, bottle sales, and competition. We had to watch our backs as well. I was constantly threatened, constantly given ultimatums by people and organizations that seem now to have faded into the twilight

I won't make apologies or try to justify my behavior back then. I was not part of any conspiracy to traffic drugs. The film has plenty of those guys in it bragging about their escapades wearing their deeds as badges of honor. None of them went to jail. Talk is not only cheap but it gives you a free pass, a get out of jail free card. And for the record we are talking Monopoly. Although other joints certainly existed and thrived, the Gatien empire was the talk of the town. Now after all of these years Billy Corben has directed and Peter's daughter Jen Gatien has produced this documentary. The question I’m getting from everyone is—“How authentic is it?”

I haven't seen the final cut but what I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival was spot on and fair. Albeit it is a look at a room through a peephole, but the feeling of the time is there and the players on film were the players. Many of the bad guys were missing, as well as the stories of the millions of good people who passed through the door. The stories of love found and lost and of young people finding themselves and how the worker bees of our metropolis celebrated their decision to live here partying away cleanly, safely, sanely at these great clubs. The story deals with a minority and paints a picture and although accurate, it dismisses the fact that we sold oceans of liquor and offered countless great bands and fashion shows and fun. One critic said not enough celluloid was spent on the good...the music, the thousand and one nights of glory. That part isn't the stuff of dreams or movies like this. In the end the legacy of Limelight must be told with blood, drugs, tears and the destruction of people and ideas.

The four Gatien joints were as good as any I’ve ever experienced; Gatien was a solid operator. His talent was accumulating the best people in the business and creating spaces that were ambitious, wondrous, and still very functional. They were money machines and the numbers are mind blowing. In an age without bottle service patrons, paid to get in and dressed and pleaded with door people for that privilege. We serviced thousands every night and turned away as many. Peter's weakness was his business model. He pitted people against each other and thus created cliques and power bases that in competition did anything to service the bottom line and win his favor. The result was a number of drug-based promotional groups that led to his demise. During the Tribeca cut, Peter's wife was the subject of much abuse which, I feel, was deserved. I described her as evil and will stick to that story. I heard that all that Alexander stuff was cut from the film but will be in the DVD.

We will see. Tomorrow night when the film premiers I will be there to say it as I saw it to those in attendance. There will be people who love me there and some not so much but even in what may be a sanitized version the story told will be worth watching. For me it defined my life and is a legacy that I will never shed. I went down for the count but here I am doing my thing. In a way my fall from grace led me to a much better place. My work is now different but still satisfies or at least challenges my creative urges. I will be talking to Director Billy Corben today and I’m getting feedback from Michael Alig, who is still paying the price. The club world then was not better than it is now. The big clubs, save for a few dinosaurs, have faded from relevance. The former hot spots that are the subject of this flick are now a mall, a hotel, student housing and a theatre for the absurd. Nightlife today is diverse and spread through a thousand specialized venues.

It's as fun as ever and gone is the violence, the drug overdoses, and the bad guys. I'm fine with that. That world now preserved in film is better off gone. It was a product of its time and although the products that fueled the fun are still around, they are rarely the driving force behind the action. I hope that up north in his Canadian Elbe Peter Gatien finds some peace in this release. I hope he feels vindicated... although when I watched the film my take was that everyone was to blame. Peter, the evil doers he cultivated, and certainly the unfair folks at the DEA, and other governmental agencies. I'm to blame too. I was in a position of great power and control and didn't do enough. Clubs were the drug for me and I just couldn't say no.

Limelight: The Rise and Fall of New York's Greatest Nightclub Empire opens in theaters this Friday.