New York’s most chaotic club scene was inside a deconsecrated Gothic church on Sixth Avenue for a brief, surreal moment in the 1980s and ’90s.
The church housed Limelight, an infamous club that opened in 1983 and became a symbol of both creative invention and reckless excess in the city's nightlife.
Now, more than 15 years after Limelight closed, a new exhibit at Left Bank Books in the West Village offers a rare glimpse into the club's inner workings, runaway success and ultimate implosion.
“Limelight: A Secret History” features never-before-seen materials from two deeply intertwined archives: those of Claire O’Connor, the club’s longtime publicist and manager, and Michael Alig, the self-styled impresario of the Club Kids, whose notoriety only grew when he was arrested for murder in 1996. The exhibit is on view through Nov. 23.
O’Connor’s address book contains handwritten contacts for everyone in downtown society, from Susanne Bartsch to Kenneth Anger and more. Branded ephemera, including Limelight drink tickets and VIP reservation placards, construct a sense of what the club had been.
“People don’t keep records like this anymore,” Erik DuRon, co-owner of Left Bank Books, said. “It’s sort of a real-time experience of [the scene].”
O’Connor’s materials chronicle the club’s ascent in the 1980s, when the likes of Andy Warhol and Grace Jones passed through. There are press clippings, personal correspondence, daybooks chronicling party ideas and inter-office jokes, and a trove of photographs: Drew Barrymore celebrating her 10th birthday at the club alongside Billy Idol; Brooke Shields stepping glamorously out of a cab in a fur stole.
But the story doesn’t end in glamour. In the early ’90s, Limelight became ground zero for the Club Kids: a flamboyant, media-savvy coterie of nightlife denizens led by Alig.
Known for their outrageous outfits and chaotic Disco 2000 parties, the Club Kids reveled in attention while pushing the boundaries of fashion and gender. That spectacle turned tragic in 1996, when Alig and his roommate murdered Andre “Angel” Melendez, a fellow Club Kid.
The story became tabloid fodder and was ultimately memorialized in the book “Disco Bloodbath” by Club Kid James St. James. It was eventually adapted into the film “Party Monster,” starring Macaulay Culkin as Alig.
After his arrest, Alig began writing to O’Connor from prison. Left Bank’s archive includes dozens of those handwritten letters, scrawled in large print, as Alig expounded on his case, details of life in prison, and hints he was working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
In one letter he highlights favorite headlines from all the press clippings he’s been sent: "CLUB KID KILLER," "ANGELS WITH DIRTY MINDS," "GRISLY DISCO SLAY."
The exhibit also captures a larger moment in New York history. Limelight’s decline coincided with Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s “quality-of-life” crackdown on nightlife, which targeted the club’s promoter Peter Gatien and ultimately led to his deportation to Canada. Limelight closed and reopened over the years. Alig, who was released from prison in 2014, died of a drug overdose in 2020.
The archives remain at Left Bank for now, though the shop hopes to place them with a research institution or university.
“Claire passed away in 2011, but the family … wanted Claire’s story to be told and they wanted some recognition for her role at the club,” DuRon said.
Visitors can view highlights from both archives in person or on Left Bank's website. It’s a strange and riveting record of a world where celebrity, creativity and catastrophe blurred and where the most reliable narrator may have been the person behind the VIP clipboard.
