Positively Fourth and Mercer

The Inside Story of New York’s Iconic Music Club, The Bottom Line

Allan Pepper, Billy Altman

• Publisher: Backbeat
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9798765161425
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

In 1974, when young music promoters Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky opened their night club the Bottom Line in an industrial area of Greenwich Village that was all but deserted after 6 pm, no one could have foreseen either its long-term success or its impact on the musical and cultural landscape of New York City. Over the next thirty years, while trends and tastes came and went, the Bottom Line throughout its fabled history remained true to its co-founders' profoundly simple vision: that if you presented entertainers in an intimate setting where the focus would always be on what transpired onstage, both artists and audiences would treasure the experience.
That vision would ultimately translate to, literally, thousands of magical evenings and events featuring both icons and up-and-comers from across the music universe. As the performers, patrons and staffers who passed through its doors all agree, the Bottom Line realized its founders vision as no New York music club, before or after, ever would.
The story of the Bottom Line is the tale of childhood friends who turned their shared dream into a reality – and, through determination, hard work, and, most of all, a belief in each other, made entertainment history, and memories, to last a lifetime. Told by co-founder Allan Pepper and award-winning music journalist Billy Altman, as well as scores of on and offstage participants whose exploits helped create its lasting legacy, Positively Fourth and Mercer: The Inside Story of New York's Iconic Music Club, The Bottom Line is certain to appeal to anyone interested in music, show business and the inner and outer workings of a legendary club that defined its time in the firmament of New York City nightlife. Positively Fourth and Mercer is about a time and place. It is a love story about friendship, romance, and following a dream.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: A Devotion to Music, and a Devoted Friendship, Grows in Brooklyn
• Chapter 2: Two Hundred and Fifty Dollars, a Dream, and a Match Made in the College Library
• Chapter 3: Tastes of the Big Time, Bitter and Sweet
• Chapter 4: From a Red Garter to a Bottom Line: We Built it, and They Came
• Chapter 5: Hells Angels, A Jazz Devil, and New York Dolls
• Chapter 6: Born to Kill: The Boss Raises the Bar
• Chapter 7: A Punk Priestess, a Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal, a Country Darling—and a “Formula” for Success
• Chapter 8: Meat Loaf Burns, and No-Show Jones Finally Arrives
• Chapter 9: The Chairs Hold Firm: Doo-Woppers, Rock ‘n’ Roll Prisoners, and the Great French Fry Caper
• Chapter 10: I Got My Job Through the . . . Village Voice? Working at The Bottom Line
• Chapter 11: Leader of the Pack: A Village Smash, a Broadway Bust
• Chapter 12: Fast Folks: From the Cool, Cool, Cool to the Hot, Hot, Hot
• Chapter 13: From the Bluebird to the Big Apple : A Bunch of Songwriters Sittin’ Around Singing
• Chapter 14: ‘Tis the Season: Caroling Carolers, Hallelujah Choruses, and New Year’s Hi-Jinx
• Chapter 15: Stanley
• Chapter 16: The “Bottom Line” Sinks The Bottom Line
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments