Mudd Club
Mudd Club building facade in New York City
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| Location | 77 White Street, Manhattan, New York, United States |
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| Coordinates | Coordinates: 40°43′3.57″N 74°0′8.43″W / 40.7176583°N 74.0023417°W |
| Owner | Steve Mass, Diego Cortez, Anya Phillips |
| Opened | 1978 |
| Closed | 1983 |
The Mudd Club was a nightclub in the TriBeCa area of New York City, USA, that operated from 1978 to 1983 as a venue for underground music and counterculture events. It was located at 77 White Street in downtown Manhattan and was opened by Steve Mass, art curator Diego Cortez and downtown punk scene figure Anya Phillips.
The Mudd Club was named after Samuel Alexander Mudd, a doctor who treated John Wilkes Booth in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. It closed in New York in 1983.
In order to secure the space for the Mudd Club (a loft owned by artist Ross Bleckner), Steve Mass described the future venue as cabaret. Mass claimed to have started the nightclub on a budget of only $15,000.
The club featured a bar, gender-neutral bathrooms, and a rotating gallery curated by Keith Haring on the fourth floor. Live performances included new wave, experimental music, literary icons Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, and catwalk exhibitions for emerging fashion designers Anna Sui and Jasper Conran.
From the start it functioned as an “amazing antidote to the uptown glitz of Studio 54 in the '70s”. As it became more frequented by downtown celebrities, a door policy was established and it acquired a chic, often elitist reputation.
The Mudd Club was frequented by many of Manhattan's up-and-coming cult celebrities. Other individuals associated with the venue included musicians Lou Reed, Johnny Thunders, David Byrne, Debbie Harry, Arto Lindsay, John Lurie, Nico with Jim Tisdall, Lydia Lunch, X, The Cramps, The B-52's and The Bongos; artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and his then-girlfriend Madonna; performers Klaus Nomi and John Sex; designers Betsey Johnson, Maripol and Marisol; and underground filmmakers Amos Poe; Vincent Gallo, Kathy Acker, and Glenn O'Brien.
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