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| After the clubs closed forever following that fateful night in September, 2008, Disney took action in some instances to eliminate club names but also left things unchanged in other instances. 8TRAX was one of the venues that got the name painted over even though the colorful 70's inspired decorations would remain showing for years to come. |
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| But almost overnight Motion would lose it's name off the building as well as its logo. |
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| At Mannequins the name panels on each side of the marquee were removed right away but the neon "Dance Palace" and metal "Mannequins" vertical sign would remain well into the future. |
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| For most of us the mourning began in September, 2008 but Rock'n'Roll Beach Club fans were mourning their loss in February, 2008 when their club closed ahead of everything else. The Blog was told long ago that when RRBC was leased to a third-party vendor so quickly and at top dollar that DTD management then decided to close all the other clubs too, figuring they'd have no trouble leasing them out as well. Of course the economy tanked and there were no takers and even the RRBC vendor bailed out, leaving the Island clubs to either be demolished or sit idle for 6+ years. The RRBC shark sign would remain on the club for the coming years as well. |
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| BET Soundstage Club became simply Soundstage Club about a year before it was shuttered since the contract with BET expired. But the microphone sign and name signs would remain well into the future here too. And while the signs you see here were finally removed a few years ago, it is the only former club that still has a sign up, out in back facing the balloon ride. |
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| In the beginning Adventurers Club kept its name signs as well as all the external artifacts. It gave hope that eventually the club would reopen. But during an August, 2011 putsch, Island workers attacked all remaining club signs here and at the other clubs that still had them and erased all traces of their former selves. |
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| Lastly, Comedy Warehouse lost it signs that faced West End Plaza as it was converted to Celebration Plaza in conjunction with the outdoor Celebrate Tonight show. Even then, this sign on the side of CW remained until the putsch too. |
2 comments:
Good recap, Bob. So sad that all this happened. Yesterday I listened to Lou Mongello's most recent podcast and he was very impressed by the "Disney Springs backstory and attention to detail." How quickly he forgot about the Disney era when Pleasure Island was built and when the backstories were much more detailed and also were considered mandatory and played a much more critical role than they do today. We must never forget the rich history of what Disney turned their backs on, and the accomplishments of the brilliant creative minds who brought us Pleasure Island.
Lou Mongello? Has he ever spoken a negative word about Disney? He does not bite the Mouse that feeds him.
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