Mel Cheren (1933 – December 7, 2007)

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Melvin Cheren (1933 – December 7, 2007) was a record executive who helped start the Paradise Garage, also known as "Gay-rage", a New York City gay discotheque popular in the 1970s and ’80s. Cheren was business partner and former lover of Michael Brody, who created the Paradise Garage in 1977 with the financial back-up of Cheren. In the 2006 “The Godfather of Disco,” a documentary about Cheren, he himself called the Garage “the ultimate expression of the whole fabric” of gay night life. When Rodger McFarlane began a crisis counseling hotline in the 1980s, which ultimately became the Gay Men's Health Crisis organization, he operated it out of a couple of rooms in a building in Chelsea owned by Mel Cheren. In 1984 Cheren turned the building into the Colonial House Inn, a 20-room gay-oriented guesthouse where he himself lived until his death.

Timeline & Places:

1933: born

1984 to 2007: lived at Colonial House Inn, 318 W 22nd St, New York, NY 10011, Stati Uniti, sharing with Michael Brody (died 1987)

December 7, 2007: died.

References:

Queer Places, Vol. 1.2: Retracing the Steps of LGBTQ people around the World Authored by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1544066585 (CreateSpace-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1544066589
CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/7265079
Amazon print: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1544066589/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IZ1BU9K/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Queer New York City: Retracing the Steps of LGBTQ people around the World
ISBN-13: 978-1979628808 (CreateSpace-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1979628807
CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/7790698
Amazon print: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1979628807/?tag=elimyrevandra-20