Harley......Harley Flanigan...
Friday, March 29, 2002
Ira wrote,
Oh, dearie, dearie, dearie . . .Harley . . . Harley Flanigan . . . how many times did we bail him out on account of his Mom, Rose. She was a hipster in the day and knew Lenny Bruce personally!!!!! (Lenny being the god of all comedy but that is another whole topic) When I first met him (Harley) he was about......12, I think. Sitting on his little stool in Tier3, the club his Mom worked in and managed, I think. ohhhhhhhhhhhhh yes, Rose knew us all by name......no mucking around in her place. Over the years it is sad to say that I have no cute or truly nice stories to tell about him. I will always know him as a good and misunderstood kid who happened on too many wrong turns. I have fed, covered, bailed out and protected him and yes, mostly for his Mom's sake.
There is a particular story I could tell you, although, it has some pretty bad overtones to it but my involvement was pretty funny. It seems that there was a period of gay bashing on the streets about the time hardcore really started hitting its stride. Being part of the older punk crowd this kind of thing was not tolerated. It seems there was an instance of a little skin named Eric and another positively ID'd as Harley (never get tattooed if you don't want people to know who you are). Well, it seems the lover of a NYPD officer was beaten up and some of the BIG MEN in blue came to the east side looking for them. I had a long history of good relations with the NYPD through business and family connections and had done some contract work for them also. Obviously, they came to me 1st. After defusing the situation, I was required to seek out some of the more aggravated parties to speak to them on their own ground...ie the Mine Shaft on uniform night and HellFire Club on hose and handcuff night. Well, needless to say at least I was not unfamiliar with those venues...I worked both clubs....Hellfire for awhile as well as some others but to this very day I know in my heart that Harley owes me BIGG Time.
There is just that kind of humor in not being the biggest guy in the club, trying to diffuse this problem and being straight to boot. I gave out a lot of badge comps for the next couple of months and relieved a lot of grief that was about to befall on the hc/punk scene on the lower east side and all clubs in the area that year.....:) talk about your unsung heroes...hehehehehehe....
E. 13th Street '82
E. 13th St.'81, neighbors
Ira on Flipper
Ira on Harley
Ira MDC
Ira Q&A
Ira on Skins
Ira
Punk Rock Stories | San Francisco | New York
