In spring 1978, photographer Meryl Meisler accompanied her friend Judi Jupiter to an interview to work the bar at the Playmate, a new go-go bar opening on 49th Street and Broadway in New York.
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“It was a topless-bottomless bar,” Meisler remembers. “There was disco music playing and girls were dancing on stage. It was fascinating. I asked if I could get a job there as a hostess, and was hired.”
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During the late 1970s, Meisler led a double life. By day she worked as a CETA photographer documenting Jewish New York for the American Jewish Congress, exploring her ethnic roots. By night, she was partying at nightclubs like Studio 54 and working at the Playmate, where she soon began making photographs, a selection of which have been published inPurgatory & Paradise SASSY ‘70s Suburbia & The City (Bizarre).
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Meisler was required to wear a bathing suit or leotard, stockings, high heels, and makeup, and as hostess, she’d greet customers at the door, seating them by the stage, and serving them $4 “near-beers,” as the bar didn’t have a liquor license. She received a dollar tip for every drink, plus a $10 tip whenever she brought customers to the back rooms for private dances and a $40 bottle of “champagne” (Martinelli’s sparkling cider).
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