Peppermint Lounge

The Peppermint Lounge was a popular discotheque located at 128 West 45th Street in New York City that was open from 1958 to 1965. It was the launchpad for the global Twist craze in the early 1960s. Many claim The Peppermint Lounge was also where go-go dancing originated, although this claim is subject to dispute.

Original Peppermint Lounge

The Peppermint Lounge opened in 1958 at 128 West 45th Street in Manhattan. It had a lengthy mahogany bar running along one side, lots of mirrors and a dance floor at the back, a capacity of just 178 people, and a gay clientele.

As the Twist craze hit in 1960–1961, celebrities swarmed into the Peppermint Lounge - Audrey Hepburn, Truman Capote, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Liberace, Noël Coward, Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, Annette Funicello, even the elusive Greta Garbo - to dance to the house band, Joey Dee and the Starliters. Jackie Kennedy was such an enthusiast that she arranged for a temporary "Peppermint Lounge" to be mounted in the White House. One such event even took place at a meeting of the austere Council of the Organization of American States. A sister club was opened in Miami Beach. The proprietor Ralph Saggesse appeared as a contestant on What's My Line? in 1961.