The Riverside Club — "The first drink I ever made for a paying customer was… for your lovely dad."

I rec’d the following note in response to Jeanne McCartin’s recent appeal for old artwork of mine to use in my Illustrating Portsmouth show at the Discover Portsmouth Center this summer:

dear sir, i have had, since 1982(?), a framed ad you drew for a multi-media extravaganza at the masonic temple…including belly dancing and throat percussion! would you like to see it? i don’t think its art show worthy, but definitely a flashback. you probably won’t remember me from the Riverside (Club)…but the first real drink i ever made for a paying customer was a manhatten for your lovely father. i also,modeled for an art class you guys held in a great apartment on middle street…. poof 30 years later (almost), i am the suburban house wife, mother of 3 in north hampton.if you are in portsmouth or the vicinity,i’d be happy to swing by and show you this treasure of mine/ours. sincerely, J.L.

Thanks J.L.

That image above is an ad I did for The Riverside Club. Awesome new wave graphics, eh? The Riverside Club was a very hot dance club in Portsmouth in the early 1980’s. Owned by Jay Smith, with Bruce Pingree in a cage with turntables, and Billy Eslinger behind the bar. I did the logo and signs and other graphics for the place. That was the first real logo I ever designed. Stole the basic layout from some ad I saw in the Boston Herald, I think. Showed it to Sasha Davidson (read more about Sasha in this post) when I just had the type together, and he said, “Give them something more for their money, Bill. Put it in a lozenge shape or something.” So I did.

And, dear readers, please let me know (207-439-1717) if you have some old artwork of mine you think would be good in the show.

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