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Remember the thugs, rapists and tricks? This made up a percentage of the population entering the Gilded Grape.
GAY BARS MAFIA SERIES
This became part of Andy’s “Ladies and Gentlemen” series first shown in Italy, September/October 1975. These large format polaroids were transferred to paintings as a silk screen. And the next time we saw them at the Gilded Grape, they invariably would say, 'Tell your friend I do a lot more for fifty bucks’." The next day, they'd appear at the Factory and Andy, whom we never introduced by name would take their Polaroids. "We would ask them to pose for 'a friend' for $50 an hour. The project started: Bob Colacello, artist Ronnie Cutrone and art student Corey Tippen found most of the models, including Wilhelmina Ross. Andy suggested The Gilded Grape, where his entourage and rich European clients visiting Warhol’s Factory were sometime taken after dinner to witness the ‘dark underbelly of Manhattan nightlife”. Later Anselmino suggested doing a series of “funny looking” transvestites, those who were obviously men trying to pass as women. It was pointed out to him that Candy was dead. Italian art dealer Luciano Anselmino suggested to Andy Warhol that he do a series of drag queen portraits, and named Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis and Holly Woodlawn. He was released in 2009, and died at home in 2012, aged 92. On release Ianniello became the acting boss of the Genovese family until 2006 when he was convicted again. In 1986 he was convicted of racketeering and went to prison until 1995. In 1972 he was in the kitchen of Umberto’s Clam house when Colombo crime family rebel Joe Gallo got whacked at 4.30am. “In a large sense, Ianniello was the man who made Times Square the tawdry place that it was in the seventies.” “You don’t run a bar and grill or sex establishment between 34 th and 59 th streets, from Fifth Avenue to the Hudson River, without Matty having a piece of the action.” (Johnson et al p250), Under a negotiated arrangement he paid tribute to all five New York Mafia families.
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And also an interior decorating firm and a garbage collection firm. In addition to more than eighty bars and restaurants, Matty’s enterprise included support businesses supplying alcohol, laundry and trucking, and of course a talent agency that supplied topless dancers. Ianniello eventually built a string of gay/trans clubs including the Stonewall, the Peppermint Lounge and the Gilded Grape as well as heterosexual strip clubs, porn theatres and restaurants. In the early 1960s Ianniello joined the Genovese crime family, which already had experience of running gay/trans clubs - especially the 82 Club. He acquired the nickname ‘the horse’ either from the heroin (which is sometimes referred to as ‘horse’) or from the strength of his punch. In 1951 he was arrested for possessing heroin, but the charges were dropped.