The Teenbeat Club in Las Vegas, Nevada, located at 4416 Paradise Road, is believed to be the first U.S. nightclub that catered exclusively to teenagers.
The club was opened in 1962 by Steve Miller and Keith Austin, both 19 at the time and Las Vegas High School graduates, where they were members of the 1962 Las Vegas High School Broadcasting Club. The Teenbeat Club ceased operation in 1968.
The club grew out of the dance concerts Miller and Austin promoted, featuring live KLAS Radio broadcasts from the Knights of Columbus Hall and the National Guard Armory in Downtown Las Vegas. The broadcasts featured The Teenbeats, a local Las Vegas surf music-influenced band. When the Teenbeat Club opened, The Teenbeats, were the house band featuring vocalist and rhythm guitarist Don Frassa, lead guitarist Larry Chernoff, bassist Lyle Smith, drummer Gary Karr, and Jim Logue on tenor sax.Elliot Lieb also played drums for The Checkmates and The Teenbeats prior to Gary Karr joining the group.. The Lords, a local rock band, featuring Fred Cole, sharing lead vocals with electric organist Hans Grebner (Johnny The German), and guitarist John Acquina, played the Teenbeat Club frequently from 1963 through 1964 as did The Coachmen featuring lead vocalist, pianist and saxophonist Michael Wesley Dean, guitarist Matt Hyde, keyboardist James Donnellan, bassist Terry Johnson and drummer Jim Kehn.
Miller and Austin co-produced 45 RPM singles from 1962 to 1966. The first, by The Teenbeats titled Surf Bound , was written by Larry Chernoff and recorded on Teenbeat Records. In the mid-1960s, three LP albums were recorded live at the Teenbeat Club on La Brea/Sutton Records:The Goldtones, Live ! At The Teenbeat Club In Las Vegas , (LS 8011), featuring Randy Seol, Wayne Purvis, Ken Naylor, Al Doss, Mike Peters, Steve Green and Cindy Mac; The Starfires, Teenbeat A Go Go , (LS 8018), featuring Chuck Butler, Dave Anderson, Jack Emerick, Freddy Fields and Sonny Lathrop; and The Sentinals Vegas Go Go , (SSU 338). Southern California surf rock bands which played the Teenbeat Club in the early 1960s included the Marketts, Surfer's Stomp and Out of Limits , The Lively Ones, Surf Rider, The Routers, Let's Go (Pony), The Challengers, Surf Beat , and Chevell's, Let There Be Surf . The Templars appeared in two International Scout advertisements taken in front of the Teenbeat Club marquee.The Bitter Sweets of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, also appeared in the mid-1960s.
In 1966, Miller and Austin co-produced two other 45 RPM singles, on Teenbeat Club Records, It's Your Time , and Little Girl on the B-side, (TB 1006), by The Weeds, a local Las Vegas band, and a cover of the Rolling Stones, Get Off My Cloud , backed with Red Roses For A Blue Lady , featuring Charlie White Eagle, (TB 1004), with musical accompaniment and background vocals by The Weeds.
The Weeds were frequent performers at the Teenbeat Club from 1965 through 1966, featuring Fred Cole, a vocalist, guitarist and songwriter, who later gained success in the Portland, Oregon-based bands King Bee, Zipper, The Rats, Dead Moon and Pierced Arrows. Other members of The Weeds were lead guitarist Ed Bowen, rhythm guitarists Ron Buzzell and Dennis Wynne, bassist Bob Atkins, and drummer Tim Rockson.
The years 1966 and 1967 saw a renaissance of local Las Vegas electric rock, folk rock and blues bands in the Las Vegas Valley. Scatter Blues played the Teenbeat Club regularly which featured vocalist and blues harpist Piers Munro, vocalist and rhythm guitarist Bill Rosevear, bassist Scott Devitte and drummer Rich Lowrey. Other frequently appearing local bands appearing at the Teenbeat Club in the mid-1960s were the Present Tense featuring vocalist Christopher Michael Hallman, bassist Michael P. Selinsky, lead guitarist Bob Lilley, rhythm guitarist John McDonnell, electric pianist Dennis Prell, and drummers John Baker and Jim Gannon. The Sioux Uprising, featuring lead vocalist and guitarist Gregory Albert Waller, bassist Steve Armstead, guitarist Michael Murray and drummer Scott Wolfe;
Nobody's Children and Misty Souls were other Las Vegas regulars to play the Teenbeat Club during this time period. The Teenbeat Club sponsored Battle of the Bands in 1966 and 1968. 1966 resulted in a tie between The Weeds and Scatter Blues in audience balloting; as far as is known, a Battle of the Bands did not occur in 1967. The 1968 Battle was won by the Calico Blues Band featuring guitarist Tom Munshower, organist Scott Devitte, bassist Mike Badik, and drummer Russell King. Munshower and Devitte later won Emmy Awards for Camerawork and Technical Lighting Direction, respectively. Notable Hollywood, CA area bands which played the TC included Love with Arthur Lee My Little Black Book , Orange Skies , and 7 And 7 Is (with Scatter Blues as their opening act)., Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Outsiders, Time Won't Let Me and Hamilton Street Car. The Standells Dirty Water , from San Luis Obispo, CA also performed in 1966.
From 1962 through 1966, Miller and Austin hosted the Teen Beat Club Television Show on KLAS-TV,Channel 8, that included live weekly interviews and dancing, patterned after Dick Clark's American Bandstand. The live broadcasts featured such guest artists as Frankie Avalon, The Beach Boys, Dorsey Burnette, Vic Dana, Dick and Dee Dee, Trini Lopez, Wayne Newton, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Shillings,Keely Smith, Bobby Vee, Bobby Vinton and Timi Yuro
From 1963 through 1968, Miller and Austin also promoted dance concerts held at the Las Vegas Convention Center that featured The Beach Boys, Sonny Charles and The Checkmates Ltd., Dick and Dee Dee, Jackie DeShannon, Tom Jones, Lou Rawls, Bobby Rydell, Neil Sedaka, Surfaris, Three Dog Night and Bobby Vinton. They also co-promoted the first Las Vegas appearances of the Grateful Dead and Santana at the Las Vegas Ice Palace in 1969.
The original Teenbeat Club building still stands, but it is now an adult topless cabaret, Club Paradise, located across the street and just east of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
Steve Miller later served as a Las Vegas City Council member from 1987 to 1991. He was inducted by the Nevada Broadcasters Association into the Nevada Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1998.
Keith Austin relocated to Santa Barbara, California, where he continues his career in the recording industry as Executive Producer and Host of The Rock Files.
See also
- Surf rock
- Garage rock
- List of television shows set in Las Vegas
References
- ^ Teenbeat Club publicity brochure, published by Miller and Austin in 1964, states: The Teenbeat Club at the time was believed to be the only teenage night club in the United States that was designed and built from the ground up specifically for teenagers
- ^ http://www.angelfire.com/planet/retroplaces2/60snightlife.html
- ^ The Rockfiles - About Us - Keith Austin Rockfiles Host
- ^ 1962 Las Vegas High School yearbook, The Echo
- ^ Steve Miller Biography, http://www.stevemiller4lasvegas.com/biog.html
- ^ An LP compilation album of the 1962 KLAS Radio broadcasts, The Teenbeats, Surf Bound (ED 220) was released on Norton Records, under the auspices of Miller and Austin, New York, NY, 1991
- ^ Surf Bound, live, http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,253810,00.html
- ^ Linna, M., and Miller, B., Editors, The Teenbeats , Kicks Magazine #7, Norton Records, Publisher, 1992, op cit. http://www.nortonrecords.com/kicks.html
- ^ The weekend dances Miller and Austin promoted started in 1961, Norton Records ED 220 liner notes, op.cit.
- ^ formerly known as The Checkmates
- ^ Surf Bound LP track listing Norton Records (ED 220), http://stevemiller4lasvegas.com/NORTON.html
- ^ Norton Records liner notes, op.cit.
- ^ Emory University Law Library Record Labels Collection, compiled by Gordon, T., http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/t/teen1500.htm
- ^ Teenage Thunder Again, The Teenbeats & Don Frassa, Bear Family Records (CD0927003)http://www.bear-family.de/index.php?sid=28fd1ccf40110af9f70984ea71953593&&cl=tcnewextsearch&tcinterpret=TEENBEATS%20%26%20Don%20Frassa&tcsong=Live%20Like%20A%20King&tcignoreinterpret=1
- ^ Norton Records, (ED 220), op. cit.
- ^ Elliott Lieb and Stephen Kopels
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lords
- ^ The Lords released one single, Ain't Got No Self Respect , a 7" RPM, on Tell Records , Mike Tell Productions, Las Vegas, NV, 1964
- ^ Michael Wesley Dean, http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:
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