First Posted 11 October 2007

Letter To The Editor

Current mood:frustrated

The closing of the club was finally printed in The Press of Atlantic City, of course I can't find the link. As you can read, I didn't like the article:

Dear Editor,

I must take The Press of Atlantic City to task for their recent article concerning the closing of the Studio Six/Brass Rail. With all due respect to Councilman Shultz and his partner, Gary Hill, they were FORMER owners of the club. Yes, Mr. Shultz built it, and Mr. Hill was a phenom of promotion and their voices should be heard concerning the closing but, they sold the property and are happily ensconsed in their new home reaping the multimillion dollar benefits of their real estate venture of quite a while ago. The real news is the staff (and some of us have worked there for decades) who were summarily thrown out on the street without any warning, without any sort of severance, even without a simple "thank you" nor an explanation as to why we were losing our jobs from the "new" owner. There were bartenders there who are putting their kids through college, remodeling their homes, doing what everyone does to make a living, put food on the table and clothes on their backs. Now we were sent scrambling to find jobs in an over-saturated market at the end of the tourist season. Any long term resident of the area knows that October is the beginning of the end, job wise, and no one is hiring again until April. A simple stroll along the boardwalk will show you how many of the beach bars are gone, restaurants are shut and business hours are shorter. The Press of Atlantic City did another nice job of parroting the press release given to it by people who haven't a clue what's been going on there, who were not involved with the day to day operations of the club instead of finding out the REAL Studio Six/Brass Rail, from those of us who were still there, giving it's patrons the time of their lives for these past decades.
I have worked there in one capacity or another for nearly thirty years, as a promoter, performer, barporter, bartender and even a stint as the assistant manager and I, for one, can say that the closing of this club should not have been given the slight, eight days after the fact, that your paper gave it (although I will say putting it across from the obits was a nice touch). I cannot tell you how many people came up to me and said, "Mortimer, I was talking about you to my Mom and she told me she used to watch your shows back in the day!". This place served not only a segment of the community, but GENERATIONS of this community who came there together to enjoy themselves, meet new people and feel comfortable and happy! There are not many nightclubs that can call themselves a "neighborhood club" as you would say "neighborhood bar". The Studio Six was such a place. There are not many places where parents and now their kids come together to have a good time. I dare you to surf MySpace and not find several pages of people with pictures of themselves in the Studio Six. It was pervasive, it was home, it was unlike any other club in the city. It was a grand old lady of a nightclub and it's passing has been felt deeply and with great sadness throughout the east coast and across the country by a vast multitude of people, as my many voicemails and emails of condolences will attest.
I remember telling the new owner that he didn't just buy a business, he bought an experience.
It's a shame that now, that experience will never, ever, be had by anyone. Ever again.
The Studio Six has done a bloody lot for this community. It should be given some measure of respect by the community and it's paper of record. I don't think it was.
I will never forget the Studio Six/Brass Rail. And neither will legions upon legions of people who were lucky enough to walk up those steps and trip the light fantastic! Or, in our case, trip the light...FABULOUS!

Sincerely,
Mortimer Spreng, Bartender, Studio Six/Brass Rail
Atlantic City