Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City, which became a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists, and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s. It was opened by Mickey Ruskin (1933–1983) in December 1965 and closed in 1981.[1]
By the end of 1974, Max's had lost popularity among the art crowd and the glam era was in decline. It closed in December of that year. New York City mayor Ed Koch later had a campaign office in the building.[18] In 2015 photographer Marcia Resnick documented the people at Max's in her book Punks, Poets, and Provocateurs: New York City Bad Boys, 1977–1982.
Mickey Ruskin
Shortly after graduating from Cornell Law School, Mickey Ruskin opened The Tenth Street Coffeehouse, which featured nightly poetry readings. He then opened Les Deux Megots on East Ninth Street. His next endeavor was a bar called the Ninth Circle Steak House, a hangout for artists and musicians on West 10th Street. After opening Max's Kansas City, he opened similar restaurants including: the Longview Country Club[19] (later known as Levine's Restaurant) which was on 19th Street and Park Avenue South, diagonally across the street from Max's[20] and Max's Terre Haute, on the Upper East Side, but they did not do as well. His next club was The Locale on Waverly Place that he opened with partner Richard Sanders. Sanders kept The Locale and Mickey went on to The Lower Manhattan Ocean Club, on Chambers Street in TriBeCa.[18] Ruskin's last enterprise was Chinese Chance (nicknamed One U), a bar and restaurant that he opened with partner Sanders, located at 1 University Place in Greenwich Village. The French composer Duncan Youngerman and the poet and mail artist Adam Czarnowski both worked there as busboys. Lauren Hutton, Ellen Barkin, Gerard Malanga, Joe Jackson, Joni Mitchell, Nico, David Bowie and a score of other Lower Manhattan celebs hung out there, as well as the artists that formerly frequented Max's and the doormen of the Mudd Club.[21] Ruskin died in New York City on May 16, 1983, at the age of 50.[22]
Max's II
Max's Kansas City reopened in 1975[1] under the ownership of Tommy Dean Mills, who initially thought he would make it a disco. Peter Crowley, who had been booking the same early punk bands that played at CBGB and Mothers, a gay bar on West 23rd Street, was hired to book bands at Max's.[23]
Max's original site closed in November 1981. Bad Brains were the headliners on the final night, with the Beastie Boys opening.[1] The building survives and in 2010 was found to house a Korean deli.[27]
Max's III
Mills reopened the club again on January 27, 1998, at a new location—240 West 52nd Street—site of the former Lone Star Roadhouse.[28][29] However, it closed shortly after opening.
The opening had been delayed due to litigation by Ruskin's widow, Yvonne Sewall-Ruskin, who claimed that she owned the trademark to Max's Kansas City and was granted a temporary restraining order to prevent use of the name.[30]
Aftermath
In 2000, Acidwork Productions, Inc., a production company founded by Neil Holstein (second cousin of Mickey Ruskin) began working in conjunction with Victoria Ruskin (Mickey Ruskin's daughter) on a feature-length documentary about Mickey Ruskin and his many establishments, including Max's Kansas City.[citation needed]
In 2001, Yvonne Sewall-Ruskin established the Max's Kansas City Project, in memory of her late husband. In the spirit of Ruskin's philosophy of helping artists in need, the project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, provides emergency funding and resources for individuals in the arts in crisis. The nonprofit is also dedicated to empowering teens through the arts.[31]
Yvonne was also planning to produce a documentary on the history of Max's Kansas City following an oral history on Max's, High on Rebellion, which was published in 1998 by Thunder's Mouth Press and is presently an ebook through Open Road Digital Media.
