'The Roar of L'Amour'

FRANK FAILACE SR. - L'Amour owner and one of the toughest guys I know

Respect his name and ... "Frankie to the booth"*

The below is dedicated to the memory of Mike Failace - R.I.P.

*When you heard me (or another DJ, say (over the mic) "Frankie to the ..." that meant that security get to that area ASAP

-

Most know the Parente Brothers as the co-owners of L'Amour, but there were others.

During my era (10/84-11/88) there were 4 main owners that I dealt with.

George and Mike Parente, John Z. (not Zazula) and a gentleman named Frank Failace Sr.

There was Vic who left in early 85 and there might have been others, but my dealings were with the above 4.

Frank was the oldest of them and the furthest removed from the music we played, but he was certainly an unsung hero of the club.

He was not involved in bookings, so I didn't have a lot of meetings with him, but he did control an important part of the club and an often-overlooked contribution - SECURITY

Frank was the club muscle, not the biggest man or most imposing, but one of the toughest men I knew.

A real man's man.

He hired, supervised and ran the legendary L'Amour security/bouncers

I was in an elevated booth and had a mic, the waitresses were pretty, the owners were who you met at the door, but the bouncers/security were as legendary as the rest of us and deserve their props

This is a tribute to their "leader"

My first weekend working the club, I am in my booth at 4am packing up and hear "Hey Chuck", I look down and it's Frank and he says I got your pay and I don't do steps, so come and get your money".

I go down and grab my cash and, on my way back up, he goes "Oh, happy to have you here""

That was pretty much our relationship until a few months later.

On a busy night, some local cugine and his gf get up to the booth.

Usually bouncers would stop them, but they missed these two and the guy tells me to play a song for his gf and I told him it didn't fit the night, and I don't do request/dedications.

After a back and forth that wasn't pleasant, I tell him to leave the booth and he refused.

A bouncer wound up coming up and making him leave.

I figured that was it until ...

Frank Failace comes up to the booth.

The man that doesn't do stairs is in my booth and ask "can you fight?"

I say yeah and he goes "this guy wants to fight you", can you kick his ass, so we never have to deal with him again?

I said sure.

Now it's a weird request for a DJ, but if you know me, it really wasn't and if you know L'Amour it definitely wasn't.

So, I accomplished the deed in about 45 seconds on 63rd street between 15/16 avenue (back entrance) and barely broke a sweat and didn't have a mark on me.

Frank walked me back to the booth and said, "you can really fight, consider that your initiation" and I laughed.

I get to the booth and George is up there and ask, "are you ok?", I said it was weird, but worked out ok"

Later I realized that it was certainly a part of my initiation, not the joke I thought it was

I might have been a DJ with music knowledge to that point, but from that point on, I was "made".

I was getting more and more involved in other areas of the club.

L'Amour wasn't a typical club and to be in the "inner-circle" you needed to fit in and be a certain type of guy and now Frank knew I fit.

As patrons, you didn't know a lot of the inner-workings and although I share a lot, I can't share too much because its none of your business, but Frank had a lot of pull.

Eventually he introduced me to his sons (Frank Jr. and Mike) and he wanted them to be more involved than just "security", so on my AYI nights that I promoted and ran (about 60 a year) he had them manage the club with me.

Their job was to represent the owners.

Meaning if there were any issues above my pay grade

(SLA, NYPD, FDNY, etc.) that was on them.

During those nights Pete Lomenzo usually worked the door for me and Dave Gizzo would DJ while I played host/manager/promoter, but I would talk with Frank Jr. and Mike a lot.

I was closer with Mike, but to this day Frank Jr. and I talk and he is the reason I came back to FB to tell stories because he thought a lot was being left out when it came to club history.

Frank actually has a quote in the longform article being shopped where he said "L'Amour was a team effort, but Chuck was the captain of our team".

I don't claim that, but damn I appreciate the respect, because as both an owner son and manager, he knew who actually did what.

One night Frank Sr. pulled me aside and asked if I had a few minutes, I was like "great, who do I need to fight" and he goes "Thank you for being so great to my sons. They talk very highly of you and think we should let you run more nights".

Then he shook my hand while looking me in the eye.

His hand felt like a brick, and he looked at me waiting to see me show a sign of weakness, but I didn't.

Another test I passed ... .

But damn he was strong.

My buddy Big Sal (R.I.P.) schooled me about handshakes. 

He told me in early 85 that I was a tough Mofo but shook hands like a fish and real men wouldn't respect me because of that.

He was 100% correct.

I corrected that later that night when Sal brought me to an African-American owned/run after-hours, where I was tested all night.

As time went by I learned more about Frank and with each story my respect grew.

About 6 months before I quit, he told me that he respected that I never took shit from George and Mike and that they respected that too.

Don't get me wrong, no owner ever treated me bad or close to it, but George, Mike and I were three opinionated A-types, so disagreements were going to happen.

None of us ever let it get in the way of our work.

After I quit the club, I came back to visit and Frank and I had a long talk

He was worried about my partying and told me that he wished the club would have worked it out for me to stay

Again he said his two sons said I always had the club's best interests in mind.

He said, the club doesn't feel the same without me and thanked me for all I did.

I then realized in over 4 years, I never once was thanked. I did my job, and they let me get away with a lot ... that was the relationship.

It took the toughest of the 4, to break that tradition and I will always remember that.

A little over a year ago Mike Failace passed under tragic circumstances.

Frank M. Failace Jr. asked me to call his Dad because his now late 80 something Dad would love hearing from me.

He answers and I say "It's Chuck" and he responds with "Our DJ?" and I almost lost it.

4 decades later and I was still his DJ in his mind

I began to talk about Mike passing and before I could continue, he said "Chuck thank you for making the best years of my life so special" ... the man just lost his son and said that? I am almost in tears

We talked about Mike and shared memories and he said, "Mike always talked great about you, Chuck" and thanked me again.

George and Mike certainly deserve praise for what they did, but Frank does too (as well as John)

He kept that place in-line and kept the people in-line as well and in a club that size, in that area, in that time period ... that was not easy.

You needed to be respected to do that, and Frank was certainly respected.

I am just glad he respected me too and this story/post is my way to say THANK YOU in return

THANK YOU FRANK AND R.I.P. MIKE

You are both remembered.

Side note:

Frank Jr. reached out (to me) and said "can you come on the L'Amour FB page and tell stories about the club, because I trust you to tell the truth and give people like my Dad the credit he deserves."

Frank explained there was a guy that produced docus and Frank talked to him, but Frank said the story "can't be told without me"

The docu fell apart because of something that I am not comfortable sharing, but you can either thank or blame Frank M. Failace Jr. if you like/dislike all these behind the scenes L'Amour stories ...

PS: I was on the phone with longtime bouncer James Gheida discussing some L'Amour history that isn't heralded and he said to me "Frank was a tough SOB, but had a heart and personality made of gold and was like a Dad to me"

That gave me the idea to pay tribute to him.

Chuck Kaye

Ah Yes Indeed

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