Adam's Apple Ad circa 1978

When I arrived in NYC in 1978, this ad defined a certain vision of decadent nightlife. I never went to the Adam's Apple, but remember the ad (the girl with the Farrah Fawcett hair and the swelling disco music under scenes of artificial East Side revelry) from late-night TV.

This all came back to mind this week because the 90 year old former owner of the Adam's Apple was murdered (apparently a 30 year old former sexual partner arranged a violent robbery) in his East Side apartment. The story that has emerged would make for an interesting film. In many ways the life and death of Guido Felix Brinkmann defines a century. According to the NY Times and the NY Daily News, Felix Brinkmann was a Latvian born Nazi-sympathizer who was sent to the death camps when it was discovered that he had a Jewish mom. After surviving Auschwitz and marrying a woman he met while imprisoned, Brinkmann dropped the final "n" from his name and moved to NY in 1948. In the city, Brinkmann set about making a small fortune in the free-wheeling club world. In the 1960s Felix Brinkmann managed the Audubon ballroom where Malcolm X was assassinated and in the 1970s he founded the Adam's Apple disco where the hustle dance craze was born. As an elderly widower, Felix Brinkman managed real estate and "regularly brought young women back to his apartment for sex." It may have been a hooker who arranged the robbery that left Brinkmann dead.

To read more, here's another reference to the recent argument where Brinkmann allegedly pulled a gun on a 26 year old man, here is a link to a compilation of news reports about Brinkmann's murder and to see a photo of the suspect click here.