PM Magazine

This video is a segment that ran on “PM Magazine” in 1985. This was the first-ever “magazine-format” TV program. The segment featured the modeling agency I created to market muscular physiques, which we ran out of the gym. There is some great footage of Gladys Portugues and Carla Dunlap posing at a party I did with Chi Chi Valente and Johnny Dynell at the Limelight, in NYC. Chi Chi and Johnny were Better Bodies members from the very beginning. They still rule New York night life 25 years later. Amazing.

Chi Chi Valenti & Johnny Dynell

Chi Chi Valenti has spent a quarter century shaping and chronicling New York City’s nightclub demi-monde. Since 1980 she’s participated in alternative nightlife as a producer (Jackie 60, Click + Drag, Night of 1000 Stevies), journalist (Village Voice, Details, ID, Interview), clubowner (Mother), doorperson (The Mudd Club) and publisher (Verbal Abuse Magazine and mothernyc.com). A frequent commentator and panelist on NYC club issues from cabaret laws to bottle bars, Chi Chi Valenti is still an active contributor to Clubland as an entertainment producer and Mistress of Ceremonies. She is best known for nightlife events of an artistic or niche nature, including costumed and themed spectacles in NYC and elsewhere.

With husband and partner, the DJ Johnny Dynell and the costumer/fashion designer Kitty Boots, Valenti formed THE JACKIE FACTORY in the early 1990’s – a creative collective focused on nightlife experiments and new hybrids. Most notably, the group produced the Jackie 60 club weekly throughout the 1990’s, over five hundred themes executed in tongue-in-cheek fashion. From 1996-2000 “The Factory” also produced the cyber-fetish Saturday Click + Drag in the alternative club mecca MOTHER owned by Dynell and Valenti in the then-ascending Meat Market.

Visit www.jackiefactory.com for more.

Johnny Dynell is the New York City DJ, songwriter, remixer and impresario who has been practicing his art and craft for two decades. His DJ style is infectious and inclusive, and he is a long-time favorite of New York’s art and fashion crowds as well as Club Kids. He is equally at home at a black tie gala or the most underground nightclub, and brings to both an impressive knowledge of diverse musical genres.

Dynell has spun the soundtrack at thousands of enchanted evenings both at home and abroad over the years. His NYC club residencies have included The Mudd Club, Danceteria, Area, BoyBar, Jackie 60, Crobar and Mr. Black.

Visit www.johnnydynell.com for more.

Rehersal, Limelight, Muscle Opera 1984

rehearsal for muscle opera, chi chi has her back to the camera