Gone But Not Forgotten,
Club Marchella was Rochester, NY's Hottest Nite Spots!

Located at Liberty Pole Way, downtown Rochester, NY. Club Marchella was easily one of the most popular nite spots for the gay, transgender, and even straight people of Rochester. Back in the mid to late 90's it was THE place to go!

The amazing thing about Club Marchella was the percentage of straight couples it would draw! It's location was always a popular alternative club! It was originally Jim's Bar, then it turned to Club X, then Idol's, the Club Marchella. Always attracting people in alternative music and or simply the curious or adventurous!

I had the pleasure of being granted full access one night to photograph one of their popular drag shows. Back stage, dressing rooms, any where I wanted. Club Marchella was also filmed by the notorious bad boys from Life With Out Shame. A local team that produced raunchy episodes on a local cable station geared to the straight male population.

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Club Marchella always had a good showing of the finest drag queens and shemales Rochester had to offer, even on nights there were no shows. In fact every night was a show in it's own right!

People would often just drive by the club and never even stop to get out. They just drove by, some times several times in a row, just to see what there was to see!

What you would see is a bunch of very different people. Straight, gay, lesbian, transgendered, punks, and your typical club hoppers! Despite being a fairly conservative city, Rochester has always been a very tolerant sity towards diversity.

Of course the good old days of downtown Rochester clubs are long gone, I will never forget the days when downtown Rochester had a very active club scene! From Club Marchella, Heaven, Carpi Diem, X, the Bug Jar, and a host of other smaller bars and clubs, Rochester was a true alternative town! These days it's a ghost town with the exception of a few smaller bars that some how have survived over the years.



Club Marchella also had a sister club at Buffalo which I never did get to see. I heard it was not as good as our own in Rochester, but I guess I will never know. Most of the drags that come out at nite to these clubs, and they were welcome at every club downtown back then, were young and attractive. But there were also some older ones too. Yes, we all get old, isn't life a drag!

We even had some real shemales, that is transsexuals. Not a lot, but a few well known ones. One of them worked at Club Marchella as a bar tender. Her name was Heather, not to be confused with the drag queen Heather Skye. Heather was a little older then the other Heather, and had red hair.

The thing I really liked about club hopping downtown was that most of the time, most people were just out to have a good time, and didn't care who, or what you were in to. Of course if you were looking for trouble you could easily find it! But for the most part, you didn't have too much to worry about.

I've only got in one fight, and it was at another club called Carpi Diem. I started it and was quickly thrown out by 5 bouncers! What can I say? I had too much to drink and was picking a fight with a guy twice my size! I did say if you were looking for trouble you could easily find it!

I am not usually like that at all, and don't really know what was up with that. I may have been having a bad day too. Any way if a fight broke out or trouble would start, no matter what club your at, it is always quickly defused one way or another!

I been to clubs over at Boston which had a similar club scene downtown. I must say I really liked it and it reminded me of Rochester accept it was on a larger scale. I was surprised to find a bartender at a Boston club that use to work at a Rochester club!

This lovely lady if I may call her that, is Pandora Boxx. Another drag queen that performed regularly at drag shows downtown. Most of these drag queens are such hams! They love to be photographed! And they know how to pose too!

They spend a lot of time on make up, their hair, and how to dress before they go out. So I suppose there is nothing wrong with being a ham in their case! Pandora is actually a very bright and friendly girl. Very sociable. Which is the case for most drag queens in our area!

Of course there are some with a attitude too! The ones every one referred to as a "bitch!" But even the bitches tried to be sociable at their own level any way!

So what made me do this post? Well I was thinking about how old Shemale Central is, almost ten years old, and I was going through some old photographs and stumbled on my Club Marchella pics. It reminded me of why I started shemale central in the first place, I felt that despite being a straight male, I could still provide a great tribute to this very interesting niche. I've always tried to bring original material to shemale central and keep it different from the vast majority of spam infested shemale sites we see so often. I'm proud that I have remained to true to my goal.

So now I leave you with a few more pictures of Heather Skye (the blonde), and Mahogany. BTW, Mahogany was the official Shemale Central cover girl in the early years! So spread the word about Shemale Central! And for heavens sake leave a comment so I know all this work is not going to waste! Enjoy!