I'm born and raised in Kansas City, but I'd forgotten about the Inferno. It was a disco club in the '70s and early '80s, but it's been closed for years now. I remember the sign for it over on Troost Avenue, the main strip in that section of the ghetto. Just a door or two down from the Inferno was a place that used to advertise "LIVE GIRLS!!!" They had *live* girls I guess for people who weren't into the dead ones.

I'm reading the inside of the match cover now, about the fountain and the slave pit and all that. Though I remember the big red sign out front, with the devils on it and all that, I was too young to get in bars at that time, and I'd have been scared shitless to go in a bar on Troost Avenue even if I had been old enough. It sounds like it was quite a place though!

I think I may have passed it by even when old enough! Way to many Twilight Zones in my past to walk into the devils bar.....

It's hard to find a decent slave pit these days.

Is "Scoots" Scudiero an underworld figure? What does the "VA" in the phone number stand for?

Sounds like the kind of place where you'd get in a whole lotta trouble. Then again, a little trouble can be a good thing. :)

I was in Kansas City for a conference this week- my first time ever. The one in Missouri. No such excitement. I must have been in the wrong one.

Scoots was probably the DJ, and "VA" stands for "93." All the neighborhoods over there had phone numbers beginning with 931 or 531.
This is all triggering some major nostalgia though. I went to college not far from Troost; the area was pretty wild in those days. There was a strip club on Main Street called the Pink Garter, right next to a gay bar, and across the street from a cowboy joint where they had real live bar room brawls every weekend, enter at your own risk. Those places are all gone now; the neighborhood has been gentrified beyond all recognition, though it's still fairly easy to get yourself shot on Troost on a Saturday night.

And Fay's absolutely right; there's nothing wrong with a little trouble sometimes!

I called the # in the KC, Kansas area code (1-913-821-9146). I got a message that sounded like Scoots!

Ask him if he can get any smack, or maybe some ketamine. I feel like going to a rave.

on the illuminated glass dance floor

I get some mighty odd pictures reading this Noah. Glass floor with chained girls and a big waterfall??
Sounds like a true dive to me.
You ought to research this one here.....

Chained girls and an illuminated dance floor are the hallmark of elegance Mission. Especially when your brain's strobing on ketamine.

For a devil of a good time, phone Scoots...

Do they have ribs?

Oh yeah, got to love dance clubs with glass floors, there's usually an area below that for those who don't like to dance, but like to watch others dance....from below!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Upskirt shots!!

Oops, I mean, I would have no idea about such places.

Rated!!!!!!

Myriad, I'm not sure if the guy Noah reached is really Scoots, but it's worth a shot. And Jonathan, you can get some fine ribs at Gates BBQ a few blocks south of where the Inferno used to be. For the best ribs though, you have to go several miles north up Troost to the 18th and Vine District, to Arthur Bryant's BBQ. There is no finer purveyor of slow-cooked, marinated flesh in the Universe.

Noah..someone is selling ashtrays from this place if you're interested

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/4-vintage-kansas-city-ashtrays-inferno-cocktail

RE: the VA in the phone number, that was what the phone company used to call the "exchange" and it stood for a word like
"VAlley" 35678 " That's how phone numbers were when I was young but you're probably too young to remember....and there weren't any area codes aither.

I think they still have "slave pits" is some congressional office in DC...just to keep the guys "entertained."

I don't know nuthin about nuthin, but it sounds like a place that could be reborn....in LA or some other crazy place for some fun, can the guys be slaves too??? R

Well at least I now know where Fred Phelps used to hang out before he made it big...

Mary Ann -
Old Noah "too young to remember"? Not at all. My childhood phone number was TAlcott 3- 5444.

First of all Amy, the Inferno is in Missouri, not Kansas. Second of all, Fred Phelps wouldn't be caught dead within a mile of Troost Avenue. There are way too many black people and gay people and whores and junkies and what not around there for his lily white ass.

Those ashtrays were sold almost three years ago.

Maybe there are more on Ebay.

Don't be such a buzzkill Larry; I WANT me an Inferno ashtray!

But Natasha, I want his lily white ass down on Troot Street... At like 2am, alone, with cash hanging out of his pockets, drunk... easy pickings.

And as for where the Inferno is located - Missouri or Kansas... is there a difference?????

Maybe the place was named after the Trammps Song, Disco Inferno.

Where did you find this matchbook? Next to a book? The book in the post?????

"Missouri or Kansas... is there a difference?????"

Well gee Amy, I don't know. You live in Iowa, which borders Missouri to the north, right? Do you think there's a difference between the two states? It's all a matter of how self-righteous you feel I guess.

Hmmm....Mom? Did you and Dad ever hit the Inferno?

You know they never went there Jay, the Inferno wasn't a reputable kind of place.

Yeah but...perhaps there was another side we never knew... ?!?!??? I had to ask...

I WISH I would have had the balls to go to the Inferno before it was closed down. Back in those days it was rough, a bit, down in there. This white punk on dope knew where to stay outa. Had I ever seen this matchbook however, I might of risked it!

And Amy... seriously, if you lived in California I MIGHT understand the "isn't Kansas and Missouri the same" thing. You live in the land of hog condos. Get for real.

J and N... Mom and Dad used to go to the (I think) Fairyland (??) at 75th and Prospect. The "old days" equivalent of worlds of fun, or six flags. Same hood. Who knows what all they used to do?

I remember Fairyland. You can still drive past it and see the weeds and trees growing up among the booths and rollercoasters. There's nothing but meth freaks over there nowadays.

slave pit with lovely enchained girls... How non PC is that? DAMN! Where's Bonnie Russell when we need her?

Nanabro.. In my day it was junkies. That was before some sick sweaty biker invented meth, and before crack was cool.

I remember those days. The junkies were a lot mellower than the meth heads, though no less likely to rip you off.

Thanks for this post Noah. It triggered a lot of memories for me, though sadly most of them seem to involve degradation of one kind or another.

Rumor has it the original lyric in the song was "they got same crazy little devil's helpers there and I'm gonna get me one" ... and that Scoots was pals with Jack Ruby.

If I had an xtra G Noah, I'd offer it to you for that matchbook. That was back when matchbox advertising was the next big thing... internet of the 60's. "Scoots" was most definitely a nefarious as HELL KC gangster.. with few records of his 'activities.' I admire Scoots.
Is that wrong? IS IT?

right or wrong, he always bids you welcome... ya gotta admire that

I used to collect pulp fiction paperbacks like the one depicted. Sold my collection a few years ago. It included one for Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Craven with Humphrey Bogart on the cover. Didn't get nearly as much as I'd hoped for it.

I grew up 90 miles away from KCMO in the 60s and the closeted gays would escape our small town on weekends for the flesh pits of the big city. I knew about the drag clubs but the slave pits are a new one for me.

Kinda makes Tony Soprano's "Bada Bing" Club look tame ... ah the good old days

I remember the live girls sign. I saw it after hitch hiking back from being abandoned in the ozarks.