There’s something here for everyone

YOU can feel the history of Jewel’s Catch One, or the Catch, as the regulars call it, from the center of the ballroom dance floor. It’s the kind of history -- the spirits of people growing up, the flashbacks of disco dancers doing the hustle during the club’s late-’70s heyday, the first traces of hip-hop making their way into the scene -- that comes not from celebrities or weekly magazines but from being part of a neighborhood.

For 35 years, the Catch, a multilevel labyrinth on Pico Boulevard between Crenshaw and Arlington, has been the heart of that community. Created by Jewel Williams as “a place for a disenfranchised part of the population to have a place to come and party,” the Catch began in 1972 as one of the nation’s first discos for African American gays and lesbians.

“It started here because there were laws that prohibited same-sex dancing,” recalls Williams, 68. “That was our way of getting around that. If anybody said anything, we could just say we were dancing in groups.”

Today, the clientele of the Catch changes depending on the night. Monday’s goth karaoke night brings in costumed would-be singers (mostly in black, of course), celebrating alternative standards by the likes of Pet Shop Boys, OMD and David Bowie. Friday night’s industrial-themed Das Bunker has turned into one of the largest centers of that scene in the country, with such leather-clad regulars as Chloe Halperin and Rev. Boone having become club institutions.

Saturday night’s Club 4067 is when the past and present of the club meet. Under frenetically flashing red lights, “Amazing” Joey Grant entertains clubgoers with a series of acrobatic dance moves on one of the two poles in the middle of the floor.

Grant, celebrating his 21st birthday on this night, is an L.A. native who’s been a regular performer at the Catch for nine months. While he found out about the spot from a friend, his parents were already clued in to the Catch, as they used to frequent the club. What do they think of their son carrying on the tradition?

“They think it’s cool,” Grant says, smiling and pointing to a nearby table. “They’re right there.”

Williams, a thin woman with long cornrows, wears a black Madonna sweatshirt -- perhaps a nod to the club’s largest brush with celebrity, when the Material Girl held the release party for her “Music” album at the Catch in 2000.

She is not fazed by seeing the children of her customers now on the dance floor. “There are some third-generation customers,” she says. “I get people who say, ‘My grandmother and grandfather used to come here.’ ”

Almost on cue, Williams is embraced by a man who hugs her as if she were family. Chris Johnson first hit the Catch 21 years ago. “This is like home to me,” he says. And while he says, “This is one of the only black gay spots in the country on a Saturday night,” he also recognizes how the venue has evolved. “As the clientele changed, the music and atmosphere changed. It’s for everybody.”

Williams has seen that progression, from closeted kids 30 years ago to the ones who come in today totally being themselves. “These young kids, you can’t put a label on them.”

Few could have expected the Catch to persevere all this time. “I’m just as surprised as anyone else, when my longest previous job was a year and a half,” Williams says.

“But this has captured my heart and interest all these years.”

weekend@latimes.com

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Jewel’s Catch One

Where: 4067 Pico Blvd., L.A.

When: Open nightly except Wednesdays (check calendar)

Cover: Varies

Info: (323) 734-8849; www.jewelscatchone.com