[Korea Encounters] Opening of 'Tomorrow' go-go club in 1971

The Wild Five, published in The Korea Times Jan. 1, 1971. / Korea Times Archive

By Matt VanVolkenburg

In the spring of 1970, a new kind of night spot began to develop in Seoul ― the go-go club, where rock bands played on stages overlooking a dance floor. As this kind of club became popular with well-heeled young people, more and more started to appear, particularly in hotel basements.

The newly rebuilt Chosun Hotel decided to take advantage of this trend and in early 1971 opened a go-go club in its basement. Perhaps wanting to sound more sophisticated, it was described as a "discotheque."

To herald this event, a full-page ad appeared in The Korea Times which argued that "Saturday, January 2nd will be a historical date for the nightlife in Seoul" because on that date "'Tomorrow,' the first psychedelic discotheque in Korea," was to open.

How the club came to be built was also described: "Tomorrow was designed and constructed by Group III and headed by Joe Policy. The members of Group III are all young, creative and aware of what makes a discotheque a success."

But this is not how longtime Korea Times contributor Nam Sang-so remembers it.?In a 2017 post for YongsanLegacy.org, he described how his employer, Trans-Asia Engineering Associates (TAE) based in Yongsan Garrison, was tasked with designing the club.

There was only one problem: while the Korean architects had heard of such clubs, they had never designed one and had no idea what their interiors looked like.

A solution to the problem presented itself during a meal. After noticing AFKN disc jockeys talking "like avant-garde artists at a commissary diner," Nam "decided to visit the station just across the street."

After a harrowing encounter with a guard dog, he was let into the station, where he introduced himself and "explained my dilemma in designing a discotheque, a French word I couldn't even pronounce properly."?

As it turned out, one of the DJs?had been to a go-go club in New York. He was happy to help, but, as a soldier, he could not accept compensation. The solution to this was to put him up in a room at the Chosun Hotel, where he would take his furlough for a week while he led a group of friends in designing the club.

It would seem that the hotel decided in its ad copy to downplay the involvement of the local engineering firm and emphasize the involvement of the 1968 Emmy-winning Joe Policy, who one assumes was the soldier, and his group of friends, "Group III." As well, rather than taking only a week, the ad copy stated that it took "less than two months" to convert "the wasted cellar of the hotel into a futuristic nightery."

As Nam remembered it in 2018, he and his TAE colleagues "did the basic designs including structural stability, sound proofing, heating/air conditioning and ventilation, fire prevention/sprinkler, and basic electrical supply," while the "young guys from AFKN did stage technical and interior set up" and designed the DJ booth and "coloured illuminations."

They were all invited to the opening night, where they danced to the "ear-splitting music" of two Filipino bands: rock and soul band The Wild Five and The House Rockers, who were described in the hotel's sponsored article as "the Philippine's own answer to Santana."

The Wild Five perform at Tomorrow go-go club, published in The Korea Times March 21, 1971. / Korea Times Archive

"Heavy on percussion, their bongos and macumbas pound out rhythms calculated to shake your soul free from your body and echo through the canyons of your mind."

The hotel planned more than night entertainment, however. Its "new psychedelic restaurant-cum-salon-cum-nightclub" served lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. accompanied by Revolution Children, "four Eurasian dancers from Hong Kong TVB" who performed selections from the musical "Hair," and then, from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m., a DJ played music while guests were entertained by "a variety of live productions including fashion shows, puppet shows, yoga exhibitions, flower arrangement demonstrations." Live music followed from 8 p.m. until 4 a.m., which allowed those present to dance all night and avoid the curfew.

As the hotel asserted, "Everything about Tomorrow is Mod - MOD-ern, MOD-ish, MOD-ulated - from the music to the 24 specially trained beauties who make up the 'service brigade' and cater to guests' fancies in the MOD-est outfits west of Las Vegas."

The Revolution Children, published in The Korea Times Jan. 1, 1971. / Korea Times Archive

On Jan. 10, 1971, The Korea Times' "Sights and Sounds" columnist Barbara R. Mintz described her experiences at the club. As she described it, "The first actual shock you'll probably get on entering Tomorrow is the sight of the waitresses. Their costumes are silver culottes with black long-sleeve tops, shiny black boots, and platinum pageboy wigs ― with bangs!"

As well, "Entering Tomorrow is an experience in red ― from the carpet that?undulates under foot to the equally undulating inflated plastic walls and ceiling. One of our group compared walking down this entranceway to sliding down a gigantic red throat."

The red entrance to Tomorrow go-go club, published in The Korea Times March 21, 1971. / Korea Times Archive

She continued, "The room itself is large ― seating capacity 350 ― and divided into three seating areas: the usual small nightclub tables surrounded the dance floor; banquettes covered in black leather with armrests for ashtrays and drinks rise in tiers facing the bandstand; and to the right a special VIP section of small round tables each on its own circular raised platform covered in foam rubber and carpet so that one must remove one's shoes (hiding them in the shoe box that folds out from the base of the platform), step up and then sink gracefully down on the foam rubber."

Noting the volume of the Wild Five and the House Rockers' performances, she wrote, "We began to see why Tomorrow is thoughtfully located in a corner of the basement."

She also commented on the lighting effects. "Hooked into the music is a color organ that pulses abstract designs onto the walls in rhythm to the beat of the drum. Alternating with the color organ, an oil projector paints fascinating kaleidoscopic designs on the walls. The most spectacular effect was "the flickering of the ten strobe lights that go into action at critical moments in the music."

"The strobes make all the live people on and around the dance floor look as if they were in an old-time, turn-of-the-century movie. A curious flashback to the past in Tomorrowland."

She also described the "fantastic" dress of fellow attendees. "Women's clothes ranged from chima-chogori to micro minis with tight over-the-knee boots to ordinary cocktail dresses to evening pants suits with accompanying long brocade coats to blue jeans." As for men, she thought some of their "attire has to be seen to be believed" and stated, "I, for one, am enjoying this period of fashionable anarchy for both male and female dress."?

A model shows off the employee uniform for Tomorrow go-go club, published in The Korea Times Jan. 1, 1971. / Korea Times Archive

The Korea Times had a more critical view, however. On March 21, 1971, this "paradise for youth" was described as "extravagant," "very unusual" and "un-Korean." The ensuing coverage in the Korean-language press highlighted the misbehavior of high school girls who gained entry by wearing wigs and bemoaned how the young were being led wayward.

Dancing to blues at Tomorrow go-go club, published in The Korea Times March 21, 1971. / Korea Times Archive

Before long, as part of a nationwide anti-decadence drive, the government ordered go-go clubs to close an hour or two earlier, making it impossible to stay open until the curfew ended.

Chafing at these new rules, Chosun Hotel general manager Kenneth Hamlet "called upon government authorities to lift the recently imposed ban on the curfew time business of its Go-Go Club on the grounds that the limit on hotel businesses affects the tourism industry in the country."

In other words, the needs of non-Korean tourists were invoked in order to allow people to dance at the "un-Korean" go-go club all night long.

Matt VanVolkenburg has a master's degree in Korean studies from the University of Washington. He is the blogger behind populargusts.blogspot.kr.