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Mary’s Club officially closed its Broadway location this past Thursday, Oct. 21, in order to pack up and move just two blocks east to its new location on West Burnside Street. Owners project that the new club will reopen by the end of November.
As the club’s staff sifts through its decades’ worth of memorabilia, one important piece will not make the jump: the Mary’s jukebox. Instead, Mary’s Club is holding a raffle—$20 a ticket and no limit on the number you can buy—to offer this piece of Portland history to its ardent fans.
“One of the legendary aspects of Mary’s was the deep cuts on our jukebox,“ Mary’s Club dancer Susie told WW. She said the club’s visitors were full of stories of opening the door to hear My Bloody Valentine or Agent Orange.
Because there were no regular DJs, the dancers encouraged customers to tip them in jukebox-appropriate pay—so they could play more songs. “It was the only time it was acceptable to tip a dancer in quarters,” Susie said with a laugh.
Susie also imparted a valuable piece of intelligence about the jukebox: It’s full of Mary’s dancers mix CD-Rs. “Whoever wins the jukebox should also get one of the binders. We never had cards in the machine so we had these three-ring binders of what songs were in there.”
One could imagine buying a ticket purely for the pleasure of cataloging such a collection. WW contributor Jason Cohen even suggested that the Oregon Historical Society should bid.
Susie noted that for all the CD-Rs in the machine, it was a little finicky about which ones it would play—as anyone with a CD player will have experienced. Eventually, this led to dancers also playing songs off their smartphones once that option became available.
The club’s manager Virginia Goranson—the third generation running this family-owned business—told WW that the new location will have a sound system though which the dancers will still control their own music.
The jukebox is the only raffle she’s planning for now. However, paying attention to the Mary’s Instagram will keep fans updated on any further raffle possibilities—as well as the finalized opening date for the Burnside location.