This year for his birthday John Dal Santo got charged with three misdemeanors: failure to obtain a temporary liquor license, failure to obtain a public place of amusement (PPA) license, and failure to obtain a special-events license. On February 9, police busted a party he’d organized at Studio C, a third-floor loft residence above the Strawdog Theatre at 3829 N. Broadway, and arrested him, along with the space’s leaseholder, Elbert Goggin, and one of Goggin’s roommates, Thomas O’Neall. Goggin received citations for the same licensing violations, but he and Dal Santo are still squabbling over money and who was legally responsible for the party.
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Admission was $10 per person, and the Studio C residents worked the door. According to Dal Santo, they claimed to have collected $3,100, which would mean 310 people attended. But he estimates that there were at least 600 at the party over the course of the night. The contract he’d signed with Studio C stipulated that the venue fee would be $1,000 if there were fewer than 350, with an additional $75 charged for every 25 heads over that. He received $1,800 for the evening, and was given 300 ticket stubs from the Studio C crew. If there were as many people as he says, they’d owe him more than $2,000–but even if their head count is correct they’ve shorted him $300. Dal Santo says he intends to take the Studio C residents to small claims court to recover what he believes they owe him. But first he has some legal problems to resolve with the city.
“The police said they were called by the fire marshal,” says Goggin. “But I suspect it was sabotage by someone who wanted to get back at Johnny for something.” He adds that he has been throwing parties at Studio C “forever” and that city inspectors and the fire marshal have checked out his space without ever finding any problems.
But if Elbert Goggin and John Dal Santo are any indication, the situation may have changed. Goggin, who won’t comment on his case, says that he’ll keep throwing parties “for friends” as well as renting out the loft. “But now I’ll have to get legit, get all the licenses,” he says. “They want their money.” And Dal Santo says he intends to go on spinning his mix of Italo-disco, freestyle, and house; since his arrest, he has worked a Superstars of Love gig at a Saint Louis art gallery and a Fischerspooner after-show party at Le Royale. “We had licenses for those events,” he says. “From now on, I’ll make sure everything I’m involved in is legal. I’ve learned my lesson.”
