CBGB's awning, Grandmaster Flash's turntables and De Niro's 'Taxi Driver' outfit: 'You Should Be Dancing' at the New York Historical

In 1975 New York City came within a weekend of bankruptcy. A year later, its clubs, basements and block parties were inventing punk, disco and hip-hop. A new exhibition at the New York Historical on the Upper West Side tells that story, from CBGB downtown to the parties in the Bronx where DJs reinvented how records were played.

'You Should Be Dancing: New York, 1976 and Beyond' opened Oct. 2 and runs through April 4, 2027 in the museum's first-floor Robert H. and Clarice Smith South Gallery.

What you'll see

• An original awning from CBGB, plus items from Max's Kansas City (NY1).
• Guitars from the Ramones, the Stooges, Blondie and Talking Heads, and handwritten lyrics by Patti Smith, Richard Hell and Kurtis Blow (New York Historical).
• An invitation to the Studio 54 premiere party, an early Saturday Night Fever screenplay and a Gloria Gaynor outfit.
• The clothes Robert De Niro wore in Taxi Driver and the actual taxi license he got for the role (NY1).
• One of Kool Herc's disco balls from 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, and the turntables on which Grandmaster Flash developed his Quik Mix Theory. Flash also picked the records on one wall, marked at the exact spot where the drumbeat starts, associate curator Allison Robinson told NY1.

The show is laid out in spaces that echo the clubs, bars and gathering places of the era, with period photographs, flyers and performance clips, the museum says. Guest curator Ted Widmer told NY1 the story starts with the 1975 fiscal crisis, when the city kept running thanks to last-minute financing and sacrifices by its unions, and follows the creative burst that came after. Robinson told NY1 the museum worked with more than 30 lenders.

Plan your visit

• Where: 170 Central Park West at Richard Gilder Way (77th Street), across from Central Park and the American Museum of Natural History.
• Hours: Tuesday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Mondays (New York Historical).
• Tickets: adults $24; seniors, educators and active military $19; students $13; kids 5 to 13 $6; under 5 and members free.
• Cheaper ways in: admission is pay-as-you-wish on Fridays from 5 to 8 p.m., and the museum participates in Culture Pass through the New York, Brooklyn and Queens public libraries.

The museum says a visit takes about two hours. NYC Tourism also lists the exhibition among current city events.