Enjoy this post from Catskills Paper Trail all about the history of KISS in The Catskills & the famous Sullivan’s Surplus Store!
This began as a post about Sullivan’s department store in Liberty, and partly still is. But it soon became clear that a photo of Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of Kiss (source unknown) taken in the parking lot was the headliner.
This was likely taken in 1972-73 so they might have been in their pre-Kiss band Wicked Lester, but I’ll leave that to enthusiasts to suss out.
Investigating why Gene and Paul were hanging out in Liberty with a jug of milk in 1972 or 1973, I turned up a surprising amount of Kisstory in the region:
Gene attended Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake from 1968-1970, earning an associates in education.In 1970 Gene’s band Bullfrog Bheer played regularly at Rockland House in Roscoe.Gene was briefly a lifeguard at The Pines.In 1976 Kiss held and filmed dress rehearsals in Stewart Airport Hangar E for their Destroyer / “Spirit of ‘76” tour.I think this is the most clothing coverage I’ve ever seen on Paul’s upper torso, and those stacked heels are fabulous. I’m here for Paul’s early 70s look. Also noteworthy: perhaps trying to look more tough with groceries, Gene is throwing devil horns, bringing to mind his 2017 aborted attempt to trademark the thumbs-out version of the hand gesture. In the application he claimed to have first thrown the goat on stage in 1974, which tracks with this early usage.
But why 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘬? As one wit of the Internet put it, it’s cold milk time again.
Now for the store. Sullivan Surplus Sales was launched by brothers and WWII vets Sidney and Irving Shapiro, vending army surplus from a large barn. By the late 50s, it was the largest store in the Caskills. In the first version of the expansive Sullivan’s building, Sullivan’s had it: snow boots, bath towels, of course slacks, a pharmacy, a garden center and a restaurant. In 1964 the name change to Sullivan’s was announced with a Name Dropping Sale.
