La Licorne (Montréal)

1. Overview

Opened on January 17, 1962, La Licorne—the first nightclub of Gilles Archambault— predates the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles by two years. The latter, inaugurated on January 11, 1964, is generally recognized in the American press as the first discotheque in the United States. On that basis, La Licorne in Montréal can be considered the first discotheque in North America.

“In 1962, when I opened the first discotheque in North America, this kind of entertainment was unknown here. In Paris, I had seen people dancing alone to the sound of a simple jukebox, without an orchestra, and those people were celebrities. So I told myself it would work in Montréal, if I found the right bag.”

La Licorne exists both as a place and as a narrative: in the press of the 1960s, it serves as a point of origin from which the rise of discotheques in Montréal is written. ⁴

Was there a discotheque in Montréal before La Licorne opened? The question sometimes surfaces in newspaper archives, but without making it possible to identify with certainty an earlier establishment that clearly fits the discotheque model as it took shape in the early 1960s. Manny’s Place, which opened on September 17, 1964 at 5016 Décarie Boulevard in the Snowdon area, is occasionally mentioned, without these references calling into question the chronology established by contemporary sources, which place the opening of La Licorne in 1962.

2. The site — Mackay, the basement, and the boiler room

La Licorne is firmly anchored in downtown geography, at 1430–1432 Mackay Street. The press describes the place as a discotheque born in a boiler room—a technical, utilitarian space converted into a dance venue.^1,2,3

3. Décor, clientele, rituals — the discotheque as a world

Descriptions of La Licorne oscillate between tight quarters and staging. On one hand, an article notes that it becomes almost impossible to find a spot after 10 p.m., especially on weekends, suggesting that crowd density is part of the experience.¹ On the other, a feature on discotheques emphasizes décor as a selling point: at La Licorne, part of the public is said to seek relaxation and escape in an atmosphere designed as a refuge, sometimes described as medieval and “soothing”.³

The press also mentions codes and boundaries: access, appearance, selection, and clienteles (French-speaking / English-speaking) become narrative elements. These details, even when they belong to portraiture or anecdote, document a broader transformation: the discotheque as a social stage, where one comes as much to be seen as to dance.

“During the Rolling Stones’ recent visit to Montréal, the manager of La Licorne, Mr. Gilles Archambault, reportedly refused entry to the group of young English singers for the simple reason that they were poorly dressed. Reached by telephone, Mr. Archambault declined all comment, but he did not deny the rumour.”

4. Shifts — music, spectacle, and “changing the formula”

In a short item published by Télé-radiomonde on September 24, 1966, the co-owners of La Licorne—Gilles Archambault, Claude and André de Carufel—announce the venue’s upcoming expansion, presented as the oldest discotheque in America. Faced with growing attendance and popular demand, they say they must enlarge this place that has become a gathering point for night owls, while specifying that La Licorne will not close during the work. The article stresses a desire to preserve the venue’s intimacy and spirit, and ends with an unequivocal statement from Gilles Archambault: these changes signal not the end of discotheques, but rather their vitality and future.

In the late 1960s, La Licorne appears in the press as a venue that reconfigures itself. One article announces a shift framed as a “revolution”: no more records; instead, dancing to music performed by the Duke Edward Cycle.⁶ The goal, according to the text, is to revive interest, fight wear-and-tear, and respond to competition as “more and more” clubs open.

Published in La Presse on February 20, 1969, another dossier offers an in-depth analysis of the discotheque phenomenon in Montréal at the end of the 1960s, placing La Licorne at the heart of this cultural shift. Presented as the first discotheque in North America, La Licorne is described as a founding venue, distinct from the traditional cabaret, where listening to records, dancing, and staging the space contribute to a new form of urban sociability. The article emphasizes the importance of layout, lighting, and musical programming, which transform the discotheque into an experimental space—both festive and highly symbolic of Montréal youth’s aspirations.

The text also highlights the central role of Gilles Archambault, described as the “Montréal inventor of discotheques,” and the formation of a true network of venues with differentiated identities—La Licorne, Le Crash, Le Cercle, La Mousse, or Chez Zou Zou—each associated with a distinct clientele, atmosphere, and aesthetic. While underlining European influence, particularly Parisian, the dossier also adopts a critical eye on these new spaces, evoking both their popular success and the social norms they impose. Far from a passing fad, discotheques appear as a structuring phenomenon poised to durably redefine nighttime practices and forms of entertainment in Montréal.

“La Licorne is an establishment that is at once a discotheque, because you can dance there; a bar because you can drink there; a lounge, because you can chat with friends; a mini art gallery because, for two weeks now, the rough ‘white walls’ (inside and outside) have been darkened and softened at once by reproductions of paintings by Flemish, Italian, and French masters of the Renaissance. If we add to these qualities the inalienable one of being the first discotheque in North America, we will have an approximate idea of what La Licorne is. For La Licorne is also Gilles Archambault, the master of the place, and so many others with names like Mousse-Pathétique, who have burst forth, like geysers of glasses and female alabasters, at various strategic points across Québec. La Licorne, one might say, is above all Gilles Archambault. Just as Gilles Archambault is, in large measure, La Licorne. For some time now, Gilles Archambault has been ‘coming back’ to La Licorne. That is, by liquidating certain affairs and handing over certain powers, he is managing to live once again at La Licorne, where he himself welcomes clients—many of them loyal regulars.”

5. Reach — La Licorne, Mousse-Spacethèques, and the chain effect

A Télé-radiomonde article dated November 29, 1969 reports that the owners of La Licorne once again carried out major renovation work, timed to a reception for members of the press. The interior was completely redecorated to create a more intimate atmosphere, while capacity was doubled—an indication of strategic adaptation in response to the multiplication of discotheques in the city’s west end. Presented as a direct response to changing tastes and to customer suggestions, these transformations illustrate the operators’ intention to keep La Licorne at the forefront of Montréal nightlife at the end of the 1960s.

In the early 1970s, the discourse broadens: the discotheque is no longer only a dance floor, it becomes spectacle, décor, staging, and sometimes a total “concept.” A 1972 feature explains that the public does not come “to be entertained” but “to entertain itself”—a revealing formula for a changing relationship between room, music, and participation, often associated with the Quiet Revolution.⁴ In this framework, La Licorne serves as the inaugural reference point: the place from which the metamorphosis is measured.

6. Chapter — Gilles Archambault: a figure constructed by the press

6.1. A character shaped by reportage

In the 1960s–1970s, Gilles Archambault becomes a press-made character. He is described in turn as the initiator of discotheques in Québec, an entrepreneur with instinctive flair, and a social figure associated with artists. One profile even dubs him the “Onassis of Montréal discotheques” and emphasizes the trajectory of a former globe-trotter turned builder of nights.⁵

6.2. Training, theatre, and travel: an unexpected prelude

A 1967 article offers a striking biographical story: born in Montréal, Archambault reportedly left school very young, worked in an office, then developed a passion for drama (classes, connections in the milieu), before travelling and crafting an image of an ambitious young man able to turn intuition into enterprise.⁷ This material—readable as a romanticized portrait—remains valuable: it shows how journalism explains the discotheque through a personality as much as through a market.

6.3. The European spark and the “imported” model

In 1968, a report anchors the discotheque in a transnational history: it recalls a French origin (1945), then recounts a founding scene associated with Archambault: a trip, the discovery of a place where people dance to records, a selected clientele, and the desire to “reproduce” the experience in Montréal.³ In 1972, the idea becomes a refrain: Archambault is said to have “imported” the discotheque from France and planted it at the moment when chanson clubs were declining.⁴

6.4. Projects, venues, and a logic of “formulas”

Articles provide a shifting inventory of projects associated with Archambault. In 1968, he is presented as co-owner and manager of a set of establishments (in Montréal: La Licorne, the Mousse-Spacethèque, Le Crash; elsewhere: variants and openings), and as someone who adjusts “formulas” to keep the appeal alive.⁶ In 1972, the vocabulary shifts again: the discotheque becomes a world unto itself, moving from simple dancing toward spectacle and staging—right up to the era of “concepts” embodied by places like the Sexe Machine (often cited in contrast to La Licorne).⁴⁸

6.5. La Licorne as an artists’ salon

A 1970 profile emphasizes an aspect rarely taken literally but revealing: La Licorne is described as a rendezvous spot for a visiting “artistic colony,” and Archambault appears as an artists’ friend in his own way—acting as a social mediator as important, in the narrative, as his role as owner.⁵ In parallel, 1972 society pages speak of a “Mr. Discotheque” and of a Montréal replacing cabarets with a new sociability of clubs and cocktails.⁸

“In 1977, Gilles Archambault celebrates his fifteen years of discotheques. It was at that time that he opened his first discotheque, ‘La Licorne.’ Many others followed: Le Baroque, Le Crash, L’Empereur, La Métrothèque, La Mousspathèque— in short, there were about twenty clubs, including those that existed outside Montréal, in Québec City, Ottawa, and Lac-Saint-Jean. Then, in November 1971, Gilles Archambault opened his famous Sexe Machine, with very erotic décor that made quite a stir. But the topless waitresses were not there yet; they only appeared two years later. Since then, the Sexe Machine has always drawn a very large clientele; it isn’t young people who go there, but rather people aged thirty-five to forty. So let’s wish Gilles Archambault a happy anniversary.”