Chinatown already had a century of history in Los Angeles.

By the 1880s and nineties, we had a fairly substantial neighborhood, specifically designated on maps as Chinatown.

There's been more than one Chinatown.

By the turn of the century there was one where Union Station is now.

They relocated to the newer Chinatown, which was kind of a tourist place, and it was a real scene.

The new Chinatown opened in 1938 with ornamentation that reflected a Chinese theme.

The old timers started calling it Central Plaza and the major restaurants that surrounded the central plaza really achieved success.

In the fifties and sixties, Chinatown was really popular and happening.

It was a place to go.

No matter if it was in the day or in the evening, it was bustling.

People everywhere.

The majority of the business was mostly non-Asian, non-Chinese.

It was really a place where the tourists like to come.

When I was a kid, we would go to Chinatown and it's full of people.

This was in the early 1960s.

There were a lot of clubs.

There were a lot of restaurants.

There was always people there.

By the seventies, there was nothing.

And there was nothing at night.

The whole night restaurant scene just collapsed.

There was nothing going on.

This was an opportunity for Madam Wong's to bring in some paying customers.

I worked on them for at least six months.

So then she said, Okay, we'll give it a try.

I said, What's your worst night?

And she said, Tuesday, So give me Tuesdays.

Food back.

They didn't have any idea of what I was going to do there.

I didn't have any idea what I was going to do there, but I had pretty high hopes for it.

I did posters for my friends and I put out fliers.

It was Garry Valentine and the Know.

He was in Blondie before they got famous.

Earlier that week I went on Rodney Bingenheimer radio show on KROQ.

And I said, If you want some kind of scene in L.A., come to Madame Wong's.

And they did.

They put on a great show and I was hoping we'd get like 150 people.

We got, I think, like 350.

The first night it was incredible and it was packed beyond capacity.

So it was kind of like, that one evening inaugurated, relaunched punk, whatever you want to call it cene October 3rd, 1978.