Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/327657
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CARY HAZELGROVE/NANTUCKET STOCK (MAHON); EORINGEL (POCOMO POINT) T he name of his newsletter, "Mahon About Town," says it all: Gene Mahon is tapped into everyone and everything that's hap- pening on Nantucket. These days he's best known for his newsletter documenting the island's sum- mer party scene, but this year-round resident's roots go much deeper. Since moving to Nantucket in 1970, he's owned a slew of businesses, includ- ing The Camera Shop (still around today, with a new owner), the legendary Roadhouse club ("It had all the magic of Nantucket rolled into that place," he recalls), a local television station that eventually became Plum TV, plus the island's first video store, first copy shop, and first outdoor flea market. Mahon's MO for all of them? "What's this island missing?" he'd ask, then figure out how to fill that need. Today, when he's not shutterbugging at parties, he keeps busy as a board member of the Nantucket Arts Council and a few other local organizations, and as president of the public access channel Nantucket Community Television. "I'm a connector," Mahon says. "That's what gets me high: knowing I'm making people happy and helping those people meet." Here he divulges his favorite places to keep those connections going strong. " CISCO BREWERS basically started as a bunch of guys that got together and said, 'Let's make some beer.' There's just so much of the '70s there that it's ridiculous. One of the things about the '70s I loved is that it was color-blind and class-blind, every kind of blind. Everyone was the same. If you were 20 years old in the Opera House restaurant, sitting next to Senator Kennedy, he wasn't treated any better. So it's the same kind of thing out in this place. It's all kinds of people, from every walk of life, dogs, kids…. I love going out there to reconnect with what drew me here. "All summer I spend four or five nights a week out photographing parties. Then I spend all day putting together a newsletter, so I'm writing and editing—I'm inside my head. But in my mind the best photographers are the best entertainers, because the idea is to boss people around just enough to get them to group together, but also continued on page 52 " I'm Here Because of the People." FROM LEFT: Longtime Nantucket resident Gene Mahon used to own a house near Pocomo Point, which he calls "a walk down memory lane." WHETHER A SOCIAL BUTTERFLY OR WALLFLOWER, "MAHON ABOUT TOWN" EDITOR GENE MAHON HAS A PLACE FOR EVERYONE ON NANTUCKET. BY JENNIFER DEMERITT 50 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM NATIVE