Cheetah's first location, at the site of the former Riviera Terrace[7] (adjacent to the Ed Sullivan Theater),[8] was thought to be the largest club in the world,[8] with three levels,[1] and a capacity of 2,000 people.

[7][9] The ceiling 3,000 colored lights illuminating a giant mobile made of huge sheets of chrome created by industrial designer Michael Lax.

[13] In the book Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, authors Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton described Cheetah: The cavernous space had a dance floor with circular podiums scattered randomly like outsized polka dots.

[9] Fashion writer Joel Lobenthal described the club's vibe: By the time Cheetah opened ... the discotheque had become a self-contained Aladdin's Cave, in which the visitor surrendered his or her everyday identity in search of Dionysian transport.

[10] An article in The Seattle Times called the club, "a self-service discotheque, with ... way-out types in silver dungarees and knees that glow."

There are undulating lasses in barely there dresses or metallic space helmets and pants, [and] jeweled eyelids....[3] Patrons at the club invented their own line dance, the "Cheetah Shuffle.

Bands who played at Cheetah L.A. included the Grateful Dead, The Doors, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Love, The Mothers of Invention, The Seeds, and Buffalo Springfield.

[22][23] Other bands that played at Cheetah included the Commodores, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs, the Bagatelles, and the Chicago Loop.

[8] In the summer of 1969, the West 52nd Street location hosted the bands Johnny Maestro and The Brooklyn Bridge and Larry Davis and the Marvels.

On Thursday, August 26, 1971, the Fania All-Stars headlined the club and drew an overflowing and excited crowd[27][28] that was later captured on film as Our Latin Thing.

[29][27] The Fania All-Stars brought together the leading lights in Latin music styles (descarga, mambo, boogaloo, merengue, folkloric) and presented a single concert drawing from these diverse influences.