Mancuso's success at keeping his parties "underground" and legal inspired others, and many famous private discothèques of the 1970s and 1980s were modeled after The Loft, including the Paradise Garage, The Gallery, 12 West, The Flamingo and later The Saint.
[4] Although he nominally resided with his mother thereafter, he remained a frequent runaway and spent a year in reform school as a teenager; during this period, he cultivated an interest in early rhythm and blues music.
Over the next several years, he was employed in a variety of capacities (including stints as head of Holt Rinehart Winston's Xerox department and as a personnel manager for Restaurant Associates) before pursuing a career as an independent antiques dealer.
[citation needed] The importance of Mancuso and The Loft are also chronicled in Josell Ramos' documentary, Maestro (2003), a Paradise Garage and Levan-centered narrative of New York dance music culture in the 1970s and 1980s.
[6] In 2003, British journalist and lecturer Tim Lawrence published an influential and comprehensive study of the New York roots of modern dance music culture that placed Mancuso at its narrative center.