Melvin Cheren (1933 – December 7, 2007) was a record executive who helped start the Paradise Garage, also known as "Gay-rage", a New York City gay discothèque popular in the 1970s and '80s.
[1] In 1976, Mel Cheren and Ed Kushins founded West End Records, the music label that defined the sound of New York City in the heyday of disco.
Cheren created the 12-inch vinyl single, which permitted longer playing time than the standard seven-inch, and which gained its greatest popularity in discos.
In the 2006 "The Godfather of Disco," a documentary about Cheren, he himself called the Garage "the ultimate expression of the whole fabric" of gay night life.
In 1984, when GMHC moved to larger quarters, Cheren turned the building into the Colonial House Inn, a 20-room gay-oriented guesthouse where he himself lived until his death.