'It almost destroyed me': behind New York's greatest
nightclub, Studio 54
In a new exhibition, Studio 54 co-founder Ian Schrager
goes back to the late 70s to explore the highs and lows of the celebrity-packed
hotspot
Nadja Sayej
Fri 13 Mar
2020 16.05 GMTLast modified on Fri 13 Mar 2020 16.37 GMT
Bianca
Jagger on a white horse that happened to be inside Studio 54 on her birthday in
1977. Photograph: Rose Hartman / The Artists Company
Ian
Schrager has seen many things in his life, but nothing quite like this. The
73-year-old Studio 54 co-founder is freaking out on the phone.
“It’s funny
after 40 years! Forty years!” he exclaims. “Doing an exhibition on Studio 54?
In a world-class museum? I don’t think anyone would have believed that – but
they were too busy dancing.”
The
sprawling exhibition Studio 54: Night Magic will open soon at the Brooklyn
Museum, featuring more than 650 objects, artworks and memorabilia that pays
tribute to the legendary disco nightclub. From black-and-white photos to
records, cameras, couture, platform heels and VIP drink tickets designed by
Andy Warhol, it traces the influence of this beacon of New York nightlife (and
yes, there is a booming soundtrack playing disco classics, including I Will
Survive, in the background).
“It’s kind
of amazing the way, all of a sudden, it has exploded,” says Schrager. “I
finally felt comfortable after all these years of really not talking about it;
it almost destroyed me.”
Studio 54
is the subject of a recent documentary on Netflix and a Rizzoli book, where the
first page reads: “Only one person can tell this story.” (His business partner,
Steve Rubell, died of Aids complications in 1989.) Though the club is
remembered as a celebrity hotspot – Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor and David
Bowie were guests – it came to a swift end when the co-founders were jailed for
tax evasion in 1980.
“I was
lucky enough to get a presidential pardon,” says Schrager, in 2017, by then
president Barack Obama. “Now, there’s this exhibition.”
It was in
midtown Manhattan where the Brooklyn-born entrepreneurs turned a former TV
studio and opera house into the hottest nightclub of the 20th century, from
1977 to 1980. Despite its short run, Studio 54 has had a lasting impact on
music, fashion, photography and pop culture, fostering the boom and buzz of
celebrity culture.
“It was the beginning of the age of
celebrity,” recalls Schrager. “Now, 40 years later, the idea of celebrity has
become a parody of itself.” He explains: “When we got started, you became a
celebrity when you accomplished something. Now, you become a celebrity without
accomplishing anything. It’s completely upside down, but I guess that’s the way
it is now.”
The exhibit
features more than 250 photos, from Brooke Shields in the DJ booth with Calvin
Klein, Grace Jones singing at 3am while pointing a gun at the audience, Bianca
Jagger seated on a white horse on the dancefloor, Halston kissing Liza
Minnelli, Tina Turner laughing with Francesco Scavullo, Diana Ross with a
balloon on New Year’s Eve and Truman Capote passed out with a hat over his
face.
“Any
celebrity that came into New York made a stop on The Tonight Show, then made a
stop at Studio 54,” says Schrager. “That’s just the way it was.”
The photos
are not posed portraits; they’re spontaneous moments captured on the
dancefloor, in motion, off the cuff moments that capture the energy, style and
raucousness of the era.
“There was
definitely a ‘no photo’ policy,” he says. “But a lot of the photographers were
friends.”
Studio 54
is remembered as the first non-judgmental, queer-friendly mainstream nightclub,
which was not unlike an adult amusement park. It was a mix of gay, straight,
rich and poor. It’s also one of the few places trans women were welcome, and
roller skating was allowed on the dance floor. It’s where Elton John danced
with the drag queen Divine, and where stars like Farrah Fawcett and Sylvester
Stallone danced to escape the everyday.
With its
growing demand, Schrager invented the red velvet nightclub rope at Studio 54
after seeing how crowds were controlled in movie theatres. But it wasn’t meant
to keep anyone out. In fact, there was no real hierarchy for the clientele at
Studio 54, according to Schrager. “We never believed in having a VIP area
because it would take all the great people out of the room, and the other
people would be short-changed,” he says. “As a general rule, we still don’t
believe in taking those great people out of the room.”
The exhibit
features Schrager’s old business cards, telegrams, party invitations and his
handwritten day planners, reminding himself to get a liquor license for the
club (which he failed to do, and wound up having to close the club for a short
period of time).
There’s
Elizabeth Taylor’s sapphire necklace, which she wore to the club in 1979,
paparazzi photos by Ron Galella, Interview magazine covers with Cher, glittery
outfits by Yves Saint Laurent and vitrines devoted to architectural drawings.
Probably
the most famous Studio 54 photo was the shot of Bianca Jagger seated on a
horse, but Schrager remembers other moments, as well. “I remember Margaret
Trudeau dancing and making sure the photographer got it, because we knew it
would be big press, big media,” he says of the former first lady of Canada.
“I remember
Andy Warhol walking around with his camera, in a funny kind of way, you might
want to say he was the one who invented selfies,” says Schrager. “When I see a
Studio 54 photo, it’s just like yesterday. I have a lot of fun memories of the
club, the only sad thing is that Steve Rubell isn’t here to see this
redemption, after 40 years.”
In one
photo, Rubell sits with TV host Tom Snyder underneath a wooden sculpture of a
moon with a spoon to its nose. It’s a stage sculpture designed by Richie Williamson.
“That piece
has been totally, totally misunderstood, I want to explain,” says Schrager.
“People thought we were celebrating drugs, far from it. When you have a club,
it’s supposed to be cool, subversive to the status quo, a little arrogant, underground,
we thought that was a way to present it. It’s a bit subversive and risque, but
that’s what a nightclub is about.”
His time
behind bars and Rubell’s passing are not easy subjects. “I just think the only
nightclub people I knew who survived the whole experience were Steve and I,”
says Schrager. “We barely survived because it almost destroyed us.”
Was it
worth it all? “Certainly,” he says. “Would I do it again? Not if it ended up in
the same way. Knock on wood.”
Though the
nightclub’s success is much envied and has been copied countless times, the
magic recipe is still unknown.
“I can’t
tell you what the definition of what magic is, but we all know it when we walk
into a place and it has that electricity in the air,” says Schrager. “We all
know it, feel it and when you walked into Studio 54, you felt it.”
That same
spirit lives on at Schrager’s new nightclub, Paradise Club, on the seventh
floor of the Times Square Edition hotel. It’s where Diana Ross performed for
its opening night, red lights line the ceiling, Keith Richards hangs out with
his daughters and where one can see a risque stage performance based on William
Blake’s book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
“It’s so
rare to create that environment again,” says Schrager. “Don’t forget there’s
limitations, laws and regulations, you can only go so far, I don’t have to go
as far as I did before. In a way, the human condition is unchanged; you just
have to find out, unlock it and have a catalyst to get everyone to let loose
and have fun.”
Studio 54:
Night Magic will be showing at the Brooklyn Museum when it reopens
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Studio 54
is a former nightclub and currently a Broadway theatre, located at 254 West
54th Street, between Eighth Avenue and Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York
City. The building opened in 1927 as the Gallo Opera House. It operated as an
entertainment venue under various names until 1942, when CBS began using it as
a radio and television studio dubbed Studio 52.
In 1977, Steve
Rubell and Ian Schrager opened a nightclub in the building, retaining many of
former TV and theatrical sets and naming it for its street. Launched at the
peak of the disco dancing and music trend, the club became world-famous, noted
for its celebrity guest lists, restrictive (and subjective) entry policies
(based on one's appearance and style), and open club drug use. In 1980, the
club shut down after its founders were convicted for evading taxes. They sold
the club to Mark Fleischman, who reopened it, then sold it in 1984 to new
owners, who closed it in 1986.
Since
November 1998, the site has served as a venue for productions of the Roundabout
Theatre Company and retains the name Studio 54. A separate restaurant and
nightclub, Feinstein's/54 Below, operates in the basement of the building.
When CBS
began marketing the building in 1976, various parties in the art and fashion
world expressed interest in seeing it converted into a nightclub. Male model
Uva Harden tried to get gallery owner Frank Lloyd to finance the club, until
Lloyd lost a $9 million lawsuit to the estate of the artist Mark Rothko, in the
Rothko Case.
In 1977,
Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager transformed the theater into a nightclub called
Studio 54, with Jack Dushey as a financial backer. They operated the company as
Broadway Catering Corp. It took only six weeks to transform the theater into a
nightclub and cost $400,000 before its grand opening on April 26.
Rubell and
Schrager hired Scott Bromley as architect, Ron Doud as interior designer, and
Brian Thompson as lighting designer. Jules Fisher and Paul Marantz, two
well-known lighting designers, created the dance floor environment and created
movable theatrical sets and lights using the copious existing TV lighting
circuits and fly system, which allowed for a dynamic, constantly-changing,
environment and with which the crowd could be lit brightly.
Within a
month of opening, the New York State Liquor Authority raided Studio 54 for
selling liquor without a license and closed it. The owners of the nightclub
said the incident was a "misunderstanding". The next night the club
reopened, serving fruit juice and soda instead of liquor. Prior to the raid,
the nightclub had been using daily "caterers' permits", which enabled
the nightclub to serve alcohol but were intended for weddings or political
events. The State had denied the daily permit for the night and raided the
nightclub. The nightclub had been using these permits while waiting for its
liquor license to be processed.
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