Studio 54
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Studio 54 was a legendary New York City disco located on West 54th Street in Manhattan. It was formerly a CBS radio and TV studio that housed such shows as What's My Line?, The Jack Benny Show, and Captain Kangaroo in the 1950s.
It opened on April 26, 1977 and closed in 1980. It was operated by the flamboyant, openly gay, publicly visible Steve Rubell and retiring, straight silent partner Ian Schrager. Hedonistic Rubell was known for hand selecting guests from the always huge mobs outside, mixing beautiful "nobodies" with glamorous celebrities in the same venue. "Studio", as it came to be called, was inside of an old theater; the balconies were notorious for sexual encounters, and drug use was rampant. Its dance floor was decorated with a depiction of a man-in-the-moon that included an animated coke spoon.
In 1979, Rubell and Schrager were arrested and charged for skimming $2.5 million. Loads of cocaine and money were found in the club's walls.
During its heyday it played a formative role in the growth of disco music and nightclub culture in general, and was one of the first nightclubs to blur the distinction between "straight" and "gay" nightlife.
The disco was depicted in the 1998 movie 54 and parodied in the 2002 movie Austin Powers in Goldmember as Studio 69.
Some of the celebrities who were spotted at Studio 54:
- Gilda Radner
- George Burns
- Karen Carpenter
- Mae West
- Salvador Dali
- Paul and Linda McCartney
- Betty Ford
- Frank Sinatra
- Deborah Harry
- avante-garde director John Waters
- Donna Summer
- supermodel Gia Carangi
- Sophia Loren
- David Bowie
- Cher
- heiress Kathy Hilton (mother of Paris)
- Woody Allen and Mia Farrow
- Olivia Newton-John
- Diane Keaton
- Gloria Gaynor (frequently performed at the club)
- John Travolta
- Bette Midler
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- Geraldo Rivera
- Elton John
- Michael Jackson
- Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver
- Sylvester Stallone
- Dolly Parton
- model Janice Dickinson
- fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt
- Liza Minnelli
- Diana Ross
- drag queen Divine
- Rick James
- Andy Warhol
- Calvin Klein
- Dave Benson Phillips
- Jodie Foster
- Margaux Hemingway
- Lauren Hutton
- disco group Chic (frequently performed at the club)
- The Village People (frequently performed at the club)
- b-movie actor Joe Dallesandro
- Brooke Shields
- Ryan O'Neal
- Mick and Bianca Jagger
- Barbra Streisand
- Truman Capote
- Bo Derek
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Farrah Fawcett
- Grace Jones
- Christina Onassis
- fashion designer Halston
- attorney Roy Cohn
- Liberace
- Donald Trump and Ivana Trump
- Warren Beatty
- Christopher Reeve
- Helen Gurley Brown
- socialite Jocelyne Wildenstein
- supermodel Jerry Hall
- John F. Kennedy Jr.
- Diana Vreeland
- Mary Tyler Moore
- Dick Cavett
- O.J. Simpson
- Margaret Trudeau
- Mikhail Baryshnikov
- David Rockefeller
- Norman Mailer
- William F. Buckley Jr.
- Martha Graham
- Muhammad Ali
- Mariel Hemingway
- Teena Marie
- Valerie Harper
- Robin Williams
- Eartha Kitt
- Gloria Swanson
- Dustin Hoffman
- Yul Brynner
- Diane von Furstenberg
- Zsa Zsa Gabor
- Merv Griffin and Eva Gabor
and many others
The club reopened in 1982, under different owners. It still attracted the regular night life, and celebrities such as Boy George, Drew Barrymore, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Alec Baldwin, Lionel Richie, Jean-Michel Basquiat, LaToya Jackson, Jody Watley, David Lee Roth, Tatum O'Neal, Jennifer Grey, and Cyndi Lauper. It finally closed for good in 1985, due to changing tastes.
In 1994, after becoming a strip club for a few years, the club finally reopened with much fanfare with a live concert by disco stars Gloria Gaynor, Vicki Sue Robinson, and Sister Sledge. The club again went into bankruptcy the following year until 1998, when a revival of the hit Broadway musical Cabaret opened there and stayed there until 2004. More surprises were in store for the former discotheque. That year, the club/theater hosted revivals of two Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins and Pacific Overtures. In 2005, Studio 54 will house a revival of Tennessee Williams's immortal drama A Streetcar Named Desire starring John C. Reilly and Natasha Richardson and also Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet starring Gabriel Byrne. 2006 will bring a revival of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera starring Alan Cumming and Edie Falco.
The club is still used as a nightclub on weeks when plays are not being staged. Gloria Estefan has performed there as a tour stop. In 2002, Paris Hilton celebrated her 21st birthday at the club (her mother had done the same thing in 1978).
As an old disco song from The Whispers goes, "and the beat goes on..."
External link
- Fanbased site of Studio 54 (http://www.disco-disco.com/clubs/studio54.html)zh:54俱樂部