Studio 54 | Behind The Scenes Documentary

studio 54 with sodom and gomorrah with a disco be a place where celebrities and civilians alight reveled in unrestrained debauchery for everything was going on in full swing drugs sex and rock and roll in every single angle in the next two hours we're going to give you an uncensored look at America's most outrageous nightclub all that before obliterated or it was the Titanic of nightclub we'll examine the three years from April 1977 to February 1980 at Studio 54 reigns supreme it was a club ruled by two wildly different men the gregarious Steve Rubell and the wettest Ian Schrager a club that was a hangout for Andy Warhol Bianca Jagger Halston Calvin Klein and Liza Minnelli will cover the studio 54 phenomenon from Opening Night Live brilliant that's nine ever American armistice - closing night just before they went to jail they had a really big bash and Steve kept playing I did it my way over and over again from the front door the people at the door with casting directors and if you came there and they wanted two of a kind and you were the third you did not get in it's like that part's already been taken ladies sorry - the dance floor I would dance at the drop of a hat I'd be out there for hours smoking a cigarette we'll examine how the owners Trager and Rubel fell victim to their success and brought their club down with them all this money actually got stuffed into plastic garbage bags which sometimes they would hide in the rafters of the basement and co-owner Ian Schrager talks about the devastating experience we'll take you to a different time a different era where sex was as close as that nearest bathroom and drugs were handed out like party favors this amazing story of the rise and fall of studio 54 will be told through archival photos never-before-seen film footage reenactments and interviews with former studio 54 employees Club regulars and celebrities like disco diva Gloria Gaynor actress Lorna Luft Village People David hodo and Philippe Rose and singers Mary Seymour and Rick James visualized Caligula and hive in Rome and had Caligula throwing a party that's too difficult that's it at the mid 70s New York night life was awakening from a decade-long slumber the Vietnam War was over Watergate was no longer front-page news and the sexual revolution was in full swing author of the club Steven Gaines there was lots of things going on the city there were swingers club sex clubs bath houses for gay bars prostitution on the corner and a new sound in the nightclubs disco song writer Bruce Roberts it was a very very joyous kind of music he was happy it was it was really straight ahead four on the floor kind of music but the kick drum was the most important thing disco diva Gloria Gaynor's it really kind of taught people to dance because it made that deep soul prominent the bass and the drums were so prominent in these songs that it really was it inspired you to dance it really inspired you to stay on beat disco is for everybody it was an extension of the society it was a time where people could forget their nine-to-five troubles and go out and have a blast disco clubs sprouted up all over Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs Richie notar worked the club circuit that was a time of Saturday Night Fever and and you know Brooklyn all these places and queens were trying to be like the movie and you had all those Tony Manero and such one club was different in 1975 enchanted garden was opened by two young entrepreneurs 31 year-old Steve Rubell from Brooklyn and the 29 year old Bronx born Ian Schrager Schrager was a real estate lawyer Rubel owned a chain of restaurants they met while attending Syracuse University they were a study in contradiction party promoter Carmen D'Alessio Steve was the outgoing person and the social one and that Ian was the seizures when in the tough guy the bad guy in Schrager was one of the handsomest guys I had ever seen Steve was crazy about him it was a little bit of a problem because of kyun Schrager is heterosexual and Steve wasn't despite their differences the two came from similar backgrounds club impresario jim fret world of stephen even came out of with Calvin and Barry and Donna Ken and all those people it was always like my abundance is going to be better than your abundance but I mean really this is like a big thing in new york's jewish circles so they'd always come from that I'll show you you know I'll show you while the enchanted garden was wildly successful people from the city ignored it I wrote about in chanted gardens in my column and it brought a lot of people to that club but nobody from Manhattan went out to Douglaston Queens to go to a discotheque I didn't go there and I didn't work there and I wouldn't be seeing there what could I tell you it was in Queens Praeger and Rubel turned their ambitious eyes toward Manhattan the first thing they needed was a space party promoter Carmen D'Alessio showed them a cavernous aging theater at 2:54 West 54th Street of course they fell in love with it but they were wondering if it wasn't too ambitious and how was this going to become a reality built in 1927 the theater had a history of turning fantasy into reality over the years it showcased everything from opera to dinner theater then in 1943 CBS moved in the company used the building's entrance on 53rd Street and referred to the facility as Studio 53 shows like the $64,000 question and Captain Kangaroo were produced in the old theater in the mid 70s CBS stopped using the space for television production author Anthony haden-guest CBS had gone out to the coast and but they still kept this place running I was still fully equipped and said that was basically this place was up and running and ready Rubell and Schrager had their own plans for the old theater they turned it into a discotheque and call it studio 54 club owner Arthur Weinstein was perfectly over lr4 job and he was nervous he was nervous because it was a very large space no one had ever attempted anything that big and he you know he would think he was confident but he was very scared to execute a complete facelift Traeger Andrew Bell hired architect Scott Bromley I walked in it I got this idea that let's turn the stage into the bandsaw everybody wants to be on stage you know that's the key to life in Manhattan now anyplace else as 1976 drew to an end renovation on the building began owner Ian Schrager when you're in a nightclub business you really have no discernible product you have nothing different from everybody else has insane liquor insane music so all you have the only opportunity to distinction is is the magic you create he didn't want the bagel nosh crowd which meant Jewish looking people he didn't want bridge-and-tunnel people the reference bridge-and-tunnel people meant residents of the surrounding boroughs Anthony haden-guest Manhattanites of course a notoriously kind of mean about people who have the misfortune from living in parts of New York that are not Manhattan and they call him bridge-and-tunnel because that is of course the ways that one comes into Manhattan he didn't want Keanu from the Americana Keanu was the name of the fabric that was very popular with South Americans for evening wear and they always stayed at the Americana hotel what Rubel wanted was a club filled with fabulous people at my own mailing list Andy Warhol contributed with his own mailing list for the project Francesco Scavullo Calvin Klein it was a group called the Islanders was a very compact group gay people I used to go to Fire Island very lively very energetic at least was about 3,000 names the event created quite a buzz in social circles despite a vote of no-confidence from the press The Daily News ran a little dismissive little subhead saying studio 54 where are you which is kind of poking fun of it meaning oh here's another disco just what Europe doesn't need opening ninth was April 26 1977 former busboy Richie notar one hour before we were opening maybe 45 minutes they were still putting down the black ass Victor on the floor was very hectic Brian Townsend the lighting designer and I were just kind of focusing the lights and making it really sharp looking and smart and the legs - on the bar so we run out to the local bodega and get all of these like religious candles by now the back door was jammed we can't get by this gorgeous babe and her like you know muscle-bound nine-foot tall boyfriend right so broadly to the rescue I picked the babe up and I just move her over like this but well he's just about to select me and I catch his on innocent youth like me you don't get in because if I don't get in you don't get on the architect here the scene was much the same at the front door former doorman Mark Beneke we walked out the door and it was this mass of people standing outside clamoring to get in the feeling and energy that opening of studio 54 was almost scary there were so many people there we really weren't quite used to that I mean some people left they were so alarmed so it was like the biggest moment in history for nightlife spite last-minute jitters and less than positive press coverage studio 54 opened on April 26 1977 owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager had a hit on their hand little did they know they had created a monster thirty-four-year-old Rubel and 31 year old Schrager had owned and operated other night spots they knew how to open a club but nothing could prepare them for the response they received that first night the stars were out in full force from share two models Margaux Hemingway and Brooke Shields to Donald and Ivana Trump and when we open it's like he's out of control the first night along is no organization I mean it was this habit was just one big party and we wound up you know having more fun pathways and the people fun was the operative word from the moment you entered studio 54 the stage was set for self-indulgence night scene columnist Michael Musto disco was already quite prevalent but studio was the ultimate that though it wasn't just another new club opening it was a place where you really felt like you had walked into some kind of magical kingdom first thing you came through with some smoked glass doors and to a hallway where the man stood there with his big smile on his face and said $15 you paid the 15 dollars lost a few more feet to another set of black smoke glass doors romance took ticket former party promoter Mickey Haskell well there's a long entranceway that was mirrored on both sides and had big huge chandelier in it architect Scott Bromley a chandelier in the middle hit by laser that bounced light all around and mirrors all around the Cotton laser light and is fast at Alabama the top of the the ceiling from there the nonstop disco beat lured you into the club's cavernous hold of hedonism you could see them all this lights pulsating in the main room and feel this energy coming down so you were just sucked right down this tunnel right into the main room once inside the main room you were greeted by an enormous refreshment area the main bar was a square bar with a tiered top to it and had waterfall and glass block in the middle on your way from the main bar to the deck board there were some couches and banquette and people kind of hang out in between dancing from the main bar area and the banquettes you walked up to this pulsating throbbing monster of a dancefloor with all this activity going on they had these fabulous lights that would come down and they'd go all the way down just about eye level and then they twirl around like on cop cars club promoter Jim Perez I never see them saying when people walk in the room their jaws are going to drop and that's what all this is about effect it's that first moment when they go oh my god the dance floor was the heart of studio 54 and disco music the heartbeat Mary Seymour singer with the band from musique it was a music back in the day when the music hit people just died band dance they accelerated your heart to such a beat that you just could not escape it I mean the music overpowered you everybody was coming on to everybody dancing together writhing it was very sexual in any way today do you like it do you like liked it punch punch punch pose in the bush a number of them with sexy someone mad double entendre and you know your mind goes we let it the atmosphere Rubell and Schrager created was a mix of elegance and high-tech studio patron Richard DuPont when I walked in I remember this little voice said Richard you're never going to see anything like this in your life again bluebells assistant Myra sheer it was the space it was in and it was Steve and all three were essential it was like you know three legged stool somehow between the three there was a magic that could not be without between Scott Taylor tended bar at the club mystic ated women men tuxedos and older people people with like gray hair it was just sophisticated the vibe going on that vibe was helped along by the opening night entertainment an eclectic mix of fashion show circus acts and a performance by the Alvin Ailey Dance Company the crowd loved it the Press reported it and the owners land with it Ian Schrager I've seen a picture of Cher on the front page of the New York Post in a straw hat and a pair of jeans and a t-shirt but studio 54s triumphant inaugural did not guarantee immediate ascendancy to the top of the nightclub heap studio doorman mark Beneke the next couple of nights or three nights whatever it wasn't really as busy or that busy and then Steve Rubell got a call from fashion designer Halston writer Stephen game on Monday night I'm giving a birthday party for Bianca Jagger for about 30 people and I think I'll take them all here and Stephen belt said oh I'm sorry would close them lending so all sorts of clothes he said well then open it Bianca's birthday soiree launched a tradition about rageous bean parties we popped out of her game and I wore a diaper you know with you I swallowed my pirate pride a lot in this place but it was you know all for the good of time nightlife aficionado Anthony haden-guest and Trager sent out for the famous white horse and it's led in by a couple of mere naked people and Bianca Jagger who can certain spot a photo opportunity when she sees one jumps aboard and the photograph was taken the third stuff was published on front pages all around the world the international publicity about studio 54 sealed the deal Rubell and Schrager ruled at clubland all the forces of the universe came together at the same time it was all for Steve and I to do but to just hold on film producer Howard Rosenman Steve had the kind of vision and the kind of big picture of it all and then in followed it through because Ian had the wherewithal the knowledge and the financial muscle party promoter Carmen D'Alessio Steve being so charismatic is the one that is remembered as the legend behind the studio but ian was always liked so much in the background dead you can see him as the brains you know and the technician behind the whole thing one of their brilliant innovations was the front door policy that hats or never come in with that lack people couldn't assume they'd get inside just by showing up at the club only chosen guests were allowed to enter actress Lorna Luft no one had ever created a place that said you can come in and you can't they knew the more that you tell someone you can't have that the more they want it she called it tossing a salad he would also let the limo drivers in for instance he liked limo drove he'd liked a bunch of preppy looking people but they're not too many terry the kid worked at McDonald's next to you know some movie stars and superstar model people who added something what was happening inside whether they would dress in a festive way or they were interesting high-energy danced well whatever or of course that they were you know socialized celebrities models you had to you had to add something had to bring something to the table let's put it that way there was a lot of the gay culture and the masked men and women and trans of gay people that liked to dance like to dress up like to party that was a real mainstay of who was at Studio 54 they were beautiful celebrities and people of power like to look at beautiful people many of the chosen were European you know they were elegant and rich and sophisticated and came anywhere they were invited you know so we called him the Eurotrash they like to spend a lot EMC increased odds on getting younger baby of lions you know they look good they dress well and they spend money studio 54s popularity soared despite its less than desirable location partier Justin Davis the only thing that was around there was porno theaters so you've got this whole elite crowd going to the worst neighborhood in Manhattan to go dancing and prancing that crowd was catered to by a carefully selected staff former bartender Alex McArthur we were encouraged to be cocky they loved us drink behind the buck with the 70s you know so it was there was a lot of drugs and it was and we were encouraged to just party and have a good time but work as fast as you could they were as flamboyant and outlandish as you could possibly be but that made the bars work you'd have like the blonde guy the dark guy and different personalities and I know Steve set it up that way you know said that there was somebody for everybody they came into the club movie producer Alan Carr to be a waiter busboy 30:54 was a little short I mean a lot of negotiating going on the combination of the staff the space and the clientele kept studio on top and its success signaled the demise of other nightspots Arthur Weinstein owned the club called hurrah when they opened I mean I know because I went to the opening that's a heck it's over I mean forget about it but the club that had everything going for it also had an Achilles heel you get the place open and then you handle the laws you handle the technicalities when they arise the technicality in this case was a liquor license he applied for Catering license on a night by night basis so each night he was able to serve alcohol then the next day he had to reapply for one that of course was illegal the New York State Liquor Authority made a surprise appearance with them were cops from the local precinct Scott Taylor was tending bar all these police come in and so those customers dressed this belief and the next thing you know they they arrested one of the bartenders and the music went off and now is it they chased everybody out Lynne Barkley was there as I talked to Stephen Ian through the gates I said why don't you just open it up as a juice bar just let people go in and dance there's no law against people dancing you just let him in I went back and let thousands of people back into the door just said come on in and party turned up the music and from that moment on we became a juice bar this helps help them in profits but it didn't stop people going there me but what people weren't going to hang out of the bar and get a whiskey and soda you know that they were going to dance no again to all kinds of other stuff you know I doubt if alcohol was high on the list of priorities it was the day of the goodies - if I may add and if I might be honest the goodies in this case were drugs cocaine for the most part so they were having fun even if they were not thinking as much 15 24 hours of opening its doors studio 54 was the place to make the scene in 1977 within one month the club was almost closed down promoter Carmen D'Alessio recalls Steve Rubell solution we would be serving juices but then they would be carrying their little bottles and all he was chosen to bring her bodice and to mix it aside so the party would still go on and we would still be having a good time regardless him former bartender Scott Taylor we don't go to the place for liquor you go because of the vibe and the excitement and the vibe and the excitement was was there even better than before nightclub owner Arthur Weinstein of course there was a glimmer of holiday they walk there look Elijah thought I've terrible they went anyway they could rather go there with no booze the lack of booze did little to stop the hordes of people clamoring to get into the club columnist Michael Musto the scene outside the door was both glamorous and guess everybody in New York wanted to get into this place and some of them just couldn't no matter how hard they tried gaining entry to studio 54 meant passing owner Steve rubles nightly litmus test studio regular Niki Haskell you can come in and you can't come in and we don't let anybody in here with hats on and didn't I tell you not to wear an outfit that looked like that the last time and don't come in and it was with like a dictator who was like a disco dictator just watching him you know do his thing was probably better than gone to the movies or going to some Bulls club somewhere or going home so that's the only way I can explain it he was like you know Little Caesar Esther Rubel was exact about his mission one night studio bartender Alex McArthur showed up with guests from out of town and I had these friends Intel and I got to the front and Steve Rubell van is like Alex and then he looks in his face dropped and he goes no way no way he goes Alex no way then he grabs you come over here and he could get me assigned he goes don't you ever do this to me again writer Steven Gaines he called it his nightly party and the people that he allowed in were going to be guests at his party and he wanted a very special mixture the recipe for that mix was handed down to 19 year old Mark Beneke the club's official doorman of the most important thing with with with mixing the crowd people that went inside would be with the energy energy level that someone you know gave off at the door you could generally tell by how someone came to the door or you know how you know what they said have they spoke of how they were going to act inside where they were going to contribute to the overall you know interesting theatricality that went on inside actress Jay Barrymore mother of drew Barrymore describes the scene outside the club people were waiting in lines with the most fantastic costumes on each one trying to outdo the other one so that they could be pointed to like you knew so they could get in the cab pulled up in this woman got out and she was all done up with a green and purple hair and she was in a rubber suit and she was dragging too plastic dogs on a leash behind her and she got right in the door a friend of mine and I stood outside and it's quilted kimonos which we had bought to great expense and we just was so sure that Marx was going to go yo you two over there which is a free drink free admission you rule and he didn't even notice if we just stood there and quilted we'll sing tomorrow's for hours and hours and was the most depressing night in my life the spell studio 54 cast often made people forget their manners and you came with someone and they would let you in and sometimes it wouldn't let your date and you go bye-bye see ya later it was a true narcotic once you went there you had to go back you were desperate to go back because no matter how bad you felt about yourself outside no matter how filled with self-loathing you were on the other side of the velvet ropes once you got into this magic club you felt glamorous and beautiful and young and exciting because suddenly you were part of the core delete movie producer Lester Persky every night some of the most famous people of it who had better things to do you couldn't get them to go to an opening of a place but they go to an opening of the elbe of a bottle of champagne at studios party maven Justin Davis then with those moments when you look on a sofa right in front of the dance floor and you do have a live of the table if energy will hold a Betty for the repulsion and all of them doing this thingy thank you watching a movie celebrities were commonplace at Studio 54 but every now and then one of them stood out the Catherine Deneuve walked up to the barn she walked right up to me and I'd seen a lot of you women in my day but let me tell you she took the kegs and she just smiled that man I told me what she wanted and I handed him a drink and she just rubbed her hand over my wrist and they're all laughing at me upstaging the celebrities were drag queens who lit up the night producer Howard Rosenman there was such exotic creatures and they were really really beautiful they spent their days getting themselves together to come 256 to do you know they would feel their dresses and do their thing during the day and they was so outrageously beautiful many of the drag queens passed for women much to the confusion of some patrons Mickey Haskell recalls an incident with prizefighter Gerry Cooney we were standing at the bar and this big drag queen puts a move on him and my and she was like eyeball to eyeball with him and he's about six foot four my first instinct was to say you know this is a guy this is a drag queen then I thought you know what I'm gonna mind my own business so I walked her out it went over the dance floor and I was dancing and I was sort of eyeing them out of the corner of my eye and about halfway through one of my dances Gerry came over to music I have to ask you a question is it yeah that's a guy that's a guy Cheryl Rickson Davis was the 1980 Penthouse Pet of the year everybody thought everyone was a drag queen because the drag queens were it I mean they were the princesses of the studio the mix of characters was right out of central casting architect Scott Brahma we had people like disco salaries in less than 75 years old wrinkled knees and everything and practically no clothes on to dancing with you know some leather trucker guy you know she looked like Grandma off the Playboy magazine they used to pick her up and pass around the crowd and I used to sit there and total amazing and she'd be up there you had role arena who was always allowed in you know who is this I think rolling it was the lawyer who would dress in this wedding dress and roll in there was a couple who would come in and she would basically she's naked and her husband kind of looked like just like Abraham Lincoln and he kind of followed her around with a flashlight pointing it on certain parts of her body the dress code was never officially clothing optional but for some club goers it may well have been promoter Lynne Barclay remembers one particularly underdressed gift she wore like a 1950's Little Caesars spaghetti straps England fer all the way around it and completely nude underneath it except she took input and pierced both her nipples and has a chain going across here in real life she was a substitute teacher from Long Island former waiter PJ Wolfe then there was Maid Marian a naked bride that would come in with her husband and she'd have absolutely nothing on sometimes sometimes she would have leather straps and or a wedding veil and that would be it Phillippe Rose the Native American in the disco group The Village People I saw a couple of girls for one Halloween just nothing but high-heeled shoes on a rat Penelope Rubell and Schrager through Halloween parties that were notorious for their bacchanalian splendor Halloween at studio 54 was the you cannot believe it made Halloween on Santa Monica Boulevard looks sort of sober okay and that's pretty wild there were people that looked like the Rahsaan and half and running around blood everywhere and it was all just illusion they had like vignettes and you'd be walking by and like a ghost would come out at you and then you'd walk around the other thing and there'd be somebody in a suit with a catch it coming down at you and they're these snakes running around the different little you know boxes and things I mean they they really decorated it's like fun else and it would just get ripped down the next night it was like it never happened yeah but that that's what was so amazing people were very dedicated and very into it in January 1978 Steve and Ian threw a grand event for famed fashion photographer Francesco Scavullo they had photography booths all around and they had drag queen posing and cosmo covered and all of those when I came in it was the pride birthday party Studios theme parties were mini extravaganzas stage for one night and then dismantled they put a lot of money and a lot of inventiveness in it they would put tens and tens and twenties of thousands of dollars into it until setting up these things you can walk in it would be like you're in a castle louis xiv or you can walk in and it would be disneyland those were the greatest night ever in party history in New York because they went all out Stephen E and Carmen to to really entertain you I remember a big party for Dolly Parton for whatever reason and Steve went all out for that they had haystacks and horses and donkeys and mules running to the club you thought you were in a farm I mean you thought you were 150 miles outside of New York City when you walked in I mean those are the kind of things that you don't see anymore you know or if you do see it it's going back a lot in the Hollywood studio you know you don't see it going just to a nightclub playing the role of common host with Steve Rubell but while Rubel basked in the limelight co-owner Ian Schrager was the man orchestrating these FETs bartender Scott Taylor they would do these big production things there Ian was the one who would do all that he'd expedite everything he would do the rehearsals he'd do all the checking he'd make sure everything was in make sure everything ran like huh he's good assistant Myra Shearer the goal was to delight and that was what Ian could do he could surprise you he could create an entirely different environment for the evening so it was like being cast in a movie for the night like a movie studio thrived on publicity and Rubel knew how to Busboys Richie notar Bianca would say Steve I told you I didn't want my picture taken with Bianca I don't know how the photographer's got in on you no I'm sorry I'll kick them out now meanwhile he invited them you know he's very shrewd that way so he did good for the club in his new good for his clientele Rubell and Schrager treated the press right and the press in turn protected the club people just be writing Oh another great night of citizenship or nobody was reporting it in great detail and I think that's probably good you know why spoil it all the unreported activities between the dances gave the club its sizzle in 1977 studio 54 was the right club in the right place at the right time there was just one hard and fast rule leave your inhibitions at the front door the party never stopped at Studio 54 a phenomenon due in large part to the deliberately loose rules concerning drugs and sex model Janice Dickinson the tableau subject of drugs and studio stuff before oh I didn't do any no I know there's everyone experimented co-owner Steve Rubell did more than experiment studio patrons Richard and Robert DuPont Steve was the other king of the loos he was he would hand those quaaludes elbow drink second only given the drink tickets ally in the loos was always free liquor there's always free go to her I'm drugged you know always party promoter Mickey Haskell he'd be by the bar drinking his coke with about ten straws in it you know you could always see when he had a couple of quaaludes you would like slightly foam at the mouth it was a look-see maker Jim Furyk one of the things of presidents would do with people that the memory would get was so he would be in the middle of a sentence and loser and he'd forgot where he was you know which was the you know only Steve Rubell could make that endearing though Rubel enjoyed the numbing effect of quail is the drug of choice among club goers was cocaine bartender Alex McArthur it was cold to do cocaine it was and everybody was doing it and it didn't matter how famous you were or or what a peon you were everybody was doing the coke and acceptable writer Steven games you would see some stockbrokers wife you know with a Gucci purse and she pull a little vial out of it it wasn't the police but shocking at that time people thought that cocaine made you smart and sexy and clever and witty clubbed or Justin Davis the conversation in studios you can do all the coke you want it's not addictive it was in the newspaper cocaine was not cheap but for the wealthy patrons of Studio 54 money was not an issue artist Richard Bernstein sometimes you brought your own sometimes you found them there and sometimes you would find this like very wealthy Persian prince and he'd be happy to be in New York City and it's the most exclusive club in the world and he order bottles of champagne and and you know then pass things around club patron Cheryl Rickson Davis one night I saw somebody with a rolled-up hundred dollar bill snort a line and throw away the hundred and then somebody else grabs it anything somebody's got 100 and they use it again as a store and throw it away again as prevalent as cocaine was many celebrities pretended they didn't have any drugs singer with James if they went to studio 54 with no drugs and justice and expected and it will in expect it you know did that they were very good drugs and usually usually they they did I mean I used to be then everybody was running around you got a coke you gotta cook now said mother you know you were 100 million dollars yes we were some coke your own cold you don't have any trust me celebrities are there are drugs trust me they all either are drug with it but let me tell you something celebrities if they felt they can get drugs for free from Steve Rubell they may believe that it had drugs not everyone was stingy with their stash when I remember Halston taking out a vial of blow and he saw some young thing and he gave his vial blow and kid didn't know what to do it and he went like that and he put put the whole vial and his thing like that hospital bed I couldn't believe what was watching kids didn't know Susan Shapiro was a college student when she produced a documentary about the club one night I was on the phone I was on the pay phone making a phone call to lab to find out how the film was and this guy's that I never met before came up to me and started lying without even talking to me just are laying lines of coke out on the on the pay phone and it was just the wildest thing I would get kicked my grams of coke you know and so with all the other bartenders we keep a bucket and keep throwing vials in it quite a lot at the end of the night you know at Studio 54 the partying didn't end until the Sun came up how do you think that I stayed up you know I'm part you know partier knows David hodo hardhat with the Village People he felt like a vampire when you would leave in the morning like you've been partying all night long and that light was sleepy low coke no people just did coke I mean there were times you know I remember standing up for three days and still going out to dance you can't work all day stay up all night and go to after I always go up not have something to spin you like you know you can't [ __ ] no matter how young you are it doesn't work that way and that cocaine wasn't free the drugs in the drinking were powerful aphrodisiacs between the cocktail of the music and the being at the club and being high and you would see somebody and you know you become riveted to them sex was inevitable anywhere and everywhere in the club behind the loudspeakers it would open the office somebody would be doing something inside the office you would be walking upstairs and you would be stumbling through bodies you know I mean you know buddy wagon imagine it happened I think game then gave heterosexual people permission to be promiscuous as well and I think all of that is somehow wrapped up in the world of disco as embodied by studio 54 a girl was leaning over the balcony and a skirt hiked up and the guy was behind her and they were having sex while watching thousands stands full of them the nosebleed section of the balcony was specially equipped for carnal pleasures at the very top we can't alleviate a section of the center out and upholstered in 12 inch round bolsters made out of vinyl or rubber the real reason why they covered the balcony in in black rubber was because it was easy to wash down in the morning because there had been so much sex going on up there sexual acts were not only prevalent they were executed without fear of consequence you saw someone downstairs or danced with them you got Heidi went upstairs and you took away her stuff the night away in the late 70s although sexually transmitted diseases existed many were easily treatable we couldn't catch anything that you couldn't cure with a shot and that's you know that's what made it's great it didn't matter what she did you could get cured the next day if you caught something you were safe to do whatever you wanted to do and be whoever you wanted to be that was none of it was like this world that they created inside the club she had all kinds of people coming from every direction from the business world and the art world and entertainment world for music industry executives and artists all going letting the hair down shaking their box you know and having a really good time partying hard and if you were a celebrity in need of privacy you headed to the VIP room big studios basement they were very grungy it's at the basement that's the thief but it was there that celebrities and things people like to hang with each other because they're comfortable that way because they all have been through a certain thing together and they know they're not going to be bothered and formed on and hit upon in you know anyway Steve Rubell once held a ejaculation contest in the basement among the bartenders and the boy who ejaculated the furthest got invited to Barbados with them they're like little cubicles hamsters season two so they hate those mattresses on the floor Olivia you know and they did our mattress their law and like the bus wasn't even on the salt like like like big people like powerful men happy clientele translated into big bucks for the club the cash registers at Studio 54 would fill up with so much cash they would literally be overflowing and they couldn't shut the drawers so they would empty out the drawers periodically every hour too but at the same time they would change the tape in the cash register and put a new one in and hide the earlier tape all the money didn't make it to the basement rubles neighbor Justin Davis he was taking tons of money home if I seen in English now he is have a big Norma Kamali toast and the whole lining of the cut was money and drugs he was walk around with a big hideous thing literally he was freezing it was filled with cash and that's how he would take it home movie producer Howard Rosenman he would welcome to Steve's closet they were really money tons and tons of money hundreds and thousands of bills all over the place in 1978 the nightly party at Studio 54 was in full swing catering to all predilections and addictions money was piling up and like kids in a candy shop the owners were stuffing the cash in their pockets most successful Club in history paid a mere eight thousand dollars in taxes for 1977 in reality the club had grossed more than three million dollars Rubell and Schrager had taken upwards of two million off the top on the streets that's called skimming writer anthony haden-guest the bob business in the restaurant business cash businesses and it's a very much a given that there's some skimming on the club's one-year anniversary April 26 1978 Rubell and Schrager threw a huge celebration partier richard dupont it was like a circle there were like giraffes and the band a marching band happy birthday every night was a circus at Studio 54 the ladies run with like the best because they're like little vanity mirrors and like all the beautiful stools English sit there and do a little cocaine and whatever and talk to this one that one watch the beautiful girl for the makeup on a favorite hangout for celebs was the DJ booth Jim Furyk also visits animate their way that IV JB can you just see that the Joker's in any place because the red is good songwriter Bruce Roberts I was there one night when Liza was there and they would get on Mike and introduce records and was just a big party film producer Lester Persky remember Steve Rubell gave certain patrons free rein that's a while he would lead the truman capote who was a favored gifts of his that a friend of mine would take over and be the disc jockey as he imagined with the POTUS peering over those records he would tell the disc jockey what to play Shubin loved it he gave up writing I think to become a disc jockey at Studio 54 the disc jockeys at Studio 54 became celebrities in their own right thus far the closer union with the guard attentive I mean those DJ's where it is really good rule that Jim DJ's were very very important at that time they would give two songs visibility they would try them out they would be the first people to try out records singer Mary Seymour they were the fourth they were the ones who chose the music and played it in clubs okay and to this day there were major force in the industry they always will be there the heirs of the people singer Gloria Gaynor counted on that force when she wanted to promote the b-side of one of her releases her managers called on studio deejay Richie Kosar for help they said let's go down to studio 54 and get [ __ ] Kosar to play this record because this is a hit record this is going to be hit record so he took it there which he loved it and because of the club that he had that the disc jockey is an area he got them all to play it and it just spread like wildfire the song was I Will Survive it became a huge hit and the success of the was attributed to the DJ's at Studio 54 music wasn't the only thing coming out of studio radio personality Rick Dees I was actually in Memphis Tennessee at the time and I would give reports on what would on the night before at Studio 54 because that was the pulse that's that's it was the epicenter of the disco universe in July of 1978 studio 54 hosted the premiere party for the movie Grease the film's producer Alan Carr he turned the whole club into a high school you walked in the entryway was nothing but lockers high school lockers on both sides and then you went into the main part of the club and he had all these old convertible cars the fifties and the fire department came and it was there ready to open in like 15 minutes and they didn't drain the gas out of the tanks we had to like you know take the gas out of the gas tanks and then you know tow the cars in like pushing them always trying to top themselves in September of 1978 Steve and Ian redesigned the club studio assistant Myra Shearer and saw the play Sweeney Todd and I had a bridge in it and that's where he got the idea to build this bridge so people would it be upstairs on the dance floor and they would move across at the bridge Nicky Haskell hosted a television show in New York and often shot segments on the contraption they would keep the bridge behind the scrim and at a certain point in the evening they would open it up and it would cover for when you could get on it you could dance on it the scrim or curtain could be raised and lowered for special parties so when they have certain parties they drop the screen and behind the screen there was a private party writer Stephen Gaines there were guards on either side there was usually a private party going on you could have any sort of a private party if you were celebrity and the drinks would be free back there some nights drinks were free throughout the entire club every once in a while Steve would get up in the booth and go the bar is open you know and people would make a mad rush of the bar any night is Studio 54 I would suggest to you but have been more fabulous if any message you've ever get to any other place in the world if you were a night animal at the front door they would have like lollipops and candy for everybody to see rolls and that was you know that was the end of studio was leaving with a little bit of candy it's sort of you know it's sort of funny when you think about this nightclub and then they treat you like a little child when you're going out to her generous and genuine by night Steve Rubell ruled his clubhouse by day he installed a secret room in his apartment to hide the cash she was stealing but Steve was getting sloppy mutual friends who were this and he was like bragging about the cast of it stashed in various places in the club and the two sets of books and they were not discreet about keeping that secret Rubel wasn't just bragging to friends he was very high on ludes one night and they were taping him for something he said on the air and some TV show some news program what the IRS doesn't know won't hurt them for disco owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager the years 1977 and 1978 were one long party at Studio 54 Diddy with success the young owners rewarded themselves by skimming the till and pocketing the profit the morning of December 14th 1978 rubles lack of discretion caught up with in writer Anthony haden-guest they discovered money they discovered folks they discovered everything they needed former assistant US attorney Peter Sadler the actual books and records that show the evidence of the skin were found in the ceiling of the basement and if you remove the ceiling tiles these books just kind of came out word of the raid spread fast Richie notar big bust [ __ ] when the homeless what does that mean big bust you know I can't talk and and I could've just up I go down to school payday and I remember walking in and was all these guys young guys you know wet-behind-the-ears as they say I RS agents FBI and as soon as we walk to you what are you doing here you got to sit here and they were totally controlling during the search Rubell and Schrager entered the premises Trager carrying a load of books accounting journals put them down on the premises walked away from them and when one of the IRS agents went over who examined them he found an envelope of white powder DEA came down and they feel tested the substance and it was in fact tested positive for cocaine at which point i authorized mr. Trager to be arrested for possession of cocaine the feds discovered a pile of cash along with details of the skimming in a safety deposit box in a Manhattan Bank what started as an investigation into simple tax evasion was snowballing into multiple felonies after other guys left Nick collected whatever they had - we had a meeting with that victim you know people will appeal to you on the street and if they do you tell them - my lawyer Roy Cohn Roy Cohn the former counsel to house unamerican committee chairman Joseph McCarthy was a formidable opponent Roy Cohn came back into the club after Ian Schrager arranged and he started turning over desks and chairs and creating a mess and then he would have the media come in the press and say look what they've done to the club when we'd been very careful not to upset anything columnist Liz Smith they had a lot of protection they had Roy Cohn the lawyer jumping around saying they hadn't done anything wrong they had all their pals saying that but as time went on everybody could see they were going to go down for this the evidence confiscated during the raid was indisputable there were two sets of books are there lists of kind of all the famous people who've been given quote-unquote party favors you know including wash who know who'd been given precisely which drug and so forth and so I mean they really painted themselves into a corner and then put up a little barred window they had committed a murder or anything but they had stolen from the government people in the business took the bust in stride when the IRF hit nobody was surprised how could you be surprised I mean there was so much money coming into that place it's Saturday night there had to be four or five thousand people in the place they all paid what fifteen twenty dollars and they all drank their asses off the raid on studio 54 turned out to be one of the biggest busts in IRS history but the feds didn't stop the party this evening much came out said you know the party goes on and it was almost more of a party the next night out of like a show of support the general public wouldn't really know what's going on so it really didn't affect them on December 31st 1978 just two weeks after the raid Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager threw one hell of a New Year's Eve bash an enormous crowd angrily pushed against the front door they've got so frustrated that they made me stand outs I was back 50 is getting money back to people media coverage contributed to the frenzy of the night we had the radio on and it would say Oh God look who's arriving Halston Bianca Andy and like we were sitting right there at Halston house but they were all I was like on the radio thing like we were arriving as students looking for good times or bad the press always had a field day with the club in February 1979 a portrait of Steve Rubell graced the cover of Andy Warhol's Interview magazine by this time he was like missed in New York and everybody sincerely loved him you know and so Andy did a chose to have him on the cover the press wasn't all that flattering that November New York magazine did a cover story about studio and printed the list the IRS had confiscated of who had been given what illegal drugs or party favors at the club seeing it in print maybe was a reality that there might be some consequences so I think I think it really hurt because they saw that there might be a jail sentence prosecutor Peter sutler eyewitness testimony that the then White House chief of staff Hamilton Jordan had been to studio 54 and had been seen using cocaine entrepreneur mark Fleischman that was in the beginning of Reagan's campaign for the presidency and roy cohn was a serious reagan supporter at a very high level and must have been on his mind that the planning Hamilton Jordan into a very compromising position would have been a serious detriment a special prosecutor was assigned to investigate the allegations he found no evidence of wrongdoing no charges were brought against Jordan Arthur Weinstein they thought that they were going to get out of it and you know when they brought up Don hand Jordan nonsense that sort of sealed the deal I mean I wasn't smart on November 2nd 1979 35 year-old Rubell and 33 year-old Schrager pled guilty to charges of tax evasion in an effort to ensure a lenient sentence Rubell and Schrager decided to cooperate with the feds and squeal on other club owners steven gain his lawyer roy cohn told them to turn in anybody so if Steve Rubell knew that you had ever done anything wrong in your life he told the authorities he ruined the lives of lots of people the result of that was that they were able to get a sentence reduction from the sentencing judge based on their cooperation and I we that their sentences were reduced for three and a half years to about two years two years was still a pretty stiff sentence for tax evasion Lester Persky there was no recognition of the fact that they were new and young doing it and that they might have made mistakes but they were not motivated by any evil intent at the end of January 1980 Rubell and Schrager threw a huge farewell party for themselves every night was just a big party that compounded by 10 you know it's just out of control you must have got out of there like 11 the next morning or something it was so hard to think of this being the last night you know I mean sort of thought about it but the reality never really set in for a while till that's - until the next day when you woke up and you find you had a few drink tickets in your pocket and no place to go to use them Steve was in rare form the night of the party the IRS is after him and he's getting up and making a speech like he had done this noble thing and they played Gloria Gaynor singing I Will Survive and then there was a one of those ribbons those ticker tape things that says things you know and it was the IRS has busted studio 54 and then the man in the moon came down with the spoon and the cocaine stepper we all cheered like it was a terrific thing Myra Shearer Steve opened the house for drinks and he had on a Frank Sinatra type hat and he he played I did it my way like he just had a really good attitude about it and was willing to accept the consequences and you know you just knew he'd be back Mark Beneke I remember most standing on me on the bridge with Andy Warhol live in LA Diana Ross all these people adding Liza and Diana was singing a song to Steve it was quite a night there was an undertone of melancholy of course but but you know I knew they weren't going away from incredibly long period of time one and my nose I knew they weren't going to Alcatraz or something you know they were they were going to a what we call a camp in a club fete not quite on February 1st 1980 Rubell and Schrager were placed in the Metropolitan Corrections Center in downtown Manhattan arthur weinstein saw Steve Rubell the night before he was locked up when he had his duffel bag ready to go and he wasn't destroyed you know once he made up his mind eh this is it I'm gone I'm out of here you know I felt worse than he did I thought you know you seeing a friend go for weeks later on February 28th 1980 studio 54s liquor license expired and the club closed the post prison achievements of Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager were being noticed by the press on July 22nd 1985 New York magazine put the two men on the cover hailing them as the comeback kids I think people were impressed that Steven Ian comics had to come back in a short time but all the success in the world could not give Rubel back his health he got progressively cranky and he looked not well he would coughing lot and yelling the people unnecessarily and I knew something was wrong on July 23rd 1989 Steve Rubell died he was just 45 Steve Rubell did not die of AIDS Steve Rubell had chronic hepatitis and eventually that's what took him down he went into septic shock and that's how he died a funeral service was held at Manhattan's Riverside Chapel there was family close friends and that was pretty much it it but the people who are at the funeral were all people who who truly loved Steve Steve Rubell and the memories he and Ian Schrager created will not soon be forgotten people had a great time that's what people remember a lot of people met married and elasto when people think of that ever they smile I learned that let yourself go dare to have a good time dare to stop short of the edge don't go over the edge that's why I guess we're still here go though the edge but don't go over it's like this take as you know and you could just go into the other crazy everybody and have fun and you really knew you had fun because your stomach with eight the next day because you can laugh and anytime that you're laughing so hard can't be bad I was happy to get out of here you know vertically instead of horizontally so I always considered that a good night when I could walk out on my own steam and still appear that I had you know my faculties about me it's a tremendous thing to live through I survived because I wasn't promiscuous I know a lot of my friends were and they're not around anymore we knew it can last forever I mean it had dooms written on it on every piece of glitter because nothing that fabulous to last forever people are being interviewed to remember things after parting it's to be sent resources you know I think that that is a that's a feat in itself a remarkable life if everyone has to dig way down into the resin to remember it was a time that I'm glad to have lived in and lived through it's like I've always said it was the last good time had by all but with the help of modern technology those good times can be recreated someone said to me you can't say that you've had a karaoke night unless you've had some irate drunken woman get on stage and sing I would suffice and the space is still available according to Joshua Hadar whose family owns the building you can rent it out for a night and really carve out your own image whether it's a fashion show or a movie screening or you know a club night or some kind of corporate event a product launching you know and that's basically what it is I mean the beauty of this place of the actual original Opera House is still intact you can see the reliefs and all the ornate architecture it's gorgeous as for the old crowd yeah I would live those years over again absolutely absolutely you bet I would I'd go back in a flash absolutely I would go back in the Jet Set flash in fact I still have all my dresses in case okay for this case they call me back I'm ready [Music]

Channel: Music Documentaries & Concerts

Views: 3,241,892

Rating: 4.6430588 out of 5

Keywords: watch, music, band, documentaries, VH1, Classic, Albums, free, online, full, length, episodes, documentary, the, clash, queen, david, bowie, beatles, led, zeppelin, concert, behind, mtv

Id: Qgob2BUPgUw

Length: 63min 41sec (3821 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 03 2017