Studio 54 | The Most INSANE Story I've Ever Told

perhaps one of the most famous nightclubs there ever was studio 54 was a place of freedom and expression known for its celebrity guests disco music and open substance use studio 54 was the place everyone wanted to be in the late 70s today we're taking you through the rise and the fall of studio 54. studio 54 was founded in 1977 by close friends ian schrager and paul rubel the two met in college at syracuse university and had similar backgrounds both coming from middle class families in brooklyn after graduating schrager and rubal saw that there were big opportunities for success in the nightclub business and wanted to get in on it they started their journey by going out to clubs in manhattan in order to get a sense of the kind of club they wanted to create when schreiger and rubled signed the lease for the building that studio 54 would be in their friends thought they were crazy located on 54th street and 8th avenue in manhattan this wasn't exactly a popular spot in the new york city nightlife scene the area was referred to as sleazy and dangerous the building had previously been an opera house and a cbs television studio and had been sitting unused for years before schrager and rubell bought it when schragen rubell asked a group of designers to help create the club they turned down the offer because competitors told them not to work with studio 54. out of this problem schrager and rubell turned to jules fisher and paul marantz who designed the lighting and essentially created the epic dance floor environment fisher and marantz along with a number of other architects and designers built studio 54 in just six weeks once completed shrager and rubel sent out invitations inviting celebrities and organizing limo rides for big names finally on april 26 1977 studio 54 had its grand opening the streets were crowded with eager guests on this faithful evening when guests walked through the blacked-out doors they entered into a long extravagantly decorated hallway with mirrors on both sides you can hear the music blaring from the next set of doors which upon opening would lead you into the main room opening night was a major success and set the precedent of what a night at studio 54 was like over the next few days new spread of the hot new club in town and its wild energy quickly becoming one of the most coveted spots in town shrager and rubel had the ability to be selective in their choosing of who got in and who didn't rubell would stand outside and hand-pick people to come in based on their looks and tell people to walk out if he didn't like their vibe or appearance like if their beard wasn't shaved or he didn't like their hat yes there is footage of this these people the crowd here right now to watch all these freaky people just pile into this place he did say to let these people in [Music] rubell would split up couples allowing a girl to come in if she was beautiful but sending her boyfriend home myra shear shrager and rubell's assistant explains the exclusivity of studio 54 saying every night there would be a guest list that would be for the front door there'd be somebody's name on the guest list then the next column there would be pay comp or nfu and nfu meant no [ __ ] up that meant mark the bouncer had to let them in while some celebrities received special treatments others didn't cher reveals one case of this saying mick jagger and keith richards of course would get in but some of the other rolling stones actually had to pay the core group of celebrities that attended studio 54 were liza minnelli andy warhol bianca jagger and halston others that frequented the dazzling club included cher freddie mercury david bowie farrah fawcett elton john diana ross and elizabeth taylor and while these celebrities often did show up without requests it was one woman's job to get them there joanne horowitz was tasked with getting celebrities to studio 54 and making sure that photos of them in attendance showed up in the news horowitz explains her unique role saying ian called me up and said let's make a deal i would get paid for wrangling the celebrities if i generated pr around that person i would get 500 for the cover of the daily news if i got them on the cover of the new york post it would be an additional 500 and then if i got them on page six it would be like 150. so any celebrity that walked in pretty much got on the cover of the new york post or the daily news it was huge news the obsession that people had with seeing which celebrities were going to studio 54 had an interesting impact on pop culture ian schrager explains how the press covering celebrities at studio 54 was influential saying there was this paradigm shift away from reading about crime and sports heroes people became fascinated with celebrities it was the beginning of the age of celebrity we were there at the right time and we wrote it for all it was worth possibly one of the most amazing parts about studio 54 was how freeing the experience was the space and those in attendance valued inclusion and acceptance it was not a place of discrimination like that of which was rampant on the streets this was a place where people could be themselves and express their sexuality in ways they couldn't in the outside world and that is what made studio 54 such a safe haven but just a month into its wild success the new york state liquor authority closed down studio 54 for selling liquor without a license schrager and rubell were both arrested but were released from jail after a few hours thanks to famous attorney roy khan shrager explains the aftermath of the arrest saying we were able to keep the place open for six months with no liquor then we finally got the license i have a picture of me and steve holding the license when we got it and from that moment on we felt like we conquered the world the newfound confidence and the constant buzz around studio 54 only fueled rubell's ego this came to a climax when rubell was quoted in a newspaper speaking about studio 54's financial success and said profits are astronomical only the mafia does better this turned out to be a huge mistake as it got the attention of the irs on december 14th of 1978 dozens of irs agents raided studio 54 with a warrant to search and seize any records related to the club's finances peter sudler the prosecutor in the studio 54 case explains the situation same the studio 54 case began with an allegation of a gigantic skimming operation that there was cash and drugs hidden at studio 54. the irs found envelopes and trash bags filled with cash hidden in the ceilings of studio 54's basement cash was also found in a safe deposit box belonging to rubell as well as over nine hundred thousand dollars in a safe in his apartment the case against studio 54 further escalated when the feds found hundreds upon hundreds of illegal substances in a vault in the club's basement schrager and rubell were promptly arrested other incriminating pieces of evidence came from what was revealed in the books steve rebelle's mother was the bookkeeper for studio 54. rebel budgeted money to give celebrities illegal substances for free and his mother without knowing what the money was being used for had recorded all of those purchases perhaps the most incriminating piece of evidence recorded in the books were the nightly records of how much shrager and rubell and their financial backer jack dashi would skim aka the earnings they would take home and not report they had skimmed two and a half million dollars in an attempt to lower the charges that rubell and schrager were expecting to receive for the possession of illegal substances rubella and schrager and their lawyer roy khan accused the white house chief of staff at the time hamilton jordan for using the same illegal substance when he visited studio 54. this was a huge mistake as the white house was now after them although they realized the situation had gotten completely ahead of them rubel and schrager tried to maintain their calm they even began a major renovation of the club sort of as a way to tell everyone that they would be back soon they spend over a million dollars on the renovation amidst being under indictment for tax evasion and fighting hamilton jordan but in november of 1979 after almost a year since studio 54 had been raided rubell and schrager pleaded guilty for tax evasion they were both sentenced to three and a half years in prison and find twenty thousand dollars later on they received a reduced sentence for giving the feds information about other nightclubs and sketchy stuff that they were doing studio 54 was essentially over but there was one more party to be had the party the night before rubell and schrager went to jail was reportedly the best party studio 54 had ever thrown even better than opening night the music and dancing was just as intense and freeing as it ever had been celebrities filled the scene with liza minnelli and diana ross both serenading rubel and schrager michael overington city 54's manager explains what happened once rubell and schrager were in jail saying after they went to jail we had another couple of months but it was never the same without steve and ian and then we lost the liquor license there wasn't much we could do so rubell and schrager were forced to sell studio 54 which they did from jail after they got out of jail they ventured on to other projects together but nothing ever topped the phenomenon that was studio 54. schreiger put it perfectly when he says studio 54 wasn't a nightclub it was like a social experiment and that's why it's never been able to be recreated it was fun holding on to a lightning bolt well that's all for today everyone we hope you enjoyed the video i will see you next time you

Channel: The HollyHobs

Views: 213,297

Keywords: studio 54, the beatles, hollyhobs, the hollyhobs

Id: 5aSWhyioAOQ

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 26 2021