Inside the Glitz and Glamour of Studio 54: New York's Legendary Nightclub

Often called the Greatest Club of all time, the Temple of Disco: Studio 54 was a world-renowned lavish playground for celebrities and the social elite.

It’s velvet ropes separating the crowds of hopeful guests from the select few to enter, as paparazzi and newspaper photographers scattered outside.

The brainchild of two Brooklyn entrepreneurs that met at Syracuse University,  Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager.

The Studio 54 building was originally built in 1927, and in 1977, Rubell and Schrager spent $400,000 to transform an old theater into a nightclub.   Renovation involved construction of a dance floor, a balcony, and a disco booth, as well as the addition of mirrors and light bars.   The adapted light rigging systems generated special effects such as confetti, snow, fog and weather.

Although the space could fit 2500 guests 4,000 people attended the club on opening day April 26th 1977, as disco was gaining popularity in the United States.

Prospective patrons lined up around the block to enter.  A month after opening it averaged 2,000 guests a night only open Tuesday through Saturday.

To be admitted to 54 was a status symbol. The Wall Street Journal said “very beautiful members of the public were almost always admitted, while men entering alone were invariably rejected to prevent predatory behavior”.

Studio 54 is remembered as the first non-judgmental, queer-friendly, mainstream nightclub which was not unlike an adult amusement park.

Bankers, drag queens, actors, singers, fashion designers, gigolos, all mixed together connected by a sharp sense of style and an immoderate love of partying.

It came to define an era of glamour, debauchery, and nightclub dancing.

Tales of Hedonism and excess are legendary and celebrity appearances were guaranteed, with a guest list that included some of the most famous people in the world at the time:

Mikail Baryshnikov, Woody Allen, John Belushi, Leonard Bernstein, Richard Gere, Jacqueline Bisset, Angelica Huston, Brooke Shields, Donna Summer, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Rick James, Elton John, Tom Jones, Jacqueline Onassis, Jack Nicholson Al Pacino, Sylvester Stallone, Elizabeth Taylor, John Travolta, Andy Warhol, Dolly Parton, Olivia Newton-John, Barbra Streisand, David Bowie, Truman Capote, Salvador Dali, Cher, Debbie Harry, Farrah Fawcett, Margaux Hemingway, Tommy Hilfiger, Lauren Hutton, Karl Lagerfeld, Timothy Leary,  John Lennon, Bette Midler, Richard Pryor, Diana Ross, Frank Sinatra, Tina Turner, Valentino, Robin Williams and Liza Minnelli

Halston said, “you are as good as the people you dress”.  Many of the dancers and celebrities at the studio wore sultry designs by Steven Burrows, Halston, Norma Kamali, Calvin Klein and Giorgio de Saint Angelo.

Andy Warhol a regular guest said the club was a “dictatorship on the door but a democracy on the dance floor”.

Liza Minnelli remarked “I think Studio 54 brought glamour back to New York that we haven’t seen since the ’60s and it made New York get dressed up again”.

A frequent guest remarked “you know when you walk into a place and you feel that electricity in the air.   Those lights, it’s like being on stage, so they made everybody feel like a star, because that light hits you”.

Of course there were abundant Party Favors, the club drugs of choice in the ’70s was the stimulant cocaine often called “Disco Dust” and the depressant Quaaludes nickname “Disco Biscuits”.

Many guests used club drugs and they often engaged in open sexual activity on the club’s balcony and in private rooms.

Several times a night a moon and spoon would fly in separately from the left and right wings and meet center stage.   The spoon would zip up the moon’s nose referring to the use of cocaine.

The club generally opened at 10:00 p.m. with the crowds peaking at midnight and the bar closed at 4:00 a.m., while the rest of club stayed open until 6:00 a.m.

Rubell was quoted as saying “only the Mafia made more money”, when the club made $7 million the first year.

In December 1978, a disgruntled employee tipped off the IRS alleging that Rubell and Schrager were skimming profits and that cocaine was being stored in the basement.

When the two dozen IRS agents raided the club, they found drugs and vast sums of cash in Hefty garbage bags stowed in the ceiling.

Turns out they had only paid $8,000 in taxes since they opened, yet were making more than $75,000 per night.

Although they hired 37 attorneys, a Federal grand jury indicted them on tax evasion in June 1979, and they each got three and a half years jail time.

After 33 months of operation the party was over.   They both ended up serving only 20 months, but later Rubell died of AIDS and Schrager today has a boutique hotel business.

“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.   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.”