It was the end of an era. It was a place of secrets and secretions, the in-crowd and inhalations, sucking and snorting., Studio 54s fast and loose accounting would ultimately contribute to its downfall. Its like mixing a salad, he explained, or casting a play. Doorman Marc Benecke, then a 19-year-old student at Hunter College, served as Rubells deputy. As you can see, this was long before his dramatic transformation and eventual controversies in the public eye. All Rights reserved. It was Halston. We were invited to meet with Grace Jones at Studio 54, Rodgers told Sound on Sound in 2005. When Steve got off the phone we flipped into action to make it happen. Trying to see it. TheIndependent says others took a different tack, offering their bodies instead. Left: Outside Studio 54, someone arrives to the club on a horse for the third annual Halloween party in 1978. One clubgoer waited outside with a group of friends, including a doctor packing a jumbo bottle of Quaaludes. In the aftermath of the Vietnam war, Rubell said people were tired of being serious everyone went out and went wild. Then, all of a sudden it just hit me. This made him extremely popular, and they demanded Taylor stay when Rubell wanted to fire him. We had the kid who worked at McDonalds next to some movie star or some superstar model, he said in the E! At this time, Fawcett had recently hit it big with her role in Charlies Angels, while MacLaine had just starred in The Turning Point. Four women in shimmery dresses sit in the club's lounge area. Nothing would compare to the nightclubs glory years in the 1970s and 80s. Desperately!. documentary. Actress and model Margaux Hemingway celebrates her 24th birthday in style. The clubs explosive success had attracted attention from authorities, and they thought Studio 54 might be connected to organized crime. They were known to turn away some seriously well-known people. Antoinette Norcia / Getty Images In this 1978 picture, crowds line up for entry into Manhattan's renowned disco and . When she visited the city for concert dates in May 1978, Rubell created a rural farm setting to help the country singer feel more at home. Again, this is in a huge crowd of people on a street in Manhattan. Diana Ross serenaded the owners from the DJ booth, and Liza Minnelli sang New York, New York. Rubell, donning a Sinatra-like fedora, piped in with a spirited rendition of My Way, which played on repeat during the night, as did Gloria Gaynors Studio 54 anthem I Will Survive. From a mechanical platform high above the dance floor, Rubell addressed his guests with an emotional speech. The man who made it famous, Steve Rubell, was only in charge from 1977 to 1980. For most of his life, though, co-founder Ian Schrager has wanted to forget it. I personally tried to get very friendly with the underside of a car., Although their songs were must-plays on the dance floor, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic found themselves unable to clear Beneckes ultra-strict door policy on New Years Eve 1977. He captured it fantastically the fun and wackiness, the sweetness. He was never on the dance floor, Studio 54 busboy Richie Notar recalled in a 2017 BBC radio documentary. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. See Rare Photos Inside Studio 54 Nightclub This crowd is made up of well-known, successful individuals: Fashion designer Halston and actress Bianca Jagger are on the left, followed by film director Jack Haley Jr. and actress Liza Minnelli in the back right. In front is famous artist Andy Warhol. Studio 54 started as it meant to go on. Nightlife anywhere was sure to have drugs involved were talking about the 1970s, here. About 30 people standing around us took them, and then everybody started having this mad sexual orgy. If you wanted a place to let loose and perhaps engage in some public nudity, then Studio 54 was the club for you. Drugs, drinks, and disco -- Studio 54 had it all. For the last fifty years, Allan Tannenbaum has been the quintessential New York photographer. For Andy Warhols 50th birthday in August 1978, Rubell gave the artist a fresh roll of 5,000 free drink tickets and a silver garbage can filled with $1,000 worth of crisp new dollar bills. Once they did, a "mad sexual orgy" started. The move this woman pulls off seems to defy her age in every way shes flexible enough to wrap her legs around him and strong enough to hold herself up by his arms. A man wears a gold costume, eyeliner, and a headdress while dancing. There, "you could disappear into the shadows and get up to whatever." Here he is enjoying an anniversary party for Andy Warhols magazine, Interview. Actor and author Chris Lawford shares a dance with Mick Jagger's wife, Bianca. By Dan Tracer February 23, 2015 at 7:02am. Getting high low-down, Grace Jones wrote in her 2016 memoir. Donald hadnt built Trump tower. [He] wanted to have a birthday party that Monday for Bianca Jagger. Like many venues, the club closed Mondays for a dark night, but Rubell made an exception. Even when they were under investigation for tax evasion and obstruction of justice, the owners renovated the club. Photographer Gene Spatz captured celebrities including John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger at the iconic New York City 1970s nightclub. The sex, drugs and disco on offer at Studio 54 served as the perfect release for a generation raised under the pressures of Watergate and the Vietnam War. He infamously walked around wearing a padded coat that hid his stash of cocaine, Quaaludes, and poppers. All Rights reserved. They would tangle in the barbed wire and fall to the cement pavement which was 10 feet below. We had a blast. My Studio 54 Story. Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli sang, while Rubell blasted out My Way. In this picture, you can see doorman Mark Benecke sweeping the expectant crowd for the best individuals to allow past the front doors. Their photos transport us right back to the debaucherous den that all but defined 1970s New York's nightlife: Relive The Decadence Of Studio 54 With These Vintage Photos View Gallery Here she is pictured in front of her cake and alongside famous designer Halston. It wasn't just animals that were taken advantage of. In 1977 the club made millions yet reportedly paid just a paltry $8,000 in taxes. We grabbed a couple of bottles of champagne from the corner liquor store and then went back to my place, plugged in our instruments and started jamming. Aching from the rejection, Rodgers and Edwards poured their anger into the music. Studio 54 had an epic few years, but that was it. At the time, childish fun in a club like this couldnt be found in most other venues. If you wanted to dress in next to nothing and wear lots of makeup, you were encouraged. We dived onto the ground. While it lasted, many photographers flocked to the bacchanal to capture the celebrities and other lucky denizens as they danced and snorted and frolicked under that iconic Man in the Moon with the coke spoon sculpture. The doctor started handing them out, he told Haden-Guest. He captured that era in my lifetime, and I hope someone is having that type of fun again. It was relatively common for famous figures to throw their birthday parties inside Studio 54. He told Rubell outright that his uniform was ridiculous for working, and instead he was going to hang out and entertain the celebrities. His latest book, Studio 54, is a record of hedonism that includes actual swinging from the rafters and a literal procession of men in Dionysian drag. Once you found yourself inside the hallowed grounds of Studio 54, the next place you wanted to go was the fabled basement; a cavernous, dingy, decidedly unglamorous space decorated with damaged banquets, pillars of rolled carpet and set pieces from past parties. Unlike Ron Galellas work which has been exhibited and is collected as fine art after Spatz died in 2003 the archive of images was inherited by his younger sister, Amy Lowen, and packed away in filing cabinets in her Kentucky home. The party went off without a hitch, save for a minor incident. While the club wanted to attract as many celebrities as possible, just being famous didn't necessarily guarantee you entrance. Fans would say she had eyes the color of lavender, and her performances in films like Cleopatra and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof will forever go down in cinema history. Neither the way he captured it nor the period is replaceable., Lowen says she hopes to exhibit the work at some point, to share it with a wider audience and expose his legacy. PHOTOS: Newly Released Studio 54 Collection Offers Rare Glimpse Into A Party Legend. Karl Lagerfeld held a candlelit 18th-century party with the staff in court dress and powdered wigs. On May 2nd, Jagger celebrated in grand style. The Studio 54 Glory Years When CBS sold the theater, various parties from the worlds of fashion and art began to express interest in seeing it transformed into a nightclub. (A young Alec Baldwin was a busboy, and legend says he quit because he was too turned on by all the intimacy he witnessed.) In the 1970s, Studio 54 was a palace of excess and hedonism and on Halloween, this infamous nightclub opened its doors to the costumed ghouls of New York City. So they were willing to wait and hope to get noticed and invited past the velvet rope keeping them away from all the fun inside. Theyd been waiting and they just started shooting. They were out of their minds on drugs and indulging in their dirtiest fantasies. If he liked you enough, he'd give you a little something. It seemed as though thrill-seekers young and old wanted nothing more than to get a taste of Studio 54s soaring reputation. Other photographers didnt capture that. For that reason, his photos are not only fine art, they are history. Skimming was standard practice in the cash-flush world of restaurants and nightclubs, but this was an order of magnitude greater than most offenders. A woman in a bustier and garters finds her partner the "punk" behind her, at Studio 54's 1977 Halloween party. She avoided the task of assessing what she had in her possession for nearly a decade until she began to unearth her brothers forgotten treasures. Studio 54, New York. A 77-year-old widow who became known as "Disco Sally" was a regular and was always allowed in when she showed up. 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