Inception and opening By 1976, German-born male model Uva Harden was planning to open a nightclub in New York City, which he tentatively called "Studio". Harden and Israeli entrepreneur Yoram Polany agreed to take over the old CBS Studio 52 that year. Polany and another friend of Harden's independently recommended that the nightclub be called "Studio 54" because it was on 54th Street. They hired , who had hosted monthly parties at
Maurice Brahms's Infinity nightclub, as the club's publicist. After continued delays, Harden met with entrepreneurs
Steve Rubell and
Ian Schrager, who agreed to partner with him in the nightclub's operation. Harden was eventually forced out of the club's operation, while Polany left on his own volition. In November 1976,
Billboard magazine reported that Schrager and Rubell planned to convert the theater into a nightclub called Studio 54. It would be one of several
discotheques to operate in Midtown Manhattan during the late 1970s. Rubell and Schrager formed the Broadway Catering Corp., which spent $400,000 to transform the theater into a nightclub. Rubell, Schrager, and Jack Dushey each owned a one-third stake in the venture, These included architect Scott Bromley, interior designer Ron Doud, The renovation involved the construction of a dance floor, a balcony, and a disco booth, as well as the addition of mirrors, light bars, and floating vinyl platforms. The orchestra seated 250 people, and the balcony had another 500 seats. On the ceiling was a
cyclorama, which could project images of many different galaxies. Other decorations included depictions of volcanos, sunrises, and sunsets. The club's promoters mailed out 8,000 invitations and made phone calls to numerous figures on "a good social list". Studio 54 officially opened on April 26, 1977, and several celebrities could not get in, despite having been invited.
The scene ,
Andy Warhol,
Bianca Jagger, and
Halston at the Studio 54 first anniversary party, 1978 Studio 54 had been launched as the
disco dancing and music trend was gaining popularity in the U.S. Its popularity grew rapidly, especially after the publication of a widely-circulated picture that showed actress
Bianca Jagger at the club, riding a white horse. In the month after its opening, the club served an average of 2,000 guests per night, Rubell ultimately chose not to open similar clubs around the world, saying: "I'm very cautious about protecting the name and not cheapening it." In November 1977,
Dan Dorfman of
New York magazine quoted Rubell as saying that "only the Mafia made more money" than Studio 54, which made $7 million in its first year. Upon Studio 54's first anniversary in April 1978, which attracted 3,000 guests, Rubell said the club's popularity contradicted sentiments that the club "wouldn't last more than a couple of months". That October, Rubell and Schrager closed the club for nine days, spending $500,000 on renovations. The work included adding spotlights and mirrored walls,
Admission policy To be admitted to Studio 54 was a status symbol, even on nights when the club was open to the public. Tickets were more expensive on weekends, and all ticket prices were increased on nights with performances. According to a 1977
Wall Street Journal article, "very beautiful" members of the public were almost always admitted, while men entering alone were invariably rejected to prevent predatory behavior. Rubell bragged about the club's exclusivity, saying in a November 1977 interview with
New York magazine: "I turned away 1,400 people last Saturday." Rubell once told a "ravishingly beautiful woman" that she could enter for free if she took off all her clothes; the woman was later hospitalized for frostbitten nipples. an account that Schrager later confirmed. When the club was renovated in 1978, Rubell and Schrager sealed its courtyard to prevent people from entering there. On several occasions, would-be guests attacked the doormen after being denied admission, and several guests pulled out guns when they were rejected. Even club members were not guaranteed entry. In June 1978, the
New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) mandated that Rubell and Schrager stop selling memberships and refund existing members. The club failed to refund all memberships immediately, and Schrager claimed that November that only 40 members had applied for refunds.
Inside the club The club generally opened at 10 p.m., with crowds peaking at midnight; the bar closed at 4 a.m., and the rest of the club stayed open until 6 a.m.
The Washington Post wrote in November 1977 that the club attracted "a mix of punks, hairdressers, socialites, and suburbanites", while
The New York Times said the club was "tolerant of errant squares".
Andy Warhol, a regular guest of Studio 54, said the club was "a dictatorship on the door but a democracy on the dance floor". Studio 54 enforced a photography ban to protect guests' privacy, Many guests used
club drugs, and they often engaged in open sexual activity on the club's balcony and in private basement rooms. The
Journal characterized most of the women guests as "beneficiaries of a fabulously lucky genetic selection" and that the men guests generally had an "aura of self-esteem born in the knowledge that one can successfully choose among the select". The nightclub was also frequented by many gay celebrities, By 1978, there was a private dance floor behind a movable
scrim on the main dance floor, as well as a VIP room in the basement, which could only be accessed by a hidden stairway. The organizers of a
Valentine's Day party in 1979 imported 3,000 Dutch tulips, transported of sod from Bermuda, and rented eight antique sculptures that each cost $17,000. Other events at the club included fundraisers for local politicians, as well as a Halloween party hosted by the staff of
People magazine. Studio 54 was also a filming location for several music videos, such as those for several songs in
Musique's album ''
Keep On Jumpin'''.
Notable patrons •
Bella Abzug •
Leonard Bernstein •
Jacqueline Bisset •
Truman Capote •
Allan Carr •
Roy Cohn •
Salvador Dalí •
Divine •
Faye Dunaway •
Doris Duke •
Betty Ford •
Tom Ford •
Diane von Fürstenberg •
Martha Graham •
Jerry Hall •
Halston •
Lauren Hutton •
Elton John •
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis •
John Lennon •
Lorna Luft •
Richard Pryor •
Lou Reed •
Rollerena Fairy Godmother •
Diana Ross •
Frank Sinatra •
Elizabeth Taylor •
Tina Turner •
Sally Lippman, also known as "Disco Sally", was a 77-year-old widow and regular dancer at the club. Instead, the nightclub applied for a "caterers' permit" every day; these permits were intended for weddings or political events, but they technically allowed the venue to serve alcohol. The club also did not have a certificate of occupancy or a public assembly license, prompting tipsters to complain to several federal agencies. The club reopened the next night, serving fruit juice and soda instead of liquor. Studio 54 continued serving non-alcoholic drinks exclusively until a justice for the
New York Supreme Court, the state's trial-level court, ordered the NYSLA to grant Studio 54 a liquor license that October. The NYSLA's chairman complied with the Supreme Court ruling but objected to it, claiming that the judge had been influenced by Studio 54's upscale clientele. The
New York Court of Appeals upheld the Supreme Court's decision in June 1978. A contributing factor was that the city government only employed three cabaret inspectors, who could not validate all of the city's cabaret licenses in a timely manner. Additionally, the DCA rarely fined unlicensed cabarets more than $25. Studio 54 ultimately paid ASCAP for a license in November 1978. The
National Labor Relations Board was also investigating the club by February 1979 after some workers alleged that the club had engaged in
unfair labor practices.
End of the first era In December 1978, a tipster called the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS), alleging that Rubell and Schrager were
skimming profits. The tip came from a disgruntled ex-employee, who also alleged that
cocaine was illegally being stored in the basement. The club continued to operate the night of the raid. A
federal grand jury indicted Rubell and Schrager on charges of tax evasion in June 1979, observing that the two men had
skimmed $2.5 million, or as much as 60 percent of Studio 54's receipts over the past two years. In an unsuccessful attempt to lessen the charges against the club's co-owners, Schrager's lawyer
Mitchell Rogovin alleged that
Hamilton Jordan, chief of staff to U.S. president
Jimmy Carter, had used cocaine in the club's basement. In anticipation of increasing interest in rock music, Rubell and Schrager spent $1.2 million to renovate Studio 54 in late 1979. They installed a grand
chandelier and a
fly system above the stage, as well as removing seats from the balcony. Rubell and Schrager ultimately pleaded guilty to tax evasion in November 1979, after
New York magazine published a cover story describing the "party favors" that the two men gave to their friends. Rubell and Schrager were each sentenced to three and a half years in prison in January 1980. The two men attended a final party on the night of February 2–3, 1980, with
Diana Ross and
Liza Minnelli singing for numerous guests. Rubell and Schrager began serving their sentences two days afterward. Ultimately, Rubell and Schrager were
paroled after a year, and Schrager received a
Presidential Pardon decades later. The NYSLA unanimously voted not to renew Studio 54's liquor license on February 28, 1980, citing Rubell's and Schrager's criminal convictions, although the club was allowed to continue operating. The club lost its liquor license on February 29, and the club started serving fruit punch the next day. Studio 54's lawyers also announced that they would create a board of directors to operate the club. By the end of that month, Rubell was considering selling the club, despite having promised just two months prior that he would never sell Studio 54. The club closed down at the end of that March, as the revocation of the liquor license had caused a sharp decrease in business. Early the next month,
Fleischman and Weiss operation Mark Fleischman announced his plan to take over Studio 54, seeking to host live shows there and obtain a liquor license from the NYSLA. Studio 54 remained shuttered through the rest of the year, in large part because Rubell and Schrager continued to file legal objections against the NYSLA's revocation of the club's liquor license. The authority would not issue a liquor license as long as the club was involved in active litigation. Rubell's company sold the building to Philip Pilevsky for $1.15 million in cash in August 1981, leasing back space from Pilevsky. Fleischman applied for a liquor license from the NYSLA, which agreed to grant the license on the condition that Rubell and Schrager not be involved in any way. and he paid the New York state government $250,000 in
back taxes. Studio 54 officially reopened to the public on September 15, 1981. Fleischman and his partner Jeffrey London mailed out 12,000 invitations for Studio 54's reopening, Initially, the club hosted "Modern Classix nights" during Wednesdays and Sundays, while it hosted disco music for the remainder of the week. Notable figures associated with the second iteration of Studio 54 included doorman
Haoui Montaug, as well as
Paul Heyman, who was a photographer, producer, and promoter at the club. A notable guest during this time was
Drew Barrymore, who was nine years old when her mother took her to Studio 54. Within three months of the club's reopening, Fleischman had ousted Fouratt and Piper, who opened the
Danceteria nightclub. In 1982, social activist
Jerry Rubin started hosting "Business Networking Salons", a networking event for businesspeople, at the club on Wednesday nights. Prospective guests would only be admitted if they had a business card; the networking events quickly became popular, often attracting 1,500 guests. For other events, Studio 54 implemented an invitation system, which enabled its operators to restrict some events to select guests without turning them away at the door. The club's mailing list had 200,000 names by 1984. Frank Cashman acquired the $3 million
lien on the club in late 1984. The same year, Studio 54 also hosted special musical performances, starting with a series of concerts by
Julie Budd. Meanwhile, the club was gradually losing long-time regulars to competing discotheques, including the
Palladium, which Rubell and Schrager had opened after being released from prison. The club also faced several lawsuits from disgruntled high-profile guests, such as football player
Mark Gastineau and a basketball player. Fleischman filed for bankruptcy in November 1985; he had planned to spend $250,000 on renovations to attract guests. in part because Studio 54 was losing so many of the lawsuits in which it was involved. The nightclub tended to attract a young and racially mixed clientele who were frequently involved in fights, prompting complaints from local residents. City officials revoked the club's cabaret license for two years in January 1989 after finding that the club's patrons frequently used cocaine illegally. The officials alleged that Studio 54 employees not only encouraged illegal drug use but also used cocaine themselves. They spent $2 million to restore the theater, adding fixed seating at
orchestra level Cohen and Scher anticipated that the club could fit 3,000 people, including standees, The Ritz relocated from the
East Village to Studio 54 on April 5, 1989. and salsa music. The Ritz was one of the most active nightclubs in the United States, with about 150 shows annually, until its promoters started booking fewer shows in mid-1991. Despite declining profits in 1992, the club's owners were planning to add a 250-seat side room next to the auditorium. CAT Entertainment acquired Scher's interest in the Ritz in December 1992, In July 1993, the Ritz announced it would close down and reopen as a
topless bar. CAT Entertainment spent $3 million renovating the theater, including the stage area. CAT also resurrected both the nightclub and the Studio 54 trademark, which had never been properly registered by any of the prior owners or operators. The remodeled nightclub opened in January 1994 and was operated as "Cabaret Royale at Studio 54". Most of the old theater's architectural detail had been covered up by then. Meanwhile, the
Bank of Tokyo had previously granted a mortgage on the theater and the adjacent office building to Pilevsky, which it foreclosed upon in June 1994. Later that month, the theater and building were auctioned off. CBS, the
Manhattan Theatre Club, and
Viacom were among those that showed interest in acquiring the theater and building. Allied Partners, run by the Hadar family, ultimately acquired the properties for $5.5 million. Cabaret Royale closed in January 1995, and Allied announced plans to convert the space into a
virtual reality gaming venue at a cost of $10 million. In anticipation of Studio 54's conversion, the nightclub hosted a final party on May 23, 1996, featuring disco star
Gloria Gaynor and performers such as
Crystal Waters and
RuPaul. The virtual-reality complex was never built because of a lack of demand, and the club's space was instead rented out for private events. == Roundabout Theatre at Studio 54 ==