Studio 54

...Then they work the wall

They work the pipe
They work the floor
'N they work the wall some more
In Serious Leather...
Serious Chains...
Serious Clothing...

From when they come downtown
From the ruins of Studio '54
To twist 'n frugg
In an arrogant gesture

To the best of what the 20th Century has to offer...

- extract from Mudd Club on You Are What You Is

Studio 54 opened in Manhattan in April, 1977 at 254 West 54th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. The vision of Valentino public relations agent D'Allessio the club was run by ex Enchanted Garden party-organisers Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager. The building had been occupied by CBS, where they had installed their 54th studio. An adroit turnaround of this defunct title provided the club's name and in its short three-year history '54', as it became known, embodied the hedonism and excesses of socialite disco-fever in New York. Its balconies were the scene of sexual encounters, drug use was rampant and the dance floor was the site of a large mural of the Man in the Moon, complete with an animated coke-spoon 'for up his nose'.

Rubell would add to the frenzy by hand-selecting the club's occupants from the long queues at the door- mixing 'nobodies' with renowned celebrities. One such unknown stood in the waiting crowd wearing a muscle-vest bearing the words "Fuck Studio 54," which gained him lifetime membership from Rubell, impressed by such chutzpah. However, Rubell rocked the boat by publicly declaring the club had made $7 million in its first year and "only the Mafia made more money". Arrests of Rubell and Schrager followed, accusations abounded about a White House member sniffing cocaine in the club's basement and, after its closure in February 1980, drugs and cash were found in its walls- resulting in Rubell and Schrager spending 13 months in prison.

Thus, New York witnessed "The ruins of Studio 54"

See also The Mudd Club. Categories:Clubs and Bars