Studio 54
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Studio 54 was a New York City disco located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan. It opened on April 26, 1977 and closed in March 1986. It briefly reopened in 1994 after a multi-million dollar renovation. It currently serves as a venue for the Roundabout Theatre Company, with a 900 seat theatre equipped with two full service bars. The original doors with the Studio 54 logo still remain.
A successor club, Studio 54, Las Vegas opened its doors in December 1997.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early years
The theatre originated as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, and over the course of the next decade changed its name several times. It became known as the New Yorker Theatre in 1930, the Casino de Paris in 1933, the Palladium Theatre in 1936 and the Federal Music Theatre in 1937. Later in 1937, the name was changed back to the New Yorker Theatre. This name would remain until CBS purchased the facility in the 1950s, renaming it Studio 52.
From the 1950s to the mid-1970s, CBS used the location as a radio and TV stage that housed such shows as What's My Line?, The $64,000 Question, Password, To Tell the Truth, Beat the Clock, The Jack Benny Show, I've Got a Secret, Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour, and Captain Kangaroo. The soap opera Love of Life was produced there until 1975.
In 1976, CBS concentrated most of its New York broadcast functions around the corner to its storied Ed Sullivan Theater (CBS-TV Studio 50) or west to the CBS Broadcast Center, and sold Studio 52. The Ed Sullivan Theater once had access to Studio 54 through an access door which was cinder-blocked during the Theater's Letterman Renovation. However, it is possible that the door that was covered was, in fact, leading to an MTA utility building, instead of the Sullivan Theater.[1] The building was purchased and renamed for its street address, 254 West 54th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, a location already noted for another tenant in the building, famed disco record label West End Records, as well as being the former home of Scepter Records.
[edit] Years of operation
The former fashion PR (Valentino) agent, multi-lingual, Sorbonne-educated Peruvian firecracker, Carmen D'Alessio, was initially retained by former model Uva Harden to promote the club. Funding arrangements fell through after the original backer, gallery owner Frank Lloyd, lost a $9 million lawsuit to the estate of the artist Mark Rothko. D'Allessio introduced nightclub owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager to the project, who at the time were enjoying some success with their club The Enchanted Garden. D'Allessio, after working in Rome and around Europe as a fashion PR, was well connected in the fashion, music, and film scenes; and generally with the kind of "A" list jetsetters, movers and shakers, and celebrities, from across the United States, South America, Europe and other parts of the world who would be ideal patrons. Harden was pushed out of the project, and Rubell and Shrager gave D'Alessio much of the control for the design and promotion of the club.
At the opening D'Alessio sent out 5,000 invitations to her exclusive mailing list together with an enticing surprise gift to each of her invitees. Liz Smith, Cindy Adams, and other New York gossip columnists announced to the world the coming of something big, and so Studio 54, the most notorious nightclub in history was born, with Mick and Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall, Margaux Hemingway, Debbie Harry, Donald Trump, Sylvester Stallone, and many other well-known celebrities in attendance. Hordes scrambled to gain entry but only the lucky few got past the door. Some celebrities—including Warren Beatty, Cher, and Frank Sinatra—were unable to get in, in part due to Studio 54's elusive doorman Marc Benecke[1].
Shortly after the opening D'Alessio came up with the idea of hosting a birthday party for her friend Bianca Jagger. Bianca Jagger entered on a white horse and the resulting publicity firmly established Studio 54 as the preferred nightclub for New York celebrities, including Halston, Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Liza Minnelli, Truman Capote, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Jones, Mae West, Martha Graham, Brooke Shields, Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper, Freddie Mercury, Bette Midler, and Lillian Carter, then-president Jimmy Carter's mother.
Studio 54 was operated by the flamboyant, publicly visible Rubell and his retiring silent partner Schrager. At the club's prime, Rubell became widely known for hand-selecting guests from the always huge crowds outside, mixing beautiful "nobodies" with glamorous celebrities in the same venue.
"Studio", as it came to be called, was notorious for the hedonism that went on within; the balconies were known for sexual encounters, and drug use was rampant. Its dance floor was decorated with a depiction of a Man in the Moon that included an animated cocaine spoon. A well-known artist hand painted the ceilings[citation needed]. John Blair and Jason presented "Sundays at Studio 54," which catered to a gay clientèle.
In 1979, Rubell and Schrager were arrested for skimming $2.5 million, and the club was closed with one final party called "The End of Modern-day Gomorrah," on February 4, 1980. New York lawyer Gary Naftalis successfully represented Schrager in the ensuing tax-evasion prosecution. After the club's closing, cocaine and money were found in its walls.
The club reopened on September 12, 1981, when it was bought for $4.75 million by restaurant and nightclub owner Mark Fleischman. Celebrities continued to frequent the club (one mid-80's party reported Boy George, Janet Jackson, Demi Moore, George Michael, and Drew Barrymore dancing shoulder to shoulder), though the level of sensationalism was far toned down from its original levels. This second incarnation closed down in March, 1986, due to changing tastes.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the venue was known as The Ritz, and hosted rock concerts. In 1994, after becoming a strip club for a few years, the club finally reopened with much fanfare with a live concert by disco stars Gloria Gaynor, Vicki Sue Robinson, and Sister Sledge. The club again went into bankruptcy the following year until 1998, when it was acquired by the Roundabout Theater Company and renamed The Roundabout Theater at Studio 54.
The building, which is still frequently referred to as the Studio 54 building, houses a variety of tenants, among them a theater venue, offices, and an educational facility called Mandl School, the College of Allied Health.
[edit] Roundabout Theater at Studio 54
In 1998, Roundabout staged a revival of the Broadway musical Cabaret, which played at the theater until 2004. Later, the theater hosted revivals of the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musicals Assassins and Pacific Overtures. In 2005, the Roundabout housed a revival of Tennessee Williams' immortal drama A Streetcar Named Desire starring John C. Reilly and Natasha Richardson. 2006 welcomed a revival of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera starring Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper. The Apple Tree, starring Kristin Chenoweth, and 110 in the Shade, starring Audra McDonald played in 2006-2007. On September 14 2007, a revival of the steambath comedy The Ritz by Terrence McNally opened for previews, starring Rosie Perez. In 2007 the theatre was rented out by the Bronx Theatre High School for the first graduation.
The second floor of the theater is still used as a nightclub on weeks when plays are not being staged; when it does so it operates under the name Upstairs at Studio 54. There have been huge, and very popular, "disco parties" held there. The most notable of these well attended nights were held in 2004 and 2005. The club is operated by Josh Hadar.
It was briefly owned by Noel Ashman.
Upstairs at Studio 54 Performances:
[edit] Studio 54, Las Vegas
After the New York club closed down in 1995, Studio 54 moved to Las Vegas, in the MGM Grand.
[edit] Studio 54, Berlin
In January 2005, MGM announced that they were scouting for the proper location in Berlin, Germany to open Studio 54 Berlin. The project is lead by Joseph Jackson, father of Michael and Janet. [2]
The plans for a second continuously-operating Studio 54 has caused fans of the original to charge that MGM is only interested in the commercialization and franchising of the Studio 54 name, and that these clubs will be nothing more than regular discotheques with the Studio 54 name.
[edit] Cultural impact
During its heyday it played a formative role in the growth of disco music and nightclub culture in general.
The disco was depicted in the 1998 film 54 and was the model for the club featured in the movie, The Last Days of Disco. It was parodied in the 2002 movie Austin Powers in Goldmember as Studio 69.
[edit] Celebrity regulars
| This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
[edit] Performers
[edit] DJs
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- [3] Disco Years
- [4] Studio 54
- Broadway Theatre Guide with full show details for the Studio 54
- Official website for Roundabout Theater at Studio 54
- The complete Studio 54 website, Dutch
- Fansite of Studio 54
- Photo Gallery of the Opening of the German Studio 54 in Berlin
- Studio 54 Belgium (Antwerp)
- Studio 54 Vienna
- "Studio 54 Goes German", Deutsche Welle, January 24, 2005
- Studio 54 at the Internet Broadway Database
- Ian Schrager
- BBC Radio 2 Documentary about Studio 54 with Boy George First broadcast 17 April 2007
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Categories: Cleanup from May 2007 | All pages needing cleanup | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | Articles lacking sources from November 2007 | All articles lacking sources | 1977 establishments | Broadway theatres | CBS television network | Disco | New York City cultural history | Nightclubs in New York City | LGBT nightclubs in the United States | New York City nightlife
