It was six nights a week, from 10 at night until 4 in the morning. Back then it was kind of normal for people to be excessive. You walked in and you were hit with this wall of sound, and youd look out there and thered be Diana Ross dancing to her own song. In the three short years of Studio 54s heyday, Marc Benecke was who you had to get past to enjoy the hedonistic other side. We went up to the balcony and just sat and talked, I told him about my background. Vote up the Studio 54 snapshots that make you want to queue up and bribe a doorman. It smelled like a cat had died. People got off on that. He launched into an enthusiastic rendition of I Did It My Way. A bit too enthusiastic, in fact. The photographer credits this to the late Rubell, who died in 1989, and Schrager. I lost Halston but I found him a little later eating a turkey leg, and he made me have some. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images. There was a Man in the Moon that would come down and a coke spoon that would go up, and the tip of the moons nose would light up. The 25 Best Shows on Netflix to Watch Right Now. Are we getting it? The photographer that captured the disco and diamond dust of legendary club Studio 54. Yet for some reason, the owners treated them like they were an inconvenience. There were so many poppers left in people's coats, the women often got high by accident when they exploded. Michael Overington was another example of how far you could go at Studio 54. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The Supreme Court Pauses Abortion-Pill Restrictions. Learn more. Totally trashed, Chris Williamson says. Page Six was around, though! They were very into social issues and I grew up being politically aware at a very early age. And Montaug was one of the victims,dying from the disease in 1991 (via The New York Times). Chuck Garelick - head of security. It was crazy., According to Studio 54 documentary filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer, the club owners cleverly paid doorman Marc Benecke more than anyone else to make sure he wasnt tempted to take bribes. Halston, Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, Mick Jagger, Cher, David Geffen, Jack Nicholson, and Michael Jackson regularly packed the banquettes. Dustin Pittman was one of many photographers who entered the hallowed grounds of, The storied celebrity photos that shaped Hollywood. The Upper East Side socialites were doing cocaine. Michael Overington, the club's general manager, explained to New York Magazine, "Maybe a few busboys like Lenny [Miestorm] partied, but the doormen, the people who dealt with money, the technical people handling sets in the back, they didn't party. Beyond being just the bouncer, he was also the gatekeeper for the "look" of the club, and anyone who didn't fit his . I grew up in the West Village, in the late fifties and sixties, when this area . Studio 54 Radio is the Ultimate Classic Dance Experience. While there's no way of knowing if Studio 54 contributed to the AIDS epidemic in any real way, many regular clubgoers and employees would succumb to the disease. It was an easy interview, it didnt go into too much depth, it probably lasted for half an hour and then he offered me the job. The smiling shot was taken by royal photographer Chris Jackson to mark the monarch's 70th birthday in November 2018 - six months after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex married in Windsor. Now, people used to tip us occasionally on the way out, and my tips often came in cocaine and quaaludes. They had to go against everything they knew about DJing to follow the strict rules the owners had. So this guys standing out there for probably half an hour, Steve comes out and he looked at me and he said, I think that might be one of the Bee Gees. I said, Really, you think so? And he said, Thats how they dress. He walks up and he says, Are you one of the Bee Gees? And he goes, Yeah Im Barry Gibb.. A visitor watches an archive photo of Grace Jones performing on display at the Studio 54: Night Magic exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum during the media preview March 11, 2020. Rubell, who often insisted that photographers hand over their images for approval, didn't ask the same of Pittman, he said. According to The Independent, he said that he "sometimes" took them up on it. "We didn't want people with . [laughs] The Post was already doing its thing back then. But after three years the party came crashing to a halt. Jim McMullen, hed come down three or four nights a week with about 20 people from the restaurant. Benecke said, "One of the things I think that made me a good doorperson was that I can really feel [people's] energy and for the most part, where they're coming from." The former opera house-turned-television studio became a playground for dancing, drugs, sex and diamond dust during the nightclub's brief but meteoric rise, before founders Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager were jailed for tax evasion and the studio closed its doors. Anything went, everybody was cool with everything, and all I know is that he was always impeccably dressed, a gentleman, I never saw him do any drugs, though everybody knows that he did. There were people like Carmen D'Alessio, who claims almost all the credit for making the club a hit but didn't hang out with the other employees, saying that, "Studio didn't impress [her]." It was like a big boxing ring with ropes all around, and you had three or four bodyguards around you, and people would just walk up. ", All the beautiful people dancing and doing drugs of course led to sex. This scene somehow did not make it into the movies 157-minute early press screening too bad, considering how well the setting would match Patrizias own preference for extravagance and luxury. . And then they redid the Palladium, and that was happening. As an editor who worked in the . People would dance, get to know each other, do a little coke, and then go up to the balcony because it was an old theater, you could hardly see up there and hook up. It was like a hipster version of a Studio 54 doorman. Since then, the photographer said, there's never been another club like it, though many have tried to recapture the spirit (including Rubell and Schrager, who opened the nightclub Palladium after their stints in jail). You had to be very protective of who was inside. Perhaps not surprisingly, Siano only lasted four months at Studio 54, but Kaczor stuck it out for three years. The anecdote seemingly stems from Studio 54 associate Baird Jones, who told The Last Party author Anthony Haden-Guest this had actually happened: This guy got stuck in a vent trying to get in. Yeah, I actually told this one guy to go buy this blazer that I had on at Bloomingdales. Simone Kessell Wants to Throw a Very Kiwi Dinner Party, Living Abroad Helped Me Cope With My Tourette Syndrome. Actor Al Corley was a doorman during the late 1970s. A German male model, Uva Harden, originally found the location and brought on an investor plus a woman named Carmen D'Alessio to handle the publicity. You couldnt buy your way in, you know? It was decorated with "crystal chandeliers, carpet, and mirrors," filled with the delighted screams of people seeing it for the first time, and drew patrons to another set of doors to the club proper. Touching. And it wasnt about that. Its co-owners Steve Rubell and Ian . I can only wonder, as I ogle all the reproductions from my dumb little couch: Is this sufficiently swinging? I had been going there a lot, I wasnt getting any work acting and I was getting a little tired of tending bar, and this seemed like a very exciting thing to do. He said he had to explain to Valentino why he was doing it that way. I think the Village Voice put it best when they said you cant reheat souffl, and thats basically what the story was at 54. But together, the employees made it work. Ahead, five outrageous anecdotes that paint a picture of Studio 54 in all of its gratuitous glory. An unexpected and refreshing collection of one-of-a-kind hotels showcasing the best of dining, entertainment, services and amenities. Actor Alec Baldwin worked for two months as a waiter at Studio 54. If you need video evidence of the woman herself, behold: Here is Disco Sally alongside her 25-year-old boyfriend-manager. Not a subscriber? Were you interested in the club scene then? Madonna, who would have been 24 or 25 at the time, performed "Everybody." I was right behind him, and he got on the floor and they put his album on. Actor Alec Baldwintold Interview he worked there for two months in the fall of 1979. Nearly 35 years after her underappreciated romantic comedys release, the Oscar nominee returns to the Lower East Side. Being young, pretty, and in New York City, this of course meant a lot of them were wannabe actors and singers. Sally Lippman, also known as "Disco Sally", was a 77-year-old widow and regular . Hotels that feel different because they make you feel something. From comedy classics to underseen dramatic gems, your next binge is waiting. It's no fun to be 53 at Studio 54. In 2021 alone, it reared its glittery . Ad Choices, Donald Trump Still Collects Six-Figure Pension from SAG-AFTRA: Report. How do Brits feel about King Charles? I had only ever been to one clubI wasnt interested in that whatsoever. Terms of Service apply. Andy Warhol was one of the few well-known artists in the world [that came to Studio 54]. Like Halstons boyfriend, Victor Hugo, often wore backless chaps. I was very young. He said he . "It was the whole mix of the people: people from all around the world, all income levels, all professions mixing together and absolutely getting along (and) enjoying themselves," Pittman said. There were people that were just flat-out fabulous, that would get in no matter what. Steve Steckel - head of security. It was a haven of illicit sex, illegal drug use, and the wildest parties the city had ever seen. He started out as a janitor earning $3 an hour and worked his way up to becoming the club's general manager. Rollerena on the dance floor at Studio 54. Regardless of their physical state, it was the coat check girls' job to play it "cool" no matter how famous the star or how drugged up the person who lost their ticket was. Cocaine was the marijuana of the disco era. Located in gateway cities throughout the world, these are hotels where youll find guests rubbing elbows with locals because theres no better place to be in the moment. Health warning over viral TikTok trend which sees sweet-flavoured powders and syrups added to water to make it taste better. One night, it was late and I was out at the door alone, and this guy walked up to the rope, bell bottoms, vast amounts of gold chain and a long shag haircut. It was before cell phones and before TMZ and all the media outlets that we have today. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Coronation. I brought these questions to Robert Bobby Sheridan, who worked the door at Studio 54, alongside Marc Benecke, from just after its opening to around the time of the bust, in 1979. Who do you particularly remember? As mentioned previously, Haoui (sometimes spelled "Howie") Montaug's heyday was in the years before the AIDS epidemic became a thing. You must have met a lot of amazing characters at the door. You never asked anybody to dance, that was rule number one. In 2021 alone, it reared its glittery head in Halston, as the site where the eponymous designer (allegedly) railed cocaine in a booth and lit a fur coat on fire. And the people who worked there. but now my hip joint's been replaced. Montaug also ran the roving cabaret revue No Entiendes which showcased among others a young Madonna and early performances by the Beastie Boys. When Bells palsy paralyzed one side of my face, I had to find other ways to express joy. Are you getting a good picture? In Halston the designer learns of a person who died in an air shaft while trying to sneak into Studio 54. The stockbrokers were all doing cocaine. And sweaty attendees engaged in anonymous intercourse on the balconywhich was famously covered in rubber so that it could be easily hosed down at the end of each evening. 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