If you wanted a place to let loose and perhaps engage in some public nudity, then Studio 54 was the club for you. Four women in shimmery dresses sit in the club's lounge area. This type of thing wouldnt have been allowed in just any nightclub. Clubgoers dance amid light towers on the dance floor at Studio 54 on May 15, 1978. More like this An Ultimate Guide To The Music Of . 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. In the aftermath of the Vietnam war, Rubell said people were tired of being serious everyone went out and went wild. 29. However, even after the club had closed its doors the clean up crew would find party favors from the night before. Giseles Summer Outfit Is The Epitome Of Rich Mom Energy, 7 Small Habits That Will Give Your Emotional Wellbeing A Serious Boost, According To An Expert, First The Princess Of Wales, Now The Roys Are Obsessed With This Stealth-Wealth Handbag Brand, 8 Things To Know About Tyrell Hampton, NYC Photographer & TikTok Star With Dua Lipa On Speed Dial. Left: A dancer is swept into a spectrum of lights during 1978. It was hard for some people to get into the club wearing normal club clothes - polyester shirts, gold chains, and the like - but at least one celebrity was able to forgo the normal dress code whenever he wanted, author and playwright Truman Capote. Off the dance floor, people mingle over drinks in the lounge area during 1977. Liza Minnelli and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Liza Minelli was a mainstay at Studio 54, so much so that it was as if she lived on the dance floor. Actress and model Margaux Hemingway celebrates her 24th birthday in style. In 2018s Studio 54: The Documentary one doorman explains that the crowd was so intense that the people in the coat check couldnt handle the demand of the people. Ultimately, as the judge said, theirs was a crime of hubris. At this point, the club had been closed down and reopened under new ownership. In 1977, he was deep in the thralls of ambient music and groups like Can, but he was already looking for something new. From the looks of it, he seemed to enjoy his time there, too! A nearly naked couple dances together on top of a speaker at the club's first Halloween party in 1977. When the Guardian asked Harry which club she liked hanging out at the most she was honest about her allegiance to CBGBs in spite of brilliant outfit in this photo, she explained: It didnt matter if you were famous, straight, gay, or trans, you were welcome in Studio 54. Photographer Gene Spatz captured celebrities including John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger at the iconic New York City 1970s nightclub. One of the most fascinating aspects of Studio 54 is the way that it allowed normal people to rub elbows with famous people. Capote is the author of books like Other Voices, Other Rooms, Breakfast at Tiffanys and In Cold Blood. 29 Wild Photos From The Drug-Fueled Heyday Of Studio 54. A woman dances near the Studio 54 light towers in 1977. Then . He had . A photograph of Yoko Ono and John Lennon by Gene Spatz (year unknown). Shes just finished with a 1978 concert, following up a Grammy nomination for Best Country Vocal Performance. Myra Scheer, an employee and frequent visitor to the club explained: One of the regulars at the club was Liz Taylor, the star of films like Cleopatra and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and when she decided that she wanted to have her birthday party at Studio 54 she had one very specific request - she wanted the whole place filled with flowers. Nightlife anywhere was sure to have drugs involved were talking about the 1970s, here. This photo shows a man dressed in drag with fake (and appropriately sequined) breasts on his chest. Left, male partygoers sport dresses.Bokfrlaget Max Strm/Hasse Persson Studio 54. Left: Outside Studio 54, someone arrives to the club on a horse for the third annual Halloween party in 1978. By this time, the club had cemented its reputation as a popular place for celebrities, and Stallone was one more added to the list. Schrager and Rubells time in prison coincided with the infamous Disco Sucks event in 1979, where disco records were burned at a baseball game while around 50,000 people watched. Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli sang, while Rubell blasted out My Way. Here we see one of those notable moments where an elderly woman is dancing with a young man. Showing Editorial results for studio 54. Well the co-owners of Studio 54 didnt really get around to getting a liquor license for close to a year, instead they put together a plan that allowed them to legally sell drinks even if it was a little iffy. After Lowen uploaded digital versions of the photographs to a secure vault, POBA staff helped crop and curate the material, highlighting the value of his artistic eye. Thats why Sylvester Stallone decided he needed to pay a visit to the most famous disco in the United States. The man who made it famous, Steve Rubell, was only in charge from 1977 to 1980. Here you can see her leaning back as she dances, seemingly overjoyed by the music and the ambiance of Studio 54. Getty Images. Clubs have been using this idea for years. Left: A man dressed in nothing but a clear plastic sheet dances with a topless woman at a Studio 54 Halloween party in 1978. The many singers who passed through the joint didnt leave without belting out a few notes of their own. The hottest celebrities and wildest outfits could be seen on the dance floor, and illicit substances flowed freely among partiers. Ian Schrager is still proud about what he and co-owner Rubell did: What does everyone want for their birthday? What Gene has is a very different sensitivity, McCarthy says. The son rose and set inside the club, literally. Onlookers say that he was always dressed up and ready to get down. While that was a Monday night, the clubs one evening off, they made an exception for the actress and rock star wife. First, you had to have the kind of bod that looked good in a pair of gym shorts and not much else, and second you had to have a willingness to show it off and a desire to be at the club every night. A man wears a gold costume, eyeliner, and a headdress while dancing. When sone of the party people poured the trash can over his head he freaked out and grabbed al the cash to make sure he got it all. Even when Claudia Cohen, a reporter from the New York Post, stopped by to check in on their progress she was shocked at how broken down everything was. Frontman for Sly and the Family Stone in a flashy ensemble. He and his wife Sasha Stallone are pictured here in Studio 54 in 1978. This meant plenty of people were rejected at the door, and plenty more stood in lines outside waiting to be appraised. 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Instead, they used architects who designed popular restaurants, lighting people who worked on Broadway shows, and for sound they used people who were used to more underground clubs. 322166814/iacpl-test.www.ask.com/Ask_Desktop_Feed_Center1_728x90_Top, 322166814/iacpl-test.www.ask.com/Ask_Mobile_Feed_Center2_300x250, 322166814/iacpl-test.www.ask.com/Ask_Mobile_Feed_Center3_300x250, 322166814/iacpl-test.www.ask.com/Ask_Desktop_Feed_Center2_728x90, 322166814/iacpl-test.www.ask.com/Ask_Desktop_Feed_Center3_728x90, 322166814/iacpl-test.www.ask.com/Ask_Desktop_Feed_Center4_728x90, 322166814/iacpl-test.www.ask.com/Ask_Desktop_Feed_Center5_728x90, The Top Reasons to Get an Amazon Prime Video Subscription, Longtime Lovebirds: 14 Inspiring Hollywood Relationships. Regardless of the fact that Jagger just took the horse for a spin whether it was just once around the Studio or all the way down the block, it's telling that there was a horse in the club. Disco was all the rage back in the 1970s and Studio 54 was the place to be if you were in New York. A lot of people had to work together to make the night a success, from DJs to lightning technicians to the people who designed the sound system. A man dressed up in leather and an NYU tank chats with his friend, decked out in pearls and garters as two other club-goers look on. People at Studio 54 dance the night away during the 1978. He saw the club as a place where people became objects rather than something flesh and blood. Supposedly one evening a countess showed up to the club and took a liking to one of the bartenders. A woman wears nothing but pearls and a mask as she grinds on two men in jewels and makeup. Getty Images. Cher wasnt the wildest partier on the scene, but she was known for being an independent and forward-thinking individual who didnt shy away from a good time. Club founders Ian Schrager and Rubell were sent to jail in 1980. But the real-life nightclubwith its glamorous VIP guests, plentiful drugs, and balcony sexwas somehow . Nothing would compare to the nightclubs glory years in the 1970s and 80s. What made Studio 54 different, however, was that drugs were practically encouraged inside. Written by Jacqui Palumbo, CNNNew York. Typical of the late 70s, the two are smoking. One of the men on the scene was Gene Spatz, a pioneering paparazzo and street photographer who most people have never heard about. Under the helm of owners Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, Studio 54 became globally renowned as a cultural institution for its lavish, over-the-top spectacles and sartorial displays. Steven Stills is playing the drum, and 300 other people are in attendance. The late 70s also saw the rise of celebrity culture, and Studio 54 provided that too, with Liza, Michael, Andy, Bianca and Diana regulars. Studio 54 has gone down in history as the ultimate nightclub, a place where everyone who was anyone went to get down, boogie, and be seen. Not that theres anything wrong with that. When she wasnt whipping her legs through the air to the music, she was brushing shoulders with the countrys most famous celebrities. . Even after the original owners went to prison for skimming millions of dollars, the club stayed open until 1990, although the magic of the first years never returned. After the arrests of Rubell and Schrager a list of party favors (their code for drugs or anything illicit) that went into the Studio 54s official books was printed in November 1979, Warhol was shocked to find out that the trash can only had $800, not $1,000. Pictured here are some of the A-list celebs who frequented the infamous, one-of-a-kind club known as Studio 54. 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