Awakenings: Studio 54

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Studio 54

This Day in History: April 26, 1977

It was the 70s, era of the Disco Craze. Saturday Night Fever had temperatures rising. These were the dancing days.

Studio 54 was located at 254 West 54th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue in New York City. Its doors opened for the first time on April 26, 1977.

Not just anybody was allowed admittance to the most glamorous nightclub of all time. Most never made it past the velvet rope and snooty doormen.

Only the hottest stars and the most beautiful of the beautiful people were permitted entrance. Wannabes would line up along 54th Street hoping to convince doorman Marc Benecke (often aided by Rubell himself) that they made the grade. A lucky few were permitted entrance. As for the rest, Rubell would cut them off at the knees, often with grotesque insults. Fortune Gallo must have been spinning in his grave at the treatment given to potential paying customers in 1979, when they had been so scarce in 1929.
Source: At This Theatre: Studio 54 (Broadway

Studio 54 remained open for only 33 months.

Some say Studio 54 changed the world. It was a place for escapism. No restrictions - sex, drugs and music...LOTS of extraordinarily loud music and dancing, dancing, dancing. Persons of any walk of life passed through its doors. The wait was long, the lines endless, the experience - priceless.

Women were thriving in terms of their sexuality and it was also a great time to be gay. There was no stigma inside Studio 54.”
- Myra Scheer, Assistant to owner Steve Rubell

Most would-be clubbers never got past the doormen at Studio 54
who were looking for the right mix of people -
especially those with high energy. Read MORE...