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Studio 54Studio 54 was a legendary New York City disco located on West 54th Street in Manhattan. It was formerly a CBS radio and TV studio that housed such shows as What's My Line? and The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s. It opened on April 16, 1977 and closed in 1980. It was operated by the flamboyant, openly gay, publicly visible Steve Rubell and retiring, straight silent partner Ian Schrager . Hedonistic Rubell was known for hand selecting guests from the always huge mobs outside, mixing beautiful "nobodies" with glamorous celebrities in the same venue. "Studio", as it came to be called, was inside of an old theater; the balconies were notorious 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 coke spoon. In 1979, Rubell and Schrager were arrested and charged for skimming $2.5 million. Loads of cocaine and money were found in the club's walls. The "last dance" had finally come, and the disco babylon came crashing down the following year. During its heyday it played a formative role in the growth of disco music and nightclub culture in general, and was one of the first nightclubs to blur the distinction between "straight" and "gay" nightlife. The disco was depicted in the 1998 movie 54 and parodied in the 2002 movie Austin Powers in Goldmember as Studio 69. Some of the celebrities who were spotted at Studio 54:
and many others The club reopened in 1982, under different owners. It still attracted the regular night life, and celebrities such as Boy George, Drew Barrymore, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Alec Baldwin, LaToya Jackson, Jody Watley, David Lee Roth, Tatum O'Neal, Jennifer Grey, and Cyndi Lauper. It finally closed for good in 1985, due to changing tastes. 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 such as Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Chic, Vicki Sue Robinson, and Sister Sledge. The club again went into bankruptcy the following year until 1998, when a revival of the hit Broadway musical Cabaret opened there and stayed there until 2004. That year, the club/theater hosted the productions of two Stephen Sondheim musicals: his new work Assassins and a revial of his landmark Pacific Overtures. In 2005, Studio 54 will house a revival of Tennessee Williams's immortal drama A Streetcar Named Desire starring John C. Reilly and Natasha Richardson. 2006 will bring a revival of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera starring Alan Cumming and Edie Falco. The club is still used as a nightclub on weeks when plays are not being staged. In 2002, Paris Hilton celebrated her 21st birthday at the club (her mother had done the same thing in 1978). As an old disco song from The Whispers goes, "and the beat goes on..."
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