On April 26 1977, Studio 54 opened on 254 54th Street. A place of extraordinary dreams, openly challenge the view that quality of life was declining. At a time that when clubs are multiplying and getting bigger, Studio 54 was the leading light, the biggest and most glamorous of the lot.
The owners Rubell and Schrager did not care much about the music, but instead cared about stars, furnishing and paparazzi. To get to the open doors, stars would walk along a runway for all to see, people like Cher, Brooke Shields, Bianca Jagger, Donald Trump and Margaux Hemingway.
The Show, Not The Music
The party for Bianca Jagger by the club became legendary. White balloons, flowers, and a white horse ridden by celebrities, all done to attract even more customers and photographers. “From that moment” says Sano “Studio 54 was open six days a week, and ever night was full of people”
Carmen D’Alessio organised themed parties for the stars and the greatest fashion designers of the day like Versace, Armani and Valentino. Parties and the theatrical spectacular of the club increased its popularity and many people, particularly those who could not get in. Soon Rubell fell in love with his celebrity “friends”, wealth and fame. His drug taking increased to industrial quantities, and he began to use his position as the head to only let the ‘right sorts’ into the club, such as stars, dancers, journalists, and gays, in order to keep the club atmosphere of class and individuality. Soon white gay whites become the majority of patrons. Rubell and D’Alessio resume the invitation system of the loft, but it doesn’t work, as the invitations are sold for high prices. If you didn’t a pass, you would stand in line in front of a velvet rope, now the classic symbol of the politics of exclusion, which has dogged the club industry ever since. Rubell had constructed the myth of the local elite.
Tim Lawrence: “In reality it was chock full of people, both ordinary and successful, who loved to think of being too good to mingle with the other ordinary mortals. The velvet rope no longer barred the way to the theater. It had become the theater.”
Mancuso, after being at Studio 54 for the first time, declared that there would never come back: “People had to stand there with the hope of being chosen. It was terrible. Studio 54 was not a place where you wanted to socialize. I do not care at all who was famous and who was not. I wanted a place where things were spontaneous and relaxing: a place where you could be yourself without turning. Studio 54 was very artificial. There were a lot of distractions. They had an excellent sound system but it was not a place for music. “
On 14 December 1978, the Liquor Authority raided at Studio 54: they found bags full of money. In November of the following year, Rubell and Schrager were arrested for tax fraud, sentenced to 3 ½ years’ imprisonment and to pay the sum of $ 20,000 each.