|CLUB KIDS SERIES ➊| STUDIO 54

Studio 54 was a world-famous disco in the 70s and early 80s, was originally a New York City Broadway theatre, then a CBS radio and television studio. 

In the 1970s it became a discothèque located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan. The disco opened on April 26, 1977.

Among the many celebrities present during opening night: Mick and Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Jerry Hall, Diana Vreeland, Halston, Pat Cleveland, Kevin Arpino, Margaux Hemingway, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Salvador Dali, Brooke Shields, Francesco Scavullo, Janice Dickinson, Cher, Martha Graham, Debbie Harry, Robin Leach, Billy Amato-Smith, newlyweds Donald and Ivana Trump, newly engaged Rick Hilton and Kathy Richards, and many other well-known party-goers. Hordes scrambled to gain entry, but only a few got past the door. Some celebrities, including Warren Beatty, Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Henry Winkler, and Frank Sinatra were unable to get in, in part due to Studio 54's elusive doormanMarc Benecke. The nightclub held around 700 patrons who paid $8 cover to get in each night.

A week after the opening, Halston asked Rubell to open the nightclub on a Monday night (May 2, 1977, when it would have been closed) for Bianca Jagger's 32nd birthday party. Bianca entered on a white horse and the resulting publicity firmly established Studio 54 as the preferred nightclub for celebrities, including Michael Jackson, Elton John, Truman Capote, Margaret Trudeau, John Travolta, Jackie Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Mae West, Farrah Fawcett, Telly Savalas,Salvador Dali, Cher, Muhammad Ali,John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Divine, Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper, Suzanne Somers, Bette Davis, Al Pacino, Giorgio Moroder, Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor, Bette Midler, Ann-Margret, Dolly Parton, Pelé, Hugh Hefner, John F. Kennedy Jr., Fred Astaire, Grace Jones, Diana Ross, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver; and Lillian Carter, then-president Jimmy Carter's mother.

"Studio", as it came to be called, was notorious for the hedonism that occurred within it; the balconies were known 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 cocaine spoon. 

 In the late 1970s, the club was arguably the most well known nightclub in the world. The club played a major formative role in the growth of disco music and nightclub culture in general.

1986.

Studio54 close its doors in March.  

Where did all the fun go?

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