Studio 54 is a Broadway theater and former nightclub at 254 West 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, it served as a CBS broadcast studio in the mid-20th century. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager opened the Studio 54 nightclub, retaining much of the former theatrical and broadcasting fixtures, inside the venue in 1977. Roundabout Theatre Company renovated the space into a Broadway house in 1998.

The producer Fortune Gallo announced plans for an opera house in 1926, hiring Eugene De Rosa as the architect. The Gallo Opera House opened November 8, 1927, but soon went bankrupt and was renamed the New Yorker Theatre. The space also operated as the Casino de Paree nightclub, then the Palladium Music Hall, before the Federal Music Project staged productions at the theater for three years starting in 1937. CBS began using the venue as a soundstage in 1942, then as a television studio until 1975.

Schrager and Rubell opened the Studio 54 nightclub on April 26, 1977, as disco was gaining popularity in the U.S. Infamous for its celebrity guest lists, quixotic entry policies, extravagant events, rampant drug use, and sexual hedonism, Studio 54 closed in 1980 after Schrager and Rubell were convicted of tax evasion. A scaled-back version of the nightclub continued under new management before becoming the Ritz rock club in 1989, then the Cabaret Royale bar in 1994.

The Roundabout Theatre Company renovated the space in 1998 to relocate its production of the musical Cabaret, which ran at Studio 54 until 2004. The modern theater has since hosted multiple productions each season. The main auditorium, with 1,006 seats on two levels, is complemented by two sister cabaret venues: Upstairs at 54 on the second floor since 2001, and 54 Below in the basement since 2012. The heyday of the 1970s club features in numerous exhibitions, films, and albums, with memorabilia from the nightclub appearing at auctions.

Studio 54

Gallo Opera House (1927–1930)
New Yorker Theatre (1930–1933, 1939–1942)
Casino de Paree (1933–1935)
WPA Federal Music Theatre (1937–1939)
CBS Playhouse No. 4 (1942–1949)
CBS Studio 52 (1949–1976)

Nightclub era

Inception and opening

By 1976, German-born male model Uva Harden was planning to open a nightclub in New York City, which he tentatively called "Studio". Harden and Israeli entrepreneur Yoram Polany agreed to take over the old CBS Studio 52 that year. Polany and another friend of Harden's independently recommended that the nightclub be called "Studio 54" because it was on 54th Street. Harden and Polany formed a corporation to operate the nightclub, but they struggled to obtain a liquor license from the New York State Liquor Authority (NYSLA). They hired Carmen D'Alessio, who had hosted monthly parties at Maurice Brahms's Infinity nightclub, as the club's publicist. To finance the nightclub, the operators of the Marlborough Gallery bought nearly all of the stock in Harden and Polany's corporation in November 1976. At the time, the gallery's owner Frank Lloyd had just been ordered to pay $9 million to artist Mark Rothko's estate in the Rothko case.

After continued delays, Harden met with entrepreneurs Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, who agreed to partner with him in the nightclub's operation. Harden was eventually forced out of the club's operation, while Polany left on his own volition. In November 1976, Billboard magazine reported that Schrager and Rubell planned to convert the theater into a nightclub called Studio 54. It would be one of several discotheques to operate in Midtown Manhattan during the late 1970s. Rubell and Schrager formed the Broadway Catering Corp., which spent $400,000 to transform the theater into a nightclub. Rubell, Schrager, and Jack Dushey each owned a one-third stake in the venture, and they had hired several people to create the club by early 1977. These included architect Scott Bromley, interior designer Ron Doud, lighting designer Brian Thompson, and set designer Richie Williamson. Lighting designers Jules Fisher and Paul Marantz were hired to design the dance floor and rigging system. Rubell and Schrager retained D'Alessio to promote Studio 54.

The renovation involved the construction of a dance floor, a balcony, and a disco booth, as well as the addition of mirrors, light bars, and floating vinyl platforms. The orchestra seated 250 people, and the balcony had another 500 seats. The lighting system, which required three people to operate, included a dozen 16-foot-high (4.9 m) poles with flashing lights. Fisher and Marantz adapted the existing rigging system to generate special effects such as confetti, snow, fog, and weather. On the ceiling was a 30-by-40-foot (9.1 by 12.2 m) cyclorama, which could project images of many different galaxies. Other decorations included depictions of volcanos, sunrises, and sunsets. Aero Graphics designed a backlit moon and spoon, which became an icon of the Studio 54 nightclub. The club's promoters mailed out 8,000 invitations and made phone calls to numerous figures on "a good social list". Studio 54 officially opened on April 26, 1977, with workers rushing to finish the decorations just hours before the grand opening. Although the space could fit 2,500 guests, four thousand people attended the club on opening day. Hundreds of prospective patrons lined up around the block to enter, and several celebrities could not get in, despite having been invited.

Admission policy

To be admitted to Studio 54 was a status symbol, even on nights when the club was open to the public. When Studio 54 opened, admission generally cost $7 or $8, but guests could pay for an annual membership in exchange for discounted tickets. Tickets were more expensive on weekends, and all ticket prices were increased on nights with performances. Rubell made the final decisions over whether guests were allowed in the club. Celebrities usually were allowed to enter immediately. According to a 1977 Wall Street Journal article, "very beautiful" members of the public were almost always admitted, while men entering alone were invariably rejected to prevent predatory behavior. Guests were divided into four categories, ranging from the "No Goods" (who could never be admitted) to the "No Fuck-ups" (important clients who were admitted instantly). Rubell bragged about the club's exclusivity, saying in a November 1977 interview with New York magazine: "I turned away 1,400 people last Saturday."

The club's doormen could be extremely selective, sometimes to the point that "they propelled themselves into a comedy universe" according to Haden-Guest. Rubell once told a "ravishingly beautiful woman" that she could enter for free if she took off all her clothes; the woman was later hospitalized for frostbitten nipples. The selective admissions policies led some guests to bypass the front door in an attempt to enter. According to Haden-Guest, one potential guest got stuck in a ventilation shaft and died, an account that Schrager later confirmed. Some of Studio 54's spurned clientele fled to other clubs such as New York, New York. When the club was renovated in 1978, Rubell and Schrager sealed its courtyard to prevent people from entering there. There was also a private entrance on 53rd Street, reflecting the "stratification" of the nightclub.

On several occasions, would-be guests attacked the doormen after being denied admission, and several guests pulled out guns when they were rejected. The club's security guards often cleared out trash cans within a several-block radius because of high concerns over violence. Some notables were denied admission. For instance, the president of Cyprus was once rejected because the doormen thought he was the president of New York City's Cypress Hills Cemetery. When one of Saudi king Khalid's sons was rejected, the Saudi embassy to the United States wrote Rubell a letter, asking that Khalid's son not be rejected again. The band Chic wrote a song in 1978, "Le Freak", after being refused entry to the club on New Year's Eve 1977, despite having been invited by Grace Jones. Even club members were not guaranteed entry. In June 1978, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) mandated that Rubell and Schrager stop selling memberships and refund existing members. The club failed to refund all memberships immediately, and Schrager claimed that November that only 40 members had applied for refunds.

Inside the club

The club generally opened at 10 p.m., with crowds peaking at midnight; the bar closed at 4 a.m., and the rest of the club stayed open until 6 a.m. According to Rubell, the vast majority of the club's guests were not celebrities but, rather, members of the public who just wanted to dance. The Washington Post wrote in November 1977 that the club attracted "a mix of punks, hairdressers, socialites, and suburbanites", while The New York Times said the club was "tolerant of errant squares". Andy Warhol, a regular guest of Studio 54, said the club was "a dictatorship on the door but a democracy on the dance floor". Studio 54 enforced a photography ban to protect guests' privacy, but some images were still published, including a widely circulated image of Canadian first lady Margaret Trudeau without her underwear.

Many guests used club drugs, and they often engaged in open sexual activity on the club's balcony and in private basement rooms. The Journal characterized most of the women guests as "beneficiaries of a fabulously lucky genetic selection" and that the men guests generally had an "aura of self-esteem born in the knowledge that one can successfully choose among the select". Celebrity appearances, which were almost guaranteed, were frequently showcased in New York City's daily newspapers and in gossip columns. The nightclub was also frequented by many gay celebrities, leading Anthony Haden-Guest to write that the club became "one of the single most effective showcases for newly visible gay clout". By 1978, there was a private dance floor behind a movable scrim on the main dance floor, as well as a VIP room in the basement, which could only be accessed by a hidden stairway.

The club also hosted private parties that, at a minimum, cost tens of thousands of dollars. The invitations to the parties were extravagant, using such materials as "Cupid's arrows, inflatable hearts, [or] jars of confetti". Among the events at Studio 54 was a New Year's Eve party hosted by event planner Robert Isabell, who dumped four tons of glitter onto the floor, creating a four-inch layer that could be found in attendees' clothing and homes several months later. The organizers of a Valentine's Day party in 1979 imported 3,000 Dutch tulips, transported 4,000 square yards (3,300 m2) of sod from Bermuda, and rented eight antique sculptures that each cost $17,000. Other events at the club included fundraisers for local politicians, as well as a Halloween party hosted by the staff of People magazine. Studio 54 was also a filming location for several music videos, such as those for several songs in Musique's album Keep On Jumpin'.

Notable patrons

• Bella Abzug
• Woody Allen
• Mikhail Baryshnikov
• John Belushi
• Leonard Bernstein
• Jacqueline Bisset
• David Bowie
• Truman Capote
• Gia Carangi
• Allan Carr
• Cher
• Pat Cleveland
• Roy Cohn
• Salvador Dalí
• Divine
• Faye Dunaway
• Doris Duke
• Farrah Fawcett
• Ric Flair
• Betty Ford
• Tom Ford
• Diane von Fürstenberg
• Richard Gallo[
• David Geffen
• Martha Graham
• Richard Gere
• Jerry Hall
• Halston
• Victor Hugo
• Anjelica Huston
• Debbie Harry
• Margaux Hemingway
• Tommy Hilfiger
• Lauren Hutton
• Sterling St. Jacques
• Michael Jackson
• Bianca Jagger
• Mick Jagger
• Rick James
• Bruce Jenner
• Elton John
• Grace Jones
• Tom Jones
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
• Eartha Kitt
• Calvin Klein
• Karl Lagerfeld
• Timothy Leary
• Fran Lebowitz
• John Lennon
• Lorna Luft
• Bette Midler
• Liza Minnelli
• Freddie Mercury
• Jack Nicholson
• Al Pacino
• Dolly Parton
• Paloma Picasso
• Richard Pryor
• Gilda Radner
• Lou Reed
• Geraldo Rivera
• Rollerena Fairy Godmother
• Diana Ross
• Brooke Shields
• Frank Sinatra
• Sylvester Stallone
• Paul Stanley
• Percy Sutton
• Tallulah
• Elizabeth Taylor
• John Travolta
• Margaret Trudeau
• Donald and Ivana Trump
• Tina Turner
• Valentino
• Diana Vreeland
• Andy Warhol
• Robin Williams

Other notables

• Actor Al Corley was a doorman during the late 1970s.
• Actor Alec Baldwin worked for two months as a waiter at Studio 54.
• Sally Lippman, also known as "Disco Sally", was a 77-year-old widow and regular dancer at the club.
• Carolina Somoza, daughter of Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza Debayle

End of the first era

In December 1978, a tipster called the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), alleging that Rubell and Schrager were skimming profits. The tip came from a disgruntled ex-employee, who also alleged that cocaine was illegally being stored in the basement. Shortly after, IRS agents raided Studio 54 and arrested Rubell and Schrager. The club continued to operate the night of the raid. A federal grand jury indicted Rubell and Schrager on charges of tax evasion in June 1979, observing that the two men had skimmed $2.5 million, or as much as 60 percent of Studio 54's receipts over the past two years. In an unsuccessful attempt to lessen the charges against the club's co-owners, Schrager's lawyer Mitchell Rogovin alleged that Hamilton Jordan, chief of staff to U.S. president Jimmy Carter, had used cocaine in the club's basement. In anticipation of increasing interest in rock music, Rubell and Schrager spent $1.2 million to renovate Studio 54 in late 1979. They installed a grand chandelier and a fly system above the stage, as well as removing seats from the balcony.

Rubell and Schrager ultimately pleaded guilty to tax evasion in November 1979, after New York magazine published a cover story describing the "party favors" that the two men gave to their friends. In exchange, federal prosecutors agreed not to charge the men with obstruction of justice and conspiracy. By then, the club was in danger of losing its liquor license after the owners had pleaded guilty to tax evasion, as the NYSLA did not give liquor licenses to convicted felons. Rubell and Schrager were each sentenced to three and a half years in prison in January 1980. The two men attended a final party on the night of February 2–3, 1980, with Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli singing for numerous guests. Rubell and Schrager began serving their sentences two days afterward. Ultimately, Rubell and Schrager were paroled after a year, and Schrager received a Presidential Pardon decades later.

The NYSLA unanimously voted not to renew Studio 54's liquor license on February 28, 1980, citing Rubell's and Schrager's criminal convictions, although the club was allowed to continue operating. The club lost its liquor license on February 29, and the club started serving fruit punch the next day. Studio 54's lawyers also announced that they would create a board of directors to operate the club. The third co-owner, Jack Dushey, had received a $10,000 fine and had been sentenced to five years of unsupervised probation after being convicted of conspiracy charges in March 1980. By the end of that month, Rubell was considering selling the club, despite having promised just two months prior that he would never sell Studio 54. Among those who expressed interest in the club were restaurateur Mark Fleischman, television host Dick Clark, and record executive Neil Bogart. The club closed down at the end of that March, as the revocation of the liquor license had caused a sharp decrease in business. Early the next month, Fleischman agreed to buy an option that would allow him to purchase the club for $5 million.

Fleischman and Weiss operation

Mark Fleischman announced his plan to take over Studio 54, seeking to host live shows there and obtain a liquor license from the NYSLA. Studio 54 remained shuttered through the rest of the year, in large part because Rubell and Schrager continued to file legal objections against the NYSLA's revocation of the club's liquor license. The authority would not issue a liquor license as long as the club was involved in active litigation. Mike Stone Productions leased the club from Rubell and Schrager in early 1981, and the club started hosting private events again, albeit without alcoholic drinks and only on Friday and Saturday nights. Rubell's company sold the building to Philip Pilevsky for $1.15 million in cash in August 1981, leasing back space from Pilevsky. Fleischman applied for a liquor license from the NYSLA, which agreed to grant the license on the condition that Rubell and Schrager not be involved in any way. Fleischman also repainted the interior and removed the original club's light fixtures, and he paid the New York state government $250,000 in back taxes.

Studio 54 officially reopened to the public on September 15, 1981. Fleischman and his partner Jeffrey London mailed out 12,000 invitations for Studio 54's reopening, which were delivered on 25-watt silver lightbulbs. Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper were hired as Studio 54's new managers. Initially, the club hosted "Modern Classix nights" during Wednesdays and Sundays, while it hosted disco music for the remainder of the week. There was also a 32-track recording studio in the basement, which was used for recording promotional videos and rock concerts. Notable figures associated with the second iteration of Studio 54 included doorman Haoui Montaug, as well as Paul Heyman, who was a photographer, producer, and promoter at the club. A notable guest during this time was Drew Barrymore, who was nine years old when her mother took her to Studio 54. Within three months of the club's reopening, Fleischman had ousted Fouratt and Piper, who opened the Danceteria nightclub.

In 1982, social activist Jerry Rubin started hosting "Business Networking Salons", a networking event for businesspeople, at the club on Wednesday nights. Prospective guests would only be admitted if they had a business card; the networking events quickly became popular, often attracting 1,500 guests. For other events, Studio 54 implemented an invitation system, which enabled its operators to restrict some events to select guests without turning them away at the door. The club's mailing list had 200,000 names by 1984. Frank Cashman acquired the $3 million lien on the club in late 1984. The same year, Studio 54 also hosted special musical performances, starting with a series of concerts by Julie Budd. Meanwhile, the club was gradually losing long-time regulars to competing discotheques, including the Palladium, which Rubell and Schrager had opened after being released from prison. The club also faced several lawsuits from disgruntled high-profile guests, such as football player Mark Gastineau and a basketball player.

Fleischman filed for bankruptcy in November 1985; he had planned to spend $250,000 on renovations to attract guests. The club closed in April 1986 because it could not obtain liability insurance, in part because Studio 54 was losing so many of the lawsuits in which it was involved. Subsequently, Shalom Weiss took over Studio 54. The nightclub tended to attract a young and racially mixed clientele who were frequently involved in fights, prompting complaints from local residents. City officials revoked the club's cabaret license for two years in January 1989 after finding that the club's patrons frequently used cocaine illegally. The officials alleged that Studio 54 employees not only encouraged illegal drug use but also used cocaine themselves. In addition, the club admitted guests as young as 13 and had falsely advertised itself as selling alcoholic beverages.

Cultural impact Media

The nightclub has been the subject of several works of popular media. The original Studio 54 was featured in the 1998 drama film 54. 

Studio 54, a 98-minute documentary by Matt Tyrnauer released in 2018, includes unpublished footage of the club and interviews with Ian Schrager. The fourth season of the television series American Crime Story, announced in 2021, focuses on the club during the 1970s. Studio 54 also appears as a setting in other movies, including the 1999 film Summer of Sam and the 1996 film I Shot Andy Warhol. Several books have also been written about the nightclub. The writer Anthony Haden-Guest published a book about Studio 54 and the disco subculture in 1997, and Mark Fleischman published his memoir Inside Studio 54 in October 2017.[440] Schrager also published a book in 2018, Studio 54, with images of the club. In 2024, Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron began producing Studio 54 the Musical, a Broadway musical about the club.

Studio 54 has also had an influence on disco music. The 1979 song Fashion Pack by Amanda Lear from her third album Never Trust a Pretty Face makes references to Studio 54. Casablanca Records released a compilation album of disco music, A Night at Studio 54, in 1979; it peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 album chart and sold close to a million copies. In 2011, Sirius XM launched Studio 54 Radio, a satellite radio station featuring classic disco and dance tracks from the 1970s to the 2000s. In 2020, it expanded into a music imprint including a record label, Studio 54 Music, which works with Sirius XM on Studio 54 Radio. The label's first release, Night Magic Vol. 1, is a four-track compilation EP of disco anthems from the club's prime days, revised by musicians from both the original scene and the modern dance music era. Studio 54 also inspired the name and overall concept of singer-songwriter Dua Lipa's 2020 concert series Studio 2054.

Exhibitions and similar clubs

The club has been featured in several exhibitions. These include an exhibit of Studio 54 photographs, which Haden-Guest presented at the WhiteBox art gallery in 2015. as well as a Brooklyn Museum exhibition titled Night Magic, which premiered in 2020. In addition, multiple Studio 54-themed collections from fashion and cosmetics brands, including Calvin Klein, Michael Kors and NARS Cosmetics, were released in 2019. The collections took inspiration from the club's glamorous heyday and showcased the iconic "54" logo.

Several venues have been likened to Studio 54. Fiorucci, an Italian fashion shop formerly located on East 59th Street, became known in the late 1970s as the "daytime Studio 54". The Mutiny Hotel in Miami, Florida, was described in a PBS NewsHour interview as "kind of the closest thing to Miami's Studio 54" in the late 1970s. The nightclub also inspired the creation of a Studio 54-themed nightclub at the MGM Grand Las Vegas hotel and casino in 1997; that club operated until 2012.

Memorabilia and preservation

Before Rubell died in 1989, he saved "every single item" that he collected from the nightclub, such as the reservation book, invitation cards, and drink tickets. More than 400 of these items were sold at an auction in West Palm Beach, Florida, in January 2013, attracting hundreds of buyers. The auction yielded $316,680; the most expensive item was a $52,800 Andy Warhol sculpture.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) had started considering protecting Studio 54 as a landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. The LPC commenced a wide-ranging effort to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters in 1987, and the commission considered designating Studio 54's interior as a landmark. Ultimately, although the LPC protected 28 Broadway theaters as landmarks, Studio 54 was not one of them.