ShortHand: Studio 54

Summary

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RedHanded Podcast: ShortHand – Studio 54

Release Date: May 5, 2026
Hosts: RedHanded team (narrator/host and co-host/researcher)
Episode Theme:
A dive into the rise and fall of Studio 54—the most legendary, decadent, and culturally transformative nightclub of the 1970s—exploring its creation, incredible heyday, notorious exclusivity, and ultimate demise.

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Episode Overview

This episode takes listeners on a wild journey through the history of New York’s iconic Studio 54. Framed as both a cautionary tale of excess and an exploration of a uniquely liberated moment in 20th-century culture, the episode masterfully weaves together the story of the club’s creators, its unforgettable energy, celebrity-filled dance floors, and how its dazzling reign ended in scandal.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Origins: From Opera House to Disco Palace

[02:45-05:47]

• The club’s location, 254 West 54th Street, began its life in 1930 as the Gallo Opera House, then spent decades shifting between theatre, TV studio (housing shows like Johnny Carson), and eventually falling silent in 1972.
• Enter Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager: “hoteliers-cum-nightclub impresarios” who met at Syracuse University and sought to “realize their full potential” in Manhattan nightlife.
• Schrager identified a market gap: "What New York City needed to solve this problem was a bisexual disco" ([06:47]).

The 1970s Cultural Moment—Why Studio 54 Could Happen

[03:42-04:38]

• The 1970s stood uniquely between “the invention and wide circulation of the contraceptive pill and the AIDS crisis.”
  • “There is a solid bit where you could just fuck, no consequence and we’re never gonna get it back.” (Narrator/Host, [03:42])
• The sexual freedom, cheap real estate, and wild creative energy of the city made the impossible feel possible.

Making the Magic: The Studio 54 Build and Design

[07:45-09:13]

• Built in 6 weeks for $400,000, designed with star talents like Gil Lesser.
• Features included 85-foot ceilings, a 5,400 sq ft dance floor, “strobe lights, flames, tin foil strips, neon lights” and the famous man-in-the-moon sculpture “complete with personal cocaine spoon.”
• The infamous ‘sex balcony,’ “covered in rubber so it could be easily hosed down after a night of revelry and bodily excretions.”

The Club’s Wild Vibe and Unmatched Cool

[11:16-14:53]

• Opening night: The queue was so overwhelming, all staff were sent to manage crowd control outside.
• Strict Door Policy: “A dictatorship at the door and a democracy on the dance floor.” ([12:05])
  • Steve Rubell and the club’s (well-paid, unmalleable) doorman, Steve Benneke, handpicked entrants for style, cool, and vibe.
  • "We would say [polyester shirts] melted under the lights... just cancels out an entire group of lower income people." ([12:35])
• Inside: Everything was possible—cash and drugs given out, anonymous sex, wild competitions.
• No-photos rule: The only official documentation was by the club’s own photographer. This fuelled an “insane mystique” bolstered by iconic photos of the likes of Warhol, Liza Minnelli, Mick Jagger, and more.

The Height of Decadence—Notable Moments & Quotes

[14:53-19:35]

• “Michael Jackson was a big fan, famously saying Studio 54 was where you come to escape. When you dance here, you’re just free.” (Narrator/Host, [15:10])
• Strict door policy meant even “the rest of The Rolling Stones had to pay” ([14:53]).
• Full democracy on the floor: “Normal people made names for themselves as well. Most famously a 77-year-old retired lawyer who would tear up the dance floor… dubbed Disco Sally.” (Narrator/Host, [19:35])
• “Studio 54 gave those elites a place to party in peace whilst letting a few shit munchers in to keep it dirty. It’s a balance no one had really done before.” ([15:31])
• Themed parties: Halloween was wildest (“transformed into a haunted mansion”), Thanksgiving 1978 saw bar staff dressed as pilgrims and turkey legs paid for by Valentino.
  • “Well, America was discovered by an Italian.” (Steve Rubell to Valentino, [17:21])
• “Bianca on the horse is the most famous” photo—Elizabeth Taylor’s birthday involved live horses, the Rockettes, and a portrait cake.

Downfall: From Nightlife Zenith to Scandal

[21:32-26:36]

• Excess made Rubell and Schrager objects of envy and targets for law enforcement.
• Steve Rubell bragged, “only the Mafia does better than Studio 54.” (Co-host/Researcher, [22:05])
• The IRS raided in December 1978, uncovering secret ledgers, $600,000 hidden in bin bags, bottles of quaaludes, and “skimmed” $2 million detailed with “skim” written in the ledger.
  • “If you’re gonna skim, skim a couple of hundred here and there and don’t write it down.” (IRS agent quoted by narrator, [22:28])
• Club operated for years with only temporary catering permits, avoiding a liquor license—a strategy that couldn’t last under scrutiny.
• Rubell tried to shift the heat by making accusations about the White House Chief of Staff doing drugs at Studio 54 ([24:29-25:41]).
• Both co-founders sentenced to 3.5 years, though they served only a few months after cooperating with authorities. The final party: “the End of Modern Day Gomorrah,” with Diana Ross singing in the DJ booth and Rubell serenading the crowd with “I Did It My Way.” ([26:06])

Aftermath—What Happened Next?

[26:37-30:10]

• The club was sold, and the space became a live music venue (early Madonna, Wham, etc.), but “it was just not the same.”
• Ian Schrager later pioneered the boutique hotel concept and was eventually pardoned by Barack Obama.
• Steve Rubell died of AIDS in 1989, never witnessing the later cultural redemption of Studio 54.
• “Ian just said, like, it was like husband and wife. We did everything together. I’m so sad that he didn’t get to see it come full circle… He never saw it.” (Narrator/Host, [29:00])
• The physical space transformed again (to the KitKat Club for Cabaret), but the magic never quite returned.

Studio 54’s Magic—Why It Was Irreplaceable

[29:45-30:33]

• Ian Schrager: "No one knows what the definition of magic is, but we all know it when we walk into a place and it has that electricity in the air. And when you walked into Studio 54, you felt it.” ([29:45])
  • Asked if it was worth it: “It certainly was, but that he would never do it again. And he was right. Because no one else has ever come close.” ([29:45])
• “All phenomena, like, perfect things, they all have to get cut off before they die. They have to... be taken down in their prime. Otherwise, everyone lives to get bored of it.” (Narrator/Host, [30:10])

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “The totality of the disco era, Studio 54. The plot is haunted by the ghosts of the most beautiful, glamorous, desperately cool fashionistas of the 70s.” (Narrator/Host, [01:04])
• “It was the only time where living fast and loose didn’t have consequence, or at least way less consequence than it previously had.” (Narrator/Host, [03:42])
• “When it comes to cool, Studio 54 has never been beaten. No bar, no club, no theater, no cabaret, no flash mob, no art installation, no nothing has ever come close.” (Narrator/Host, [01:38])
• On the door policy: “A dictatorship at the door and a democracy on the dance floor.” (Narrator/Host, [12:05])
• “Nile Rogers, the literal poster boy of disco from Chic, called Studio 54 the most magical club that ever existed.” (Narrator/Host, [11:35])
• "Inside Studio 54, everyone was a star, not just a person, provided you could actually get in." (Narrator/Host, [12:15])
• “Bianca [Jagger] on the horse is the most famous [photo].” (Co-host/Researcher, [18:08])
• “Only the Mafia does better than Studio 54.” – Steve Rubell quoted in New York Magazine, leading to their downfall ([22:05])
• Schrager: "No one knows what the definition of magic is, but we all know it when we walk into a place and it has that electricity in the air... it certainly was [worth it], but... would never do it again." (Co-host/Researcher, [29:45])
• “All phenomena... they all have to get cut off before they die... Otherwise, everyone lives to get bored of it.” (Narrator/Host, [30:10])

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Why Studio 54 Mattered

• A unique, unrepeatable confluence of historical, social, and cultural factors enabled the club to become not just infamous, but a symbol of artistic and social liberation.
• Its story is as much about dazzling creativity and decadence as it is a cautionary tale of hubris, excess, and the inevitable end of all parties.

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Concluding Thoughts

The episode ends on a wistful note—acknowledging Studio 54 as a legendary phenomenon that could only have happened once, in exactly that time and place. Its energy, wildness, and scandal made it a mythic touchstone of an era, and despite later attempts to recapture its spirit, “no one else has ever come close.”

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For those interested in history, pop culture, or the macabre glories of nightlife, this episode is a vivid, hilarious, and deeply human trip through the doors of a club that changed everything—and reminds us why we’re always chasing, but rarely recapturing, true magic.

Transcript

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Me either.

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Nope, my brain's let me down. Thanks, brain. Okay, if you are ever in New York City and you have done all of the Times Square and Saks Fifth Avenue that you can handle, you can take the subway or the bus if you must, to 57th street and 7th Avenue Station. And you will be a block and a half from a whole other kind of history. 254 West 54th street is now home to the cabaret club, Comedy club, blah blah blah 54 below, which is a great name. It is now a comedy cabaret club. But if those walls could talk, you would need to be hosed down. Every orifice would need to be sprayed. Because that building was once the most culturally impactful nightclub of all time. The totality of the disco era, Studio 54. The plot is haunted by the ghosts of the most beautiful, glamorous, desperately cool fashionistas of the 70s. And if you listen hard enough, you can still hear the four on the floor bass lines of yore. Okay, brain, thank you for that one. I take it back. When it comes to cool, Studio 54 has never been beaten. No bar, no club, no theater, no cabaret, no flash mob, no art installation, no nothing has ever come close. And I really think when you are trying to come up with a concept, everyone wants it to be cool. But if you're running nightclubs, you need cool more than anything else. And Studio 54 did it better.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Deep in the theatre district, 254 West 54th street, started its life as the Gallo Opera House. In 1930. It was transformed into the New York Theatre and very briefly, a nightclub and then back to a theatre again. Until 1942 when it was snapped up by CBS. The TV network made the old opera house the set of network big hitters like the Johnny Carson show for decades, all the way up until 1972 when the soundstage fell silent for the first time. And when it did, hoteliers Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager were waiting in the wings. This dynamic entrepreneur duo met at the University of Syracuse. They did everything together, including opening nightclubs. But Steve and Ian knew that they hadn't come close to realizing their full potential yet.

[Narrator/Host]

The 70s was a magical time. Not just because of all the CIA funded hallucinogens floating around because of loads of other stuff as well. I'd never actually thought about it in this succinct way. The 70s is bang in the middle between the invention and wide circulation of the contraceptive pill and the AIDS crisis on the other side. So there is a solid bit where you could just fuck, no consequence and we're never gonna get it back. It was the only time where living fast and loose didn't have consequence, or at least way less consequence than it previously had. For the first and last time in human history, pregnancy was no longer a threat to the female experience. And no one could even conceive of the so called gay cancer that that was just around the corner and that would claim the lives of so many a Studio 54 guest.

[Co-host/Researcher]

But we've got years of revelry to gorge on. And it all started with the studio's founders. Steve Rebel was the original poster person. He knew everyone who was anyone. He was the king of every social scene he laid his eyes on.

[Narrator/Host]

Steve Rebel is like so him and Ian. Steve is gay, Ian's straight. But it's also very much a time where people just don't talk about things like that. But there's a really good documentary about it on YouTube. And the way people describe Steve Rubell is like, even at university, if you wanted to go on a date with a girl, you asked Steve because he literally just knew anyone. He's this magnetic person who everybody liked, everybody wanted to be around. And he was just very, very good at understanding, taking over and then running social scenes.

[Co-host/Researcher]

And his business partner, Ian Schrager was an ice cold operator who could sniff out the next big thing and make thousands of it before it even hit the gossip columns. Both of them were native New Yorkers. With a very successful club running in Queens, the pair set their sights on Manhattan for their next project. So they snapped up the building that CBS had left behind. Ian Schrager had spotted a niche in the market.

[Narrator/Host]

New York City had a problem also at this time in history. Manhattan is really dangerous and cheap and full of artists. People hadn't been priced out of New York yet. People hadn't been priced out of Manhattan yet. But the problem was gay clubs had the best music. Therefore they attracted the best dancers. All of the most beautiful women in the city, the models, the actresses, they all go to the gay clubs with the glam squads from their shoots. They're not going to the straight bars to stand awkwardly and like watch sport. But straight men desperate to meet models and they're in the wrong bars. And going to a gay bar back then, social suicide, they're not doing that either. So Ian and Steve decided that what New York City needed to solve this problem was a bisexual disco. By 1976 there were over 8,000 dance clubs in the US. But they weren't cool. Like it's kind of like I was listening to the radio the other day and they were talking about how for the first time children are listening to the music that their parents listen to again. It's like kind of come back round again that like kids are listening to Springsteen, you know. And they were talking about ABBA and they were like, yeah, of course, we're all like, ABBA was very successful, but ABBA was never cool. So before Studio 54 there are disco clubs, there are dance clubs, but like they're not attracting like the top tier, coolest people, which is what you want. According to Ian Schrager, when you have a club it is supposed to be cool. It's supposed to be subversive to the status quo, a little bit arrogant underground. We thought that was the way to present it, a bit subversive and risque. That is what a nightclub is about. And he is not wrong. But Ian and Steve didn't want it to be too gay either. They knew that if it gets too straight, then there's not enough energy in the room. If it gets too gay, there's no glamour. We want bisexual, very, very, very bisexual. And they had no time to waste.

[Co-host/Researcher]

So the CBS set was transformed into a disco in just six weeks with $400,000 and a crack squad of NYC's design stars, including Gil Lesser, most famous for his award winning design of the Equus poster.

[Narrator/Host]

Plus they sure it really is quite star studded even from the moment. But New York was just full of those people back then because they could all afford to fucking live there and they don't have a building permit. When they start doing this build they're like, ah, we'll figure it out. And no one catches up with them.

[Co-host/Researcher]

So once the fit up was complete, the space featured 85 foot high ceilings.

[Narrator/Host]

Wow. It's an opera house. It's an enormous building and also a

[Co-host/Researcher]

5,400 square foot dance floor. Strobe lights, flames, tin foil strips, neon lights, and most famously of all, an animated sculpture depicting the man in the moon, complete with personal cocaine spoon. Yeah, and there was of course also the famous sex balcony that was covered in rubber so it could be easily hosed down after a night of revelry and bodily excretions. So with the build out of the way, Ian and Steve hired a fleet of muscular bus boys and bartenders, kitted them out in hot pans and trainers, and Studio 54 was ready to fling open its doors to the public.

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people who used to work there claim the balcony is a rumor. I don't believe them. Right from the first night, the buzz surrounding Studio 54 was enormous. So many people showed up for the opening night that all security staff had to be sent onto the street outside to control the crowd. And every perfect party after that was even more electric than the one before. Nile Rogers, the literal poster boy of disco from chic, called Studio 54 the most magical club that ever existed. The queue was enormous every night. From bankers to street performers, all desperate to get in. Like the damned looking into paradise. That's not mine. I stole it from the documentary. But it's a good way of describing it. Inside Studio 54, everyone was a star, not just a person, provided you could actually get in. Like any hyped nightclub, the studio's door policy was as mysterious as it was strict. Famously called a dictatorship at the door and a democracy on the dance floor. There's lots of interview footage of Steve Rubell going on talk shows and talking about. Because the key is to keep it secret, like Berghain, like you're never gonna tell anyone what the thing is. Like it's everyone. Keep everyone guessing. But they were like. What we really didn't want is polyester shirts. So we would say that they melted under the lights. And that's why you couldn't come in if you were wearing one. But obviously it just cancels out an entire group of lower income people. If you were lucky enough to get past the doorman, who was not only good looking, he was paid more than anyone else, so he wouldn't take bribes. People still tried. People just like shoving cocaine in his pocket. But he's like, he's the king of the door. And if you made it past him, his name's Steve Benneke. I think the last days of Rome were waiting for you on the inside. Steve Rebel would walk through his club wearing a massive coat filled with cash and drugs that he would hand out to anyone he liked. The look on the basement was full of mattresses populated by anonymous sex and competitions in which a trip to St Barts was awarded to the patron who could do the most disgusting thing for the longest or farthest.

[Co-host/Researcher]

But to keep the hype moving was no easy job. To create a fever dream of splendour and excess is one thing, but to keep that ball rolling is something else altogether. Management would regularly drop $100,000 in decorations for a single night, changing themes regularly. The mechanical bridge that moved back and forth covered with naked people, provided another trippy edge.

[Narrator/Host]

It was so like, we also have to remember this is the age of the Quaalude. But I think if you even manage to make it through a night at Studio 54 ingesting no drugs, it would be quite difficult for you to tell the difference because it is so mad.

[Co-host/Researcher]

And also remember that at this time, no photographs were actually allowed inside the club, adding to the mystique. Apart from snaps, or of course, taken by the studio's own photographer, who caught absolutely iconic shots filled with the brightest and best, including Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, Cher, Jack Nicholson, Mick Jagger, Salvador Dali, Truman Capote, Divine, Bob Foss, Rick James, Elton John, Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Grace Jones, Donna Summer, James Brown, Gloria Gaynor. So, yes, the very bisexual list goes on and on and on. Studio 54 even had their own publicist who made sure that everyone in the world saw all of those celebrity shots. The only window the plebs had to the magic inside the club that they would never get into.

[Narrator/Host]

I read that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, they were allowed in. The rest of the Rolling Stones had to pay. For the 33 months that it was open. Studio 54 was the cutting edge of cool at the dawn of the age of celebrity. Michael Jackson was a big fan, famously saying that Studio 54 was where you come when you want to escape. When you dance here, you're just free. In the 70s, people were famous for having achieved something. Wasn't like it is now, where you're famous for being famous. You were famous because you were good at something. And Studio 54 gave those elites a place to party in peace whilst letting a few shit munchers in to keep it dirty. It's a balance that no one had really done that before. Like, of course, there's always been members clubs and there's always been places where, like, people who think they're better than everyone else can go and, like, have a martini. But this was the first time the normal people who were allowed in had to be interesting in some way. And it's kind of like there's a lot of stuff on TikTok about how to get Into Berghain. Not that that is something that interests me at all. But someone made a very good point. That's like, what they're actually looking for is, can you handle it inside? Or are you gonna be weird? Like, are you gonna walk into this techno sex club and be scared and wanna go home and, like, cry on the phone? Or are you gonna vibe? And I think if anything can be defined as a door policy for Studio 54, it's like, are you gonna be a dick to the famous people or are you just going to be chill? And is that shirt cotton?

[Co-host/Researcher]

Understood.

[Narrator/Host]

Holidays, as the Americans would say. Naturally. Big deal at the studio. Steve and Ian absolutely loved a crack at a theme. It's a good excuse, you know, they've got to keep things moving.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Absolutely.

[Narrator/Host]

Halloween was always the biggest night of the year and the club was transformed into a haunted mansion with monsters jumping out at revellers throughout the night. There were no clocks in Studio 54. Obviously it's a nightclub, but there was a lot of speculation about when the club would close on a particular night. Cause you never knew when it was coming, okay? Until people worked out that the till roll was changed halfway through the night. So people were like, hold on a minute. Okay, we've got four hours left, boys. So there's really interesting stuff of, like, people constantly trying to crack the code of, like, what made it so magic. And they never do. To celebrate Thanksgiving in 1978, the bar staff and waiters all dressed up as pilgrims whilst they served guests giant turkey legs. A night that was paid for entirely by Valentino. And apparently when Valentino said to Steve Rebel, well, why do I have to pay for this? And he just goes, well, America was discovered by an Italian. And at all of these parties, but I would imagine, particularly on the festive holidays, little bags of cocaine were tied up with bows and passed out as party favors with celebrity names on them. And they were recorded in the company ledger. Fruits and flowers. Everyone knows about that. Also, it's the 70s. Cash, cash, cash is king. Like, so easy to hide this shit.

[Co-host/Researcher]

So the most fabulous night of them all. However, that instigated the famous picture of Bianca Jagger plopping through the club on a real life horse was Elizabeth Taylor's birthday.

[Narrator/Host]

I would say out of all of the Studio 54 pictures, Bianca on the horse is the most famous. Yeah.

[Co-host/Researcher]

So Radio City Music Hall Rockettes put on a show. Muscular men in sequin thongs threw petals around. And the birthday cake was a life size portrait of the Cleopatra star herself, Elizabeth Taylor.

[Narrator/Host]

Not you, yeah, understood your cake would be a lot smaller than Elizabeth Taylor.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Elizabeth Taylor and all her mates and an army of gay porn stars all danced the night away and had the night of their lives. Andy Warhol was less impressed later writing in his diaries that quote, liz looked like a belly button, which is just like a peak insult.

[Narrator/Host]

It's peak Andy Warhol as well. Like there's a really good, I think it's three part series called the Warhol Diaries because his diaries were released sometime in the last 10 years. And he, I mean, such a fascinating person, but just never because there was so much homophobia at the time. Never ever, ever, ever talked about sex at all. There's so many interviews with him where he's just like, why would I bother? When actually you know he's in love with like his long term boyfriend and it's all this like hidden life. It's really, really interesting. And he took a lot of the photos at Studio 54 as well.

[Co-host/Researcher]

So yeah, inside the studio you didn't have to be famous to be a star. Normal people made names for themselves as well.

[Narrator/Host]

Most famously a 77 year old retired lawyer who would tear up the dance floor multiple nights a week, only stopping for cocaine and lube breaks. And she was affectionately dubbed Disco Sally. She discovered disco after her husband died and it gave her a totally new lease of life. And Disco Sally drew in an audience all of her own. People were just as desperate to catch a glimpse of Disco Sally as they were Liza Minnelli. People were so desperate to get into Studio 54 they would climb the building next door and abseil into the courtyard. One black tie clad man died in the air vent trying to wiggle his way in. People were even selling maps showing how to make it into the club through the tunnels stemming from the subway system. Studio 54 was a phenomenon that is hard to quantify. And like all legends that last forever, it came at exactly the right time. Ian Schrager had learned in the hotel world to make magic, you have to create a visceral experience and bend the rules. And that's the reason he let the bankers in, not just the celebrities. And the studio never had a VIP area, but it did invent the red velvet nightclub rope inspired by cinema crowd control. That had never happened before. And as I said at the start, like the 70s is this specific window of time where if you were going to party. And that's additionally because the Vietnam War had just sort of petered out and the civil rights movement was ongoing. But most of it was Over. So New York was ready to party. After years of protest and upheaval, Interesting people were everywhere, making new genres of everything. Punk, hip hop, pop, art. All came out of New York at this time. It was exciting. It was exciting place to be, exciting city to live in, full of artists. And Studio 54 put them all in the same room, dancing on the same mechanical stage.

[Co-host/Researcher]

On top of being the coolest place on the planet, Ian and Steve were making money hand over fist. And naturally, everyone hated them for it. The evil eye loomed Large over Studio 54. After a while, everyone started to have it in for Steve and Ian.

[Narrator/Host]

Pride before a fall. Too close to the sun. Yeah. How many more have you got?

[Co-host/Researcher]

Yeah. And the dynamic duo really didn't help themselves by being the poster boys for everything that was wrong with the economy. Steve told New York Magazine that, quote, only the Mafia does better than Studio 54.

[Narrator/Host]

Shut up, Steve.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Yeah. Because that gave the IRS the key that they had been waiting for. The studio was raided in December 1978. The books were seized, along with a secret set of actual books kept in the ceiling and a whole load of quaaludes Steve had been saving for a rainy day. And Also, just like, $600,000 had been lying around in bin bags in the,

[Narrator/Host]

like, secret books that literally they are hiding in the ceiling when they're taking cash out for themselves. They skim about 2 million. They write skim in the Ledger. Brilliant. I saw an interview with, like, the IRS agent, and he was like, if you're gonna skim, skim a couple of hundred here and there and don't write it down.

[Co-host/Researcher]

That's the point of skimming.

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[Narrator/Host]

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[Narrator/Host]

Steve and Ian were skimming all over the place, they were skimming millions. And they probably would have got away with it if Steve had managed to not show off.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Oh, if it wasn't for those pesky brags.

[Narrator/Host]

In the almost three years up to the raid, Studio 54 didn't actually have a liquor license, only a series of temporary catering permits, which obviously put them under more scrutiny. They literally was like, well, we'll just get a daily catering permit forever. And then it all sort of got, like, forgotten about. But then eventually they're like, you're a club, you're in the news every day. We know you're a nightclub. You have to stop doing this.

[Co-host/Researcher]

It's like if you go to an event and they haven't got a liquor license here, and they're just like, it's a tombola. Do you want to buy a raffle ticket? Oh, you win a drink. What drink do you want?

[Narrator/Host]

Exactly. It's exactly, exactly like that. I think they did have to reopen for a while with no booze, but because everyone's taking so many drugs, it doesn't matter. Yeah, they've just, like, got big jugs of water. Yeah. Like to have this handful of Quaaludes instead. Anyway, while all of this is going on, the IRS are on their tail and they can't serve any booze. It's all getting a bit embarrassing. Steve Rebel tries to move the heat elsewhere. How and why he thought this would work is beyond me. He told the press. I think he went on a TV television interview and he said that he had evidence that the White House Chief of Staff, Hamilton Jordan. Jordan. They say it weird, it's spelt Jordan, but, like, whatever. You know who I mean. Steve Rebel said he had evidence of him doing a bunch of Coke at Studio 54. Obviously, that means they're coming after you, Steve.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Why would you do that?

[Narrator/Host]

He takes a lot of drugs in his defense, so maybe he thought it would be a good idea. I also believe there had been very, very recently a change in the law where government officials could now come after you for personal slights against them. I don't think they could before because they're like public figures. But something. Oh, it was a change after Watergate.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Oh, okay.

[Narrator/Host]

Something had happened. Tiny little change in the sketch. Anyway, so nothing really happens with the Hamilton Jordan accusations, but everyone is looking at them, including the big boys on Capitol Hill. So in the end, Steve and Ian realized that they were never going to beat the tax evasion charges, and they were both sentenced to three and a half years in prison. And no one was sad to see them go. The night before Steve and Ian self surrendered, they obviously threw an absolutely massive rager at Studio 54 as a send off in February 1980 and they called it the End of Modern Day Gamora. Diana Ross got so wankered that she tried to sing over the crowd from the DJ booth and Steve serenaded the room with his rendition of I Did It My Way.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Nice.

[Narrator/Host]

His way had landed them both in federal prison where they didn't actually do their time, they ratted out other club owners instead and they were released back into the wild after just a few months. But they had to sell Studio 54. Ian Schrager's really interesting. His dad is a big time gangster. People called Max the Jew. And he in the documentary is obviously if your dad is a gangster, you're going to be quite guarded about it. Doesn't really talk about it. The only time he brings up his dad is when he says, I ratted on other club owners and that's why I got out. And my dad would have been so angry because you do your time like a man. And I think if his dad hadn't have been dead, I don't think he would have done it. But so it's a very interesting he. Apart from the enormous amount of criminal activity he did, skimming all of this money, he isn't in anywhere near sort of mafia style stuff like his dad was. And I think he felt very strongly about not doing that. But obviously when you grow up in that environment, I think it definitely added to his sort of like steeliness. Anyway, they were out, but they'd lost the studio and the building became a gig venue which hosted the early days of Madonna, Joanne Duran, the Culture Club and Wham. But it was just not the same. Ian and Steve got right back to it though and they opened another club which they called the Palladium. And that wasn't the same either. And they make a really good point. Is that like in the documentary when they get out of prison they don't have to go back to it because now they've got something to lose. Going back after something like Studio 54 is really brave to like go back to the same business.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Yeah. Can you live up to the hype?

[Narrator/Host]

No. Disco was dead. They were only inside for a few months. But when they got out, nobody was looking for the opulence of Studio 54 in the midst of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. And that's why people hated them so much as well, because like everything's Wonderful. In Studio 54. It's all over the news. And the mines are getting shut and everyone's losing their jobs everywhere else in the country. So that's why nobody was that bothered when they went down. And also, they didn't get in. Ian did go on to invent the concept of the boutique hotel, though. I know. And he was pardoned by Barack Obama in 2017.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Steve sadly died of AIDS in 1989. He didn't live to see the redemption of the club that put him in prison or witness it hailed as the touchstone of the disco era.

[Narrator/Host]

Yeah, it is sad that, like. Cause he really doesn't live that long after he gets out of prison. But him and Ian live together. And Ian, like, when Steve died, it wasn't publicized that he died from aids because nobody was really doing that then. And Ian just said, like, it was like husband and wife. We did everything together. And I'm so sad that he didn't get to see it come full circle. Like, the redemption of it. He never saw it.

[Co-host/Researcher]

And the plot, 254 W. 54th St. Well, it stood empty until 1998, when the Roundabout Theatre Company transformed it into the KitKat Club for their production of Cabaret, starring Neil Patrick Harris.

[Narrator/Host]

Boo. Hate that guy. Terrible, man. Look it up.

[Co-host/Researcher]

As Ian Schrager himself said, no one knows what the definition of magic is, but we all know it when we walk into a place and it has that electricity in the air. And when you walked into Studio 54, you felt it. When he was asked if it was all worth it, Ian Schrager said it certainly was, but that he would never do it again. And he was right. Because no one else has ever come close.

[Narrator/Host]

No, I think, like all phenomena, like, perfect things, they all have to get cut off before they die. They have to, like, be taken down in their prime. Otherwise everyone lives to get bored of it.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Exactly.

[Narrator/Host]

There you go, Disco Stu. Back away. Not today, Disco Lady. I'm so angry that it has taken me the whole episode to come up with that.

[Co-host/Researcher]

You got it, Im.

[Narrator/Host]

Thanks, Brain. Good job, Disco Brain.

[Co-host/Researcher]

Thank you very much. Goodbye.

[Narrator/Host]

Goodbye.

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[Narrator/Host]

Hey, everyone, Check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date?

[Liberty Mutual Advertiser]

Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

[Narrator/Host]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

[Liberty Mutual Advertiser]

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[Narrator/Host]

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