But I was excited to do it. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Somehow, the pairing worked, and when Rubell died in 1989, Schrager said, "I'll never have that kind of friend again. The scale went from $30 to $250 (she told New York Magazine Alice Cooper was worth $60 while Sylvester Stallone was $80), with $250 bonuses if pictures of the stars at Studio 54 made the papers. It was a joyous prelude to the AIDS epidemic, which reared its head in the early 1980s, before claiming around 50,000 American lives a year during its peak in the mid-1980s, and fundamentally changing New York nightlife. And the people who worked there. It was a drug that kept you up and dancing for hours and hours, and made you very chatty. And not everybody had an entourage. Studio was a reflection of all of that.. Mark Fleischman, former owner of the legendary space, has chosen to end his life after an eight-year battle with an undiagnosable neurological disease. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Studio 54 was the hottest party spot in the world, defining the disco era in all its ecstasy and excess. I was having lunch with him and he was like, What are you doing the rest of the day, howd you like to come over to this new club were doing security for? We walked over there and I got interviewed by Steve Rubell. People would do amyl nitrate on the dance floor, poppers, and also quaaludes. According to his website, for over two years he "did everything from bussing tables to running the front desk, to counting cash (lots of cash), to managing the third shift during Studio 54's first renovation, to creating and running 'auditions' for new staff, to initiating and designing special decor for the basement VIP area.". For one person, even the tiny amount of work expected of busboys and bartenders at Studio 54 was too much. What does it feel like looking out at that crowd?Well, its overwhelming, but you feel safe because youve got a lot of security. Here, Vogue presents the best looks from Studio 54. He had this drag queen muse. A lot of stuff was going on in New York City that you just couldnt believe. The prize: a paid trip to St. She was blitzed. And there was the whole Basquiat, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf [crowd] in the 80s, which the Palladium action was also a big part of. It was kind of a celebration of people from the arts, dance, fashion, music, theater, entertainment, the gay world; this incredible mix of Manhattanites in the late 70s, before the AIDS epidemic basically wiped out at least half of the creative people in New York. Steve wanted a salad of people, is what I keep reading.A lot of wealthy people were there and a lot of celebrities, but there were a lot of kids who were busboys at restaurants in the Village who had a great look. Opened by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager in 1977the same year Saturday Night Fever came outtheres never been a club like it since, with celebrities, socialites and scene- makers clamoring for a ticket in. You wanna hear some stories about what happened at the door? Since then, the photographer said, there's never been another club like it, though many have tried to recapture the spirit (including Rubell and Schrager, who opened the nightclub Palladium after their stints in jail). Fleischman began to develop symptoms of . Weve rounded up the best looks from celeb events this week, including Jenna Ortega, Troye Sivan, and Devin Halbal. People would slip me vials of coke, you know, people who were regulars. Actor Alec Baldwintold Interview he worked there for two months in the fall of 1979. Marc Benecke, center, a Studio 54 doorman. It wasnt all over the place. "It was an assault of the senses," he said. Are you glad you quit the higher-paying job at Jim McMullen to do Studio?Oh, well, yeah. The city's glitterati would come through to see and be seen if they could get through the door, that is. We had him by the ankles. Not that Studio wasnt adult. It was a pretty open secret that Studio 54 had super shady bookkeeping (owner Steve Rubell said to a reporter that "only the Mafia does better"), and it was an all-cash business. The smiling shot was taken by royal photographer Chris Jackson to mark the monarch's 70th birthday in November 2018 - six months after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex married in Windsor. There wasnt a line of people and you went to each person and turned them away. At that point my band mate made a flavorful declaration and we decamped to the trusty, attitude free, IHOP where we enjoyed a drama free stack . Per The Andy Warhol Diaries: Hearing how much money Steve actually had, he could have been treating us so wonderfully. . New York was very, very loose at the time. Next Airs Today at 3 pm. Scott Bitterman started bussing tables, but that wasn't where he stopped. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. From 1977 until early 1980, lucky revelers who got past the velvet ropes of Studio 54 in Manhattan were greeted with a haven for hedonism and creativity. Last call for a very wild and open time in New York City, he explains. If somebody came up and they were really drunk and acting obnoxious, no they wouldnt get in. And sweaty attendees engaged in anonymous intercourse on the balconywhich was famously covered in rubber so that it could be easily hosed down at the end of each evening. Perhaps not surprisingly, Siano only lasted four months at Studio 54, but Kaczor stuck it out for three years. Its much more adult. A haven of hedonism, tolerance, glitz and glamor, Studio was very hard to gain entrance to and impossible to ignore, with news of who was there filling the gossip columns daily. I could never do that job now. One of my favorite people was a guy named Rollerena, I think he was a stockbroker but he dressed like a fairy queen with a tiara, and he had a wand, and he was on roller skates. There are a bunch of gay guys in Day-Glo construction helmets, dancing with Bianca Jagger. Shortly before Studio 54 opened, Joanne Horowitz met owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager at their other club, Enchanted Gardens. According to former visitors, the door policy was more like a casting agency. So what was the wildest thing you ever saw at Studio?The wildest thing was happening every night in the balcony. Everybody just immediately went onto the dance floor and started dancing. And Montaug was one of the victims,dying from the disease in 1991 (via The New York Times). Spanish police are hunting a British man after a doorman was killed while trying to break up a fight at former TOWIE star Elliot Wright's restaurant.. Father-of-two Jose Rafael Pisano Pardo died . When Bells palsy paralyzed one side of my face, I had to find other ways to express joy. Haoui Montaug went out in the most Haoui Montaug way possible: by throwing a suicide party. Every party has to end sometime, even one as awesome as Studio 54. At 19 you were one of the youngest on staff at Studio 54. Did people try to bribe you to get in?Yeah, sure, people offered money, but you would never accept that, because if you did, then theyd show up the next night with all of their friends, everybody whod been in their wedding. He was all of 19-years-old. A Studio 54 Doorman Tells Us How to Get In. According to New York Magazine, Lenny Miestorm was a teenaged art student who grew up on a farm and one of the original hires at Studio 54. Once you were in, you could find yourself doing a million different jobs or getting a sudden and unexpected promotion. The music scene was different81 was that New Wave, New Romanticism era of music, groups like ABC and A-Ha and punk by that time as well. The late 70s also saw the rise of celebrity culture, and Studio 54 . In 2021 alone, it reared its glittery head in Halston, as the site where the eponymous designer (allegedly) railed cocaine in a booth and lit a fur coat on fire. Yes, very much so. Chuck Garelick - head of security. ". Across generations, photographers have provided eclectic answers. But the fact Taylor did work while the other bartenders partied made him invaluable to his coworkers, and they demanded he stay. Much different. I definitely did. Jim McMullen, hed come down three or four nights a week with about 20 people from the restaurant. What was your approach to turning someone away? 2016 The Incomparable Rose Hartman (Documentary) (as Mark Benecke) 2015 ON the ROOF (TV Series) Self (2016) (as Mark Benecke) 2012 The Secret Disco Revolution (Documentary) Self (as Mark Benecke) 2008 70's Fever (TV Movie documentary) Self - Studio 54 Doorman (as Mark Benecke) He could also be a jerk though. As Taylor gamely cut a good luck slice from the buttercream bosom, Warner fled the paparazzi., A dozen well-endowed hunks, naked but for sequined posing-pouches, and some with joints dangling from the corners of their mouths, scattered gardenia petals in the couples path as they entered,wrote Taylor biographer David Bret in The Lady, The Lover, The Legend. (The downside the drugs became a serious problem until he finally realized years later he needed to sober up.). For the first time since he and his business partner (Rubell) were forced to sell the discoteque in 1980, former co-owner Ian Schrager . He talked about working on the balcony, only to be sent to "fetch cigarettes" so people could use it to hook up. The doorman was paid so well that he wouldn't be tempted to be bribed. As an editor who worked in the . The all-night shifts were "grueling and the work was extremely physical" and had some occupational hazards, namely accidental contact highs. People got off on that. Like Studio 54 itself, Tyrnauer's doc thrives on access. He could have killed himself.. If there was already a similar type like you inside, you could easily be refused at the door. It's no fun to be 53 at Studio 54. For 33 months, from 1977 to 1980, the nightclub Studio 54 was the place to be seen in Manhattan. Like a fat little Kewpie doll. Cocaine was the marijuana of the disco era. Bobby (touching his face) and Steve Rubell (foreground) in the 2018 Netflix Documentary, Studio 54. They were offering me money, and they were getting a little annoyed with me. It smelled like a cat had died. The group's members Ad-Rock, Mike D, and MCA also got big a few years later. And then they redid the Palladium, and that was happening. This article originally appeared on Vogue US. Dressed in tight pants and high-top sneakers, she became Disco Sally, a star at Studio 54 and Xenon whod draw an audience of adoring fans as she got down on the dance floor.. He said he had to explain to Valentino why he was doing it that way. At the door, Steve Rubell tasked you with letting a mixed salad of people into the club. The director of a documentary on Studio 54 said, "A disgruntled employee knew about the skimming operation and where the cash was hidden in the club. "Studio 54 only ran for 33 months, which is outrageous -- you'd think it ran longer because people are always trying to reinvent (it)," he said. For a nightclub that only lasted a few years and closed more than four decades ago, the strength of Studio 54's sustained cultural influence astonishes me. To get into Studio 54, first you had to get past the doorman, Marc Benecke. A double dose of Rachel Weisz is just what the doctor ordered. I learned the door from Marc. This included the employees. She was a retired Jewish lawyer who became a judge and suddenly went crazy due to the combination of cocaine and the Studio 54 Effect. They were very into social issues and I grew up being politically aware at a very early age. Women would dance, showing their breasts, and guys would wear assless chaps, right? He launched into an enthusiastic rendition of I Did It My Way. A bit too enthusiastic, in fact. I knocked on the backdoor on 53rd Street, and it all began. Or Myra Scheer, who went from clubgoer to the owners' right-hand woman. "Renny the florist decorated the entire studio with live gardenias for Liz, because that was her favorite flower," he wrote as a caption for one of the exhibition images . As of 2016, Horowitz was still working with celebrities as Kevin Spacey's manager, a job she held for 28 years, until he fired her. But people stayed out til 4:00 in the morning and then they went to their job. People would come from out of town to come to the club, and it just wasnt necessarily a good fit. I met a quarterback. He mixed with the celebs and partied just as hard as they did. Picks from Armani, Dior, Rare Beauty, and more. "When you walked in the front door, not only did you get the sound of the disco music, the smell of sex and taste the sweat, but you got the smell of all those live gardinias. I wasnt good at that, because in some ways Im naturally shy. "I only want fun-looking people in here," said the club's co-owner, who grew up in Brooklyn long before it became fashionable. The employee still remains unknown. 2023 Cond Nast. Steve had this amazing talent to converse with anybody and make you feel like he was your best friend. Studio 54 Radio. It was the hottest nightclub in the world, this is the greatest performer in the world, performing music that everybody loved. He was so elusive, he was often described as a "silent partner" in the business. Once he knew us, we were in." . "I created Studio 54!" says D'Alessio. AsOZYnotes, disco was getting big, the drugs flowed freely, and the AIDS epidemic hadn't yet turned casual, unprotected sex into a death sentence. Yeah, I actually told this one guy to go buy this blazer that I had on at Bloomingdales. Rollerena on the dance floor at Studio 54. Pro- and anti-Jordan protesters clashed with police trying to keep them out of the hearing room, while the chairman knocked Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's crime policies. Though the exhibition, "Studio 54: Night Magic," is temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, it crystallizes the glamorous nights set against gritty 1970s New York. All rights reserved. To an extent. Not at all. Weve been on this long journey to figure out what happiness is. The anecdote seemingly stems from Studio 54 associate Baird Jones, who told The Last Party author Anthony Haden-Guest this had actually happened: This guy got stuck in a vent trying to get in. Rose Hartman. No. So I was hired, and I was paid $625 a week. There was a fair amount of nudity. I brought the preppy thing to Studio 54, Marc enjoyed that about me, so we would talk in exaggerated, WASP-y accents. Their uniform was apparently various stages of undress. We went up to the balcony and just sat and talked, I told him about my background. There was a Man in the Moon that would come down and a coke spoon that would go up, and the tip of the moons nose would light up. You got up and you danced, and you might end up dancing with Catherine Deneuve or anybody, but there was a sense that different rules applied. Howd you start working at Studio 54?I was tending bar at Jim McMullens on Third Avenue, a very hot restaurant owned by the male model. And Studio 54 doorman Marc Benecke as his witness, looking the part above the . It was like a hipster version of a Studio 54 doorman. That remains in my mind as a real crystalline memory of that time. Studio 54. The 25 Best Shows on Netflix to Watch Right Now. Nile Rodgers on Writing 'Le Freak,' Grace Jones, and the Disco Backlash. There were people that were just flat-out fabulous, that would get in no matter what. Steve introduced me to Andy Warhol, and Andy wouldnt let go of my hand. According to interviews with various ex-employees in New York Magazine, many of the people the owners hired seemed to have simply walked in and offered their services or met them through a friend. The team that brought Studio 54 to life in just six weeks included architects Scott Bromley and Ron Dowd, set designer Richie Williamson, and lighting designers Jules Fisher and Paul Morantz. Everybody did cocaine in the ladies room because the ladies room was vast. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. It was pretty awesome. They are provided in a historical context. Enter the coat check girls. Studio 54 Radio is the Ultimate Classic Dance Experience. But the person who almost certainly got the most offers for sex was the doorman Marc Benecke, when people offered up their bodies just to get inside. He was a regular. Hed have dinner in fairly large groups and you could get a sentence out here and there, but in general, he was more of an observer than a participant unless he knew you really, really well. A distant cousin of mine had a bouncer contract for 54. I brought these questions to Robert Bobby Sheridan, who worked the door at Studio 54, alongside Marc Benecke, from just after its opening to around the time of the bust, in 1979. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. After a spate of troubles finding housing, The de la Mottes, a family ensemble of nine kids who all play string instruments, have landed in Harlem. Realizing you really could pay for publicity like that, the job of celebrity wrangler was born. I went down to 54 to meet with Steve. Rubell had the waiters dressed up like Pilgrims and he was serving turkey, recalled Warhol in his published diaries. It was a festival of light and music, and the effects were incredible. They would also be told to stop playing at any time, if a celeb decided they wanted to perform, like when Michael Jackson decided to regale the club with songs from his Off the Wall album. "(I'd) back off a little bit and feel the vibe, and then document things," he said. But Pittman also nodded to florist Renny Reynolds and event planner Robert Isabell, the latter of whom once dumped four tons of glitter on the dance floor when the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve. Then there were the celebrities who used the DJ booth as a place to hang out, getting in the way of the records and making Siano and Kaczor's job impossible. Sometimes the stars would even come hide out in the coat check room to relax a bit outside of the craziness of the club. Regardless of their physical state, it was the coat check girls' job to play it "cool" no matter how famous the star or how drugged up the person who lost their ticket was. The crowds only grew as the club's popularity did. How the Owner of the Los Angeles Lakers Gets It Done. It was like a big boxing ring with ropes all around, and you had three or four bodyguards around you, and people would just walk up. If Pittman was taking a portrait, he liked to make it more collaborative, capturing the whole of their personality in a single shot. But he wouldnt sit on a banquette and do coke in front of people. Getting into Studio 54 in the 1970s was a nearly impossible endeavor. What were we thinking?, Steve Rubell and Diana Ross went up to control central, the DJ boothDiana Ross began to sing out over the crowd. Tragically, the danger of crazy sex in the late 1970s became abundantly clear in the 1980s. Halloween was always the biggest night of the year, drawing crowds of over 2,500, recalled Fleischman. We had kind of a language at the door, certain words we used to describe who was approaching, that kind of thing. ", Steve Rubell and Carmen d'Alessio in Norma Kamali coats (1977). From classic dance and disco music and legendary DJ's to the original doorman who decided whether you got in or went home, Studio 54 Radio is the ultimate re-creation of dance music's greatest era. ]I kept Barry Gibb waiting for half an hour. The Ultimate Guide to Covering Up Your Zits. So if I wasnt going to let someone in, I just didnt engage. That probably kept me out of a lot of stuff. He asked what I was doing for the summer and was like, How would you like to work here? And Im like, Okay. Thats basically how it started! Written by Jacqui Palumbo, CNNNew York. I remember there was a couple who came and one of them would be on a leash, and I think the woman was topless. . To get into Studio 54, first you had to get past the doorman, Marc Benecke. The photographer that captured the disco and diamond dust of legendary club Studio 54, The photographic work of Dustin PIttman -- the focus of this feature -- is part of the exhibition 'Studio 54: Night Magic' at the Brooklyn Museum, which is temporarily closed. Once he told a guy to go to Bloomingdale's and buy the same blazer Benecke was wearing. Whats the orb for? I was right behind him, and he got on the floor and they put his album on. A lot of art-world personalities went to Studio 54, but was Studio 54 a part of the art world? If Benecke granted you entry, you were whisked through the Corridor of Joy, a long hallway echoing screams of happiness before partygoers melted into the eye of the disco storm, Studio 54s dance floor. Catherine Opie: 'Beauty has to encompass more about the human condition', "What was great about Studio 54 was that the unallowed was allowed," he added. Were you interested in the club scene then? Youre there, youre there at a private party in the South of France, youre there in Vegas, youre in L.A., youre seeing all these people that you read about. Nancy Neimeth - book-keeper. We'd watch from the windows on the eighth floor to see who was cute and ask them to come up, like a teenage Studio 54 doorman situation. Club founders Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager provided premium guests with premium cocaine and spent up to $100,000 on a single nights party decor. Instead of doing a Red Bull they would do a line. It was a haven of illicit sex, illegal drug use, and the wildest parties the city had ever seen. Madonna And The Beastie Boys Owe Their Career To A Studio 54 Doorman. Michael Overington, the club's general manager, explained to New York Magazine, "Maybe a few busboys like Lenny [Miestorm] partied, but the doormen, the people who dealt with money, the technical people handling sets in the back, they didn't party. Nearly 35 years after her underappreciated romantic comedys release, the Oscar nominee returns to the Lower East Side. Perhaps because, as Taylor put it, "Steve [Rubell] wanted all big, gay, muscle-bound bartenders, and I was, like, this Jewish straight boy from Queens," the owner was unimpressed when he noticed and tried to fire him. Therefore, the club worked like . I had only ever been to one clubI wasnt interested in that whatsoever. It was my 15 minutes with Andy Warhol, I guess. Scott Bitterman, a former busboy and assistant manager,wrote on his blog that notorious attorney Roy Cohn and fashion designer Halston died from AIDS complications, as did the club's host Joe Renny, and even owner Steve Rubell, in 1989. He was like Superman, hiding and putting on his costume in a phone booth. I have heard that, yes! And I just got opened up. Hes now back with a Studio 54 radio show on SiriusXM and a new position with Schrager, as the New York EDITIONs night manager. He had every single song in his car., Ross prodded an even more trashed Rubell into singing himself. My style was preppy with a bit of an edge. There were people like Carmen D'Alessio, who claims almost all the credit for making the club a hit but didn't hang out with the other employees, saying that, "Studio didn't impress [her]." For the new exhibition, Pittman reflected on the night of actress Elizabeth Taylor's birthday. ", What makes a man? Are there maybe, lets say, surprising celebrity interactions that stick out in your mind?Yeah. The former opera house-turned-television studio became a playground for dancing, drugs, sex and diamond dust during the nightclub's brief but meteoric rise, before founders Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager were jailed for tax evasion and the studio closed its doors. It wasnt exclusive, really, it was inclusive of people who were of that moment in Manhattan, with an appreciation for diversity, with an eye for fashion. On any given evening, youd have, you know, Rudolph Nureyev, youd have Chuck Berry, Keith Richards. Everybody was pretty toasted. Andy Warhol was one of the few well-known artists in the world [that came to Studio 54]. He used to hide his costumes in different nooks and crannies in the city because there was no way he could changeespecially in those daysfrom his job on Wall Street.

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