Photo: Douglass Vaaldi 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. In 2021 alone, it reared its glittery head in Halston, as the site where the eponymous designer railed cocaine in a booth and lit a fur coat on fire. It caught the eye of FX guy Ryan Murphy, who plans to spotlight its demise in the next season of American Crime Story.
“54 was just electric,” he told me, “this carnival atmosphere where people felt free to just be absolutely who they wanted to be inside. And where it was okay, where it was welcomed.” It was a short window of excess, wedged in just before the AIDS epidemic took hold. “Last call for a very wild and open time in New York City,” he explains. “It wasn’t a barroom, it wasn’t a discotheque, it was a cultural moment.
I learned the door from Marc. It was six nights a week, from 10 at night until 4 in the morning. We became very good friends. I brought the preppy thing to Studio 54, Marc enjoyed that about me, so we would talk in exaggerated, WASP-y accents. He gave us nicknames: his was Biff, and my nickname was Bunky. The head of security was Chuck Garelick, he became Uncle Chuck — Uncle Chuck, Uncle Biff, Uncle Bunky.
One night, it was late and I was out at the door alone, and this guy walked up to the rope, bell bottoms, vast amounts of gold chain and a long shag haircut. It just wasn’t gonna work. It was the ultimate disco but people didn’t dance like you saw in Saturday Night Fever, it wasn’t about that; it was about an individual look. So this guy’s standing out there for probably half an hour, Steve comes out and he looked at me and he said, “I think that might be one of the Bee Gees.
The most exciting night for me was when Michael Jackson showed up, right after his album Off the Wall came out. I let him in, and I followed him into the club while Marc stayed at the door. I was right behind him, and he got on the floor and they put his album on. He started dancing, and the whole floor cleared out, and he danced to a couple of songs from that album. That remains in my mind as a real crystalline memory of that time. Everybody was in awe.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: LastQuake - 🏆 653. / 51 Read more »
Source: VanityFair - 🏆 391. / 55 Read more »
Source: Mirror Celeb - 🏆 476. / 51 Read more »
Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki is returning for one final movieStudio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki is returning for one final movie!
Source: i_D - 🏆 32. / 68 Read more »
Source: Mirror Celeb - 🏆 476. / 51 Read more »
Source: Variety - 🏆 108. / 63 Read more »