A history of the influential club that has become the symbol of the 1970s.
Welcome to Studio 54—the place where stars and top models dance side by side with drag queens, pretty guys and girls have a chance to wake up famous, and a Wall Street clerk who fought in Vietnam turns into the stunning Rollerena—roller skating around in a dress. Nothing is impossible: Bianca Jagger rides a white horse; bartenders sport eighteenth-century-inspired wigs and clothes for a Karl Lagerfeld party; plastic snow, golden sparkles, and cocaine are provided for all guests.
“You could be anyone that you wanted to be […] It was being in a room with a couple of thousand people like that, that created this combustible spark,” co-founders Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager recall. And while racism and homophobia flourished in the 1970s New York, inside the club everyone was equal provided that they had an interesting outfit. Photographs from Studio 54 were printed on the front pages of New York papers and acted like an Instagram of the time contributing to the cult of celebrities. But the better the party, the tougher the hangover, and the fall of the stars of Manhattan nightlife was as dramatic as their rise. In Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary witnesses of the era share their personal memories against the archival footage from the iconic venue that still inspires filmmakers, fashion designers and anyone who sees parties as a particular form of art.
Studio 54
Director: Matt Tyrnauer
USA, 2018. 98 min. 18+
