Hidden Secrets Of Studio 54

While regular people shared the dance floor with celebrities like John Travolta, that doesn’t mean that normies could mingle with the stars all the time. Everyone knows about the club’s famous dance floor, but there were more places where the rich and famous could disappear. Often they hid away together.

One area where wild things happened was the “Rubber Room,” a private room above the balcony that was covered in rubber so it was easy to clean. The basement is where most VIPs went. There are rumors that the co-owners supplied this area with mattresses for anyone who wanted to get a little “shut-eye.”

Studio 54 really was the only place where you could see a young Michael Jackson hanging out with the Village People and Bruce Jenner of all people. It was a special place that, in spite of its darkness, brought people together. It’s hard to imagine a place like this existing again.

Curtis was close with her mother, closer than she was with her famous father, but it’s still wild to know that she liked to go dancing with her mom. It’s hard to imagine anyone having that close a relationship with their parents. Maybe they just liked to dance.

Co-owner Ian Schrager describes seeing everyone who was everyone come through the club, including you know who:

Over the next few years, every celebrity or big shot came to Studio 54. But nobody pestered anyone for an autograph, so they could be themselves. Andy Warhol was shy and just liked to watch. Mick Jagger was the same as he was on stage and Diana Ross was an amazing dancer. I never saw Donald Trump dance, though. He was a serious guy.

There’s no straightforward story or clear evidence, but the Jaggers separated in 1977. That’s the same year that Mick and Jerry began dating. It’s a relationship that didn’t specifically require the hottest club of the ’70s, but it’s hard to imagine their under-the-radar meet-ups happening frequently without the help of the darkness of Studio 54.

One anonymous celebrity who was a regular at the club told Vanity Fair:

Steve would see his friends a mile away. He would whisk you in, put a quaalude in your hand, give you a drink, and give you a bartender too. There was a great deal of sexual tension all the time. And there was sex going on—in the balcony, on the fire escapes, down in the basement.

At the time, Hoffman says that his private life was nothing like his public persona. He confessed:

They were the candy-store years because there were drugs, stardom, the Pill. I met a couple of girls in bed more than once, and I had sex in public places – like the Studio 54 club in New York.

In 2018, Barrymore told Norm MacDonald that the reason she went to the club so often is that her mother brought her as a way to help her escape the harsh realities of child stardom:

I had a mom, but she was more like my best friend. She was like, ‘Do you want to go to school and get bullied all day, or do you want to go to Studio 54?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, absolutely! I don’t want to spend the day with these little f*ckers who are just awful.’ Kids are so mean.

After attending Elizabeth Taylor’s birthday party in 1978, Warhol wrote:

Liz looked like a—bellybutton. Like a fat little Kewpie doll…. Diana Vreeland was there, and people were being brought over to Liz—she was the queen. I met a quarterback. Bob was watching Bianca [Jagger] take poppers and he said to Diana Vreeland, ‘It really becomes more like pagan Rome every day,’ and she said, ‘I should hope so—isn’t that what we’re after?’

One year before Studio 54 became the place to be, Sylvester Stallone made a huge splash with Rocky in 1976. He went from a struggling actor to one of the most famous people on the planet, and he flexed that muscle whenever he had the chance… Especially on the dance floor.

At the time the club was struggling so the owners made sure to pay Joanne Horowitz a kind of finder’s fee for every celebrity she could get into the joint. If they wound up on the cover of a magazine she made even more money. She told Page Six:

For [Sylvester] Stallone and Michael Jackson, I was paid the most; $250 each if they got the covers of The Post or the Daily News, $150 for inside. For People magazine, I got $250. Same for Time or Newsweek… Stallone got photographed with his girlfriend, not his wife, and he wasn’t too pleased.

Bill Farley, the former publicist for Hef’s magazine wondered out loud about the difference between Hefner’s world and Studio 54 to Vanity Fair:

I wonder if the entertainment model hadn’t changed a little because—taking Studio 54 as an example—people had moved on to loud dance clubs, a lot of coke was going around, and that kind of stuff wasn’t happening at the our clubs. Dancing was part of what you could do there, but they weren’t dance clubs primarily.

Studio 54 was a safe haven for people who were searching for personal freedom. Within the walls of the club, they could be safe from the harsh realities of the outside world. Sadly, when the sun came up and the music faded those realities were still waiting.

In 2020, Elton John told Perth Now how he rudely got out of a marriage proposal from Liza Minelli:

There was a downstairs area that had pinball machines with lines and lines of coke and you’d bump into everyone there, from politicians to ballet dancers to actors to singers. Everyone down there was doing lines of coke. Liza Minnelli once proposed to me down there. She asked: ‘Will you marry me?’ At which point I broke the 100m sprint record and left.

Harry told Elle about her memorable trips to Studio 54:

I remember going to Studio 54 and getting drunk. And not really knowing how I got drunk, and ending up in a pile of bodies. I don’t think I went there a lot – it wasn’t my scene. We were more downtown rockers. The time that I do remember [most] specifically was when Andy threw the party for Interview magazine. I was on the cover and I met Truman Capote – I was so starstruck I could barely talk. I think he was high. With the loud music you couldn’t really talk.

Remember, at the time the cast of SNL were rock stars. When they walked into the club there was a palpable energy, things got more exciting and everyone wanted to be around them. However, it’s believed that the cast liked to keep to themselves and hang out in the mysterious rubber room…

In 2015, Bianca Jagger said that the story that’s been told is far from true and that she finds the entire idea of her riding through a club to be offensive. She explained:

It was a beautiful white horse that reminded me of mine and I made the foolish decision to get on it for a few minutes. No doubt you will agree with me that it is one thing to, on the spur of the moment, to get on a horse in a nightclub, but it is quite another to ride in on one. As an environmentalist and an animal rights defender I find the insinuation that I would ride a horse into a nightclub offensive. I hope that you can understand the difference between ‘coming in’ on a horse and getting on one.

While speaking with Harper’s Bazaar, Hall admitted that she was incredibly overwhelmed with the level of celebrity in the dance club:

That was wonderful. Because you’d see all these amazing people, famous people from all over the world, in one place on one night. It was quite something! It was wonderful. You’d see Martha Graham, Rudolf Nureyev, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams. Elizabeth Taylor.

Mark Fleischman, who purchased Studio 54 from its original owners at the dawn of the ’80s, writes that the club’s most extravagant years were fueled by cocaine:

There were drugs all over the place — that’s what fueled it. I partied with the people who loved cocaine. Belushi used to freebase and would get extremely aggressive with the clientele and staff. Robin ­Williams would get very energetic and funny.

According to model/actress/singer Grace Jones, a night at Studio 54 wasn’t complete without hitting the slopes so to speak. She said:

At the time, it wasn’t so much a question of quantity as of quality. Doing cocaine was a lot more festive and social then. We snorted it like others drank coffee. And it was never hidden. The proof: at Studio 54, a huge coke spoon was hung above the dancefloor.

Studio 54 was a place where everyone could mingle no matter what they were into. It was assumed that if you were allowed in the club that you were cool, or at the very least that you could hang with some of the more outrageous people that were a constant presence on the dance floor. You didn’t have to match eyeshadow for eyeshadow with “the Godzilla of drag,” but it would help you get in if you did.

Getting into the club was not only a chance to be next to beautiful people, it was a chance to be one of the beautiful people. It was an entry point into a world that most people never see. For a lucky few, it changed their lives forever.

The night before their sentences began the two owners threw the biggest going away party that New York had ever seen. People partied like there was no tomorrow. As a send-off, Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli serenaded the crowd with song after song as if Rome were burning.

Rather than apply for a liquor license, the owners bought single-day catering licenses. Of course, the authorities began to wonder why a club would need hundreds of catering licenses and they started to move in. It didn’t take long for the party to stop and the music to end once that happened.

In the late ’70s, going to Studio 54 was a must-do for any visiting celebrity, no ifs and or buts. As co-owner Ian Schrager put it:

Any celebrity that came into New York made a stop on The Tonight Show, then made a stop at Studio 54. That’s just the way it was.

Jagger says that she didn’t ride into the club on a horse, but that 54’s owner – Steve Rubell – already had the horse there and made it available for her to ride. She wrote:

It is one thing to, on the spur of the moment, get on a horse in a night club, but it quite another to ride in on one… I often ask myself how people visualise this fable . . . Where was Mick during this time? Was he holding the reins and pulling me and the horse through the streets of New York, or following submissively behind me!?

One former reveler told the New York Times:

Ian Schrager understood right away that the experience was going to be everything and that everyone was going to come back for a different experience and he would make each one different every time. He’s such a detail freak. To him, the details were everything.

Bowie was known for hoovering up large quantities of powders and who knows what. But after meeting Iman the “Rebel Rebel” singer turned all of that off like a switch. All it took was the love of a good woman to set him on the right path.

The biggest stars of the day made their way to the club so they could flaunt their newfound success. Even though it was democracy on the dancefloor they were still known entities and treated as such. At the onset of a culture focused on celebrities, these two men lived like kings.

Myra Sheer, a longtime acolyte of the club, explained the elation of entering the club for the first time:

The first time I went there, I remember my mouth was dropping. Then I looked around and realised, ‘No one else’s mouth is dropping. Act like you’re cool.’ I had just moved to New York and thought, ‘Wow this is the glamour!’ I didn’t realise it was one singular sensation.

Photographer Dustin Pitman saw all of the insanity and didn’t turn away, he welcomed it all. He later said:

I started going to Studio 54 on opening night. It was a madhouse filled with theatrics like the moon and the spoon [sculpture], the lights coming down, the drugs, the sex going on downstairs, the disco music and the sound system, the flowers, and the non-stop frenetic energy all night long. What was special about Studio 54 was the marriage between the boy and the girl in the street and the celebrities. It was the first time a massive mix of crowds from fashion, music, celebrities, socialities, and people from the suburbs were assembling under one roof.

Inside, the club was a free for all of dancing and debauchery. The famous mingled with the rest of the world without their agents or managers tugging on their arms. Although, more often than not it was the celebrities who made it through the door first.

Owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager made sure to hide their financial woes from the celebrities who stopped in for a night. They didn’t want anyone to know that they were hiding a ridiculous amount of money and cooked books in their offices. If they gave up that information it would have ruined all the fun.

Hartman explained the excitement of capturing the essence of Studio 54 throughout the late ’70s:

I was thrilled that I was able to take these pictures, for example Lou Reed talking with Andy Warhol, or Jerry Hall sitting with Diana Vreeland, who was Editor-in-Chief at Vogue. Images like that just thrill me! I was delighted that I was able to take them. People come up to me all the time, and some don’t know I took the photo, obviously they weren’t even born back then, and they would say ‘You took that photo? That is a fabulous photo.’ It was true, it is true. It never gets old.

There are rumors that someone printed up a map showing how to sneak into the club, but at some point, a person ended up meeting their end in the air conditioning ducts on the search for the perfect party. Author Anthony Haden-Guest said:

This guy got stuck in a vent trying to get in. It smelled like a cat had died. He was in black tie.

Many people had to get over their preconceived notions of “normal life” to be able to party at Studio 54, but once they did they were better off for it. The experience allowed people to experiment, or at the very least create space in their brains for another way of life. It’s wild to think that a club changed the minds of so many people in such a short amount of time.

Fashion designer Zandra Rhodes told the New York Times that on her visit to the club she stayed sober and still passed out:

There is one very embarrassing picture of me asleep sitting next to Tina Chow, who was also asleep. I’m not really a nightclub person. I don’t drink. When you’ve got green hair, though, and you wear a dress with feathers all over it, people automatically think you’re drugged up.

Myra Sheer, the club’s publicist, explained how she got so many stars in, and who had to pay:

They hired me on instinct. In the first week or so, Steve gave me the call list. Andy Warhol, Richard Gere — it was my job to call them. Andy would always take the call. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were comped but the rest of the group had to pay.

Some people who were desperate to get in paid thousands of dollars for a chance to experience the fun of the club. Others offered up their bodies to the doormen who were “sometimes” swayed. It may have been the late ’70s but it was the wild west.

Fashion designer Norma Kamali explained exactly why so many people were drawn to studio 54:

New York was bankrupt, a disaster. Everybody was leaving. At Studio 54 everybody could shake free of the doom and gloom. It was the answer, the release, the place where you could go and not feel threatened. Nobody was going to judge you. Everybody wanted to be there to experience total exhilaration.

While speaking about Divine in 2015, director John Waters explained why Divine was the perfect fit for the era and Studio 54:

His legacy was that he made all drag queens cool. They were square then, they wanted to be Miss America and be their mothers. Divine frightened drag queens because he would show up with a chainsaw and fake scars on his face, wearing mini skirts when you’re 300 pounds. He broke every rule. And now every drag queen, every one that’s successful today is cutting edge.

While these guys could just be having a normal night, you never know what you’re going to get in a club known for its extreme hedonism. There were so many dark corners and unknown spaces in Studio 54 that someone could slip away and do whatever they wanted. It was rare that anyone found out everything that happened inside this famous club.

The 1970s were a time when people were taking the concept of “free love” from the ’60s and blending them with the superstar chic of the then-modern era. Even if you didn’t want to meet anyone at the club you still had to dress like you were looking for something extra. That was the whole point of Studio 54 and the debaucherous decade.

That practice may have felt unfair to the guys waiting outside in the cold, but 19-year-old Marc Benecke says that he was always happy to let people in if they had the right energy. He said:

One of the things I think that made me a good doorperson was that I can really feel [people’s] energy and for the most part, where they’re coming from.

While speaking with Harper’s Bazaar, Minelli explained that she didn’t know and didn’t care for the Studio’s plans to spin her records while she danced for an audience of onlookers:

There was a platform set up, and they were playing one of my records, and Bianca was like, ‘What the hell?’ And I said, ‘Just keep moving.’

Years after this photo was taken, the diaries of Andy Warhol were released and they didn’t paint Bianca in a kind light. She sued Warhol’s estate because she said that she was made to look “dumb.” Who knows if that’s really what Warhol meant to do?

Rod Stewart made countless sojourns to the club where he partied until dawn. Many members of the rock press were critical of his time at this experimental club, but he didn’t care. For Stewart, he was just living life. He told the Guardian:

I was surrounded by gay men at the time. I had a gay manager and a gay PR guy. Long John Baldry, who discovered me, was gay… [People] thought that was shocking. It’s certainly not nowadays.

Regardless of the fact that Jagger just took the horse for a spin whether it was just once around the Studio or all the way down the block, it’s telling that there was a horse in the club. This was an era when the ID was in control. There were no thoughts outside of “I want it, let’s make it happen.”

Shields says that she was able to go to the club and still be home in time to study and get a good night’s sleep. Her self-control must be off the charts. While speaking with the Guardian she explained that even though she’s led a crazy life, show business helped her keep her world in line:

If not for the entertainment industry, I would have been a train wreck. The movie business kept me afloat and sane.

Friend Bob Colacello told Town and Country Mag:

We’d gather at his house before you’d go to [Studio] 54 or before you’d go to some Martha Graham gala and he would give the girls dresses to wear. Marisa would come down and he’d say ‘don’t tell her she’s wearing it backwards.’ And he thought that was so funny. It actually looked good frontwards or backwards.

Doorman Marc Benecke told the New York Times about the first time he saw Fawcett at the Studio:

I never was that super star-struck, but I remember very vividly when Farrah Fawcett first came to the club. A white limo pulled up and she got out with this white blond hair and wearing all white. I remember it was snowing. It was this total Hollywood cinematic vision come to life.

One close friend of Rubell’s notes that the co-owner thought that he would never be caught. They told Vanity Fair:

Ultimately, Steve became completely mad with his power. He lost his mind. He thought he was above the law. The drugs—the quaaludes—had a lot to do with it. He was completely out of touch with reality.

It makes sense that someone like Travolta would want to strut his stuff in the most famous club in the world. He was an amazing dancer at the time who was known for bringing disco to the mainstream. What better place to show off his moves?

In 1977, club owner Steve Rubdell described just how uptight Stewart could be:

You know the other night Rod [Stewart] was really worried about how people would react to him and he just loosened right up. He was dancing, running around the dance floor.

According to the club’s DJ at the time there were photographers waiting in the wings to capture the moment, all of whom were hired by the club’s owners to make a stir. He told Vice:

[Bianca} had asked me to play, ‘Sympathy for the Devil,’ which I did. And then, all of a sudden I turn around and the scrim goes up and there’s these big letters on the back wall that read ‘BIANCA’ and they start flashing white lights. And she rides in on this white horse out of nowhere. Out of nowhere these hundred photographers come out like … I don’t know where they came from! They just appeared all of a sudden and they’re snapping pictures of her.