Drugs, disco, dance and dazzle: 40 years after it first opened its doors - albeit briefly - Studio 54 retains its legendary place in pop culture (and New York City) history

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It is perhaps the most legendary nightclub of all time, encapsulating not only a fierce reputation but an unrivaled era: New York’s Studio 54 – or ‘Studio,’ to those in the know – has been immortalized in film, art, music and memory for its indelible mark on pop culture history. The 1970s hedonistic night spot had everything: world-famous celebrities and bare-chested bus boys; open club drug use and closed (and subjective) admission policies; glitter, glamour, stunts and sex. It thrived during a unique, free-wheeling period of American history, after the tumultuous pain of the Vietnam War and before the pall of the AIDS crisis, as members of the gay community came out more freely and women more openly expressed their sexuality. 

It was a playground for the young, rich and pretty, a star that burned brightly and fizzled quickly, enshrining it in pop culture lore and legend.

Studio 54 opened 40 years ago today, on a night when no one could have guessed the place it would come to hold in history. It was the brainchild of Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, college friends and club entrepreneurs who held starkly different places in the Studio 54 fray. Rubell was the outgoing ball of energy in the midst of the fray, slipping drugs into patrons’ pockets; Schrager was quieter and more frequently in the background.

Both, however, were tirelessly pulling the strings at Studio, paving the way for some of the stories from within its walls that have become famous, told and retold over and over. Perhaps the most well known involves Bianca Jagger, who rode around the club on the back of a white horse led by the reins by a giant, gold-dust covered man. The horse was brought into the club in honor of her 30th birthday, though for years it was reported that Bianca entered Studio on the back of the animal – a myth she corrected just a few years ago.

Bianca Jagger - one of the celebrity regulars at Studio 54 - rides around on a white horse led by a gold-painted performer which was organized for her 30th birthday by club owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager

Club performers were famous for dressing up in costumes for various events, parties and theme nights - which were assiduously planned - at Studio 54

Diana Ross - who performed at the club for a prison send-off bash for its tax-indicted owners - looks over the shoulder of author Truman Capote, another regular patron of Studio 54

Steve Rubell - the flamboyant life and soul co-owner of Studio 54 - escorts superstar Cher through the throngs at the club

‘I often ask myself how people visualize this fable,’ she wrote in a 2015 letter to the Financial Times. ‘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?’

She wrote that she hoped her letter would ‘put this Studio 54 fable – out to pasture.’

While that particular anecdote may have been inflated over the years – perhaps misremembered by deliriously drug-fueled patrons or simply embellished as the legends of Studio 54 burgeoned – there are equally fantastic other stories about the club. For Andy Warhol's birthday, Rubell was said to be so unsure as to what best to get him he ended up presenting the artist with a garbage can full of $800 in cash. Legend has it that Warhol said it was the best present he had ever had.

And Bianca’s birthday was not the only time Studio hosted animals (at least, those not of the party variety).

The venue - originally built in the 1920s and opened as an opera house, then theater, then CBS studio - also featured animals during its Studio 54 incarnation for a post-show Dolly Parton bash. Dolly, too, poses near a horse in a famous picture, though she was apparently not enamored by the massive turnout and left the party not long after.

Once Studio 54’s doors opened in 1977, the club was the place anyone who was anyone wanted to be seen – but even celebrities were not guaranteed entry. Frank Sinatra reportedly couldn’t get near the place on opening night, and thousands would crowd at the doors, preening and screening, shouting the names of the owners or attempting to cajole or impress infamously picky doorman Marc Benecke – who had abandoned law school plans after he got caught up in the Studio whirlwind.

‘At one point you could buy maps which claimed to show how to get in through tunnels up from the subway system,’ he told the BBC in 2012. ‘It was crazy.’

He said: ‘Naturally people tried good old-fashioned bribery but that didn't work. Then I'd say to them they should go and buy the exact same jacket I was wearing - forgive me but I was only a teen at the time. And they'd go to Bloomingdale's and buy it and still they wouldn't get in.

‘But if you were just dressing up in costume to get through the door, it showed you probably weren't the right person. We were looking for people with high energy,’ he says.

Owner Rubell – and the rest of the close-knit Studio 54 staff, who considered themselves something of an elite club in the nightlife world – repeatedly described the mix they wanted at Studio as ‘a salad.’

It wasn’t unheard of for limo drivers to be let in among the rich and famous, and an unusual cast of characters came to be regulars. Among them was Disco Sally, the 77-year-old widowed lawyer who starred on the disco floor, entertaining dance partners that ranged from world-renowned actors to the 27-year-old club regular she would eventually marry.

Bianca Jagger converses with fashion designer Halston, who was a fixture on the 1970s nightlife scene in New York City and - of course - at Studio 54

Doorman Marc Benecke, center, had the ability to pick and choose the lucky few allowed entry to Studio 54 from be hind the velvet ropes

It was notoriously difficult to gain entry to Studio 54, where owners placed great emphasis on having the correct 'salad' - or mixture - of clubgoers every night

Fashion model Pat Cleveland twirls on the dancefloor of Studio 54 on December 12, 1977 during a disco bash by Halston

Actress Margaux Hemingway and director Bernard Foucher attend a Studio 54 Valentine's Day party in 1979, the same year the couple were married

Journalist Judy Licht dances with actor Richard Gere at Studio 54 in 1979; the club's patrons hailed from the arts, media, politics, entertainment and a broad spectrum of professions

Diana Ross celebrates a New Year's Eve party at Studio 54; one bash at the club to ring in the New Year included four tons of glitter that was dropped from the ceiling

The patrons would enjoy performances by everyone from Diana Ross to Grace Jones, replete with flamboyant embellishments, all under the swaying 'Man in the Moon with a cocaine spoon.' The club was known for its ‘theatrical drops’ onto the dance floor of anything from white balloons to ping pong balls and confetti and feathers – to four tons of glitter for one New Year’s Eve party, which left revellers wading through several shimmering inches.

‘You felt like you were standing on stardust,’ Schrager later said. ‘People got the glitter in their hair, in their socks. You would see it in people’s homes six months later, and you knew they’d been at Studio 54 on New Year’s.’

The parties were legendary, and Schrager, despite the more muted role he played to Rubell’s showman, often had definite ideas. Event planner Karin Bacon described one Valentine’s Day in Anthony Haden-Guest’s 1997 book The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco & the Culture of the Night – an insightful look into the mad Studio 54 world and the era by a journalist who was often there and conducted extensive interviews with key players.

‘We didn’t just get one harpist,’ Ms Bacon said. ‘We had like twelve harpists. And they were all in costumes and they were all in makeup. But getting these harpists to play together was hard. Harpists are so individualistic.’

Of another event, she said: ‘Once Ian wanted to have dwarfs in chains, sort of grovelling around on the floor. That was one of the times I could not agree with him. I found these midgets on Long Island, who were completely well-proportioned people. They were performers. I dressed them up and got a dinner for them. Everything was mini-size. They were having this little feast when you walked in. they were drinking this champagne and they got a little high.’

Haden-Guest’s book chronicles not only the famous incidents like the Dolly Parton party and Bianca on a horse, but also lesser-known fracases the owners kept out of the papers. Rubell, for example, once arranged a basement rendezvous for a well-known countess who took a fancy to a good-looking bartender, who handcuffed her at her request – and promptly forgot about her, until Rubell realized she was missing and came to her aid.

Haden-Guest wrote in his book: ‘With two or three exceptions, tops, every one of the Newsweek forty-five made a documented appearance in Studio 54, and because of the coverage the club began receiving, it could easily seem that it was the famous faces that provided the frisson there – the sightings of Elizabeth Taylor playing with the lights, Mikhail Baryshnikov on the dance floor, Betty Ford on a banquette, Sylvester Stallone at the bar – but this was far from being the case. It was a particular moment in the growth of the Celebrity Culture, too. It would be equally fair to say that the famous came to Studio 54 because it was a slice of the ‘real’ world where they were highly unlikely to be hassled, and that they felt secure there, admired but at ease among the costume people, cozy among the glitter.’

Studio 54 was consistently mobbed as clubgoers angled to get in, often shouting the owners' names or trying to curry favor with famed doorman Marc Benecke - who said maps were even sold showing how to get in through subway tunnels

Designer Halston threw a 1,000-guest 1 a.m. breakfast disco party following the June 1977 premiere for Liza Minnelli's movie New York, New York; the actress puts on makeup in the club's mirrors

Supermodel Cheryl Tiegs and her husband Stan Dragoti attend a Valentine's Ball themed 'I Love New York' at Studio 54 

The opening night gala for Studio 54 on April 26, 1977 featured not only well-dressed and costumed clubgoers but also staff members, who became a hallmark of the club for their flamboyant (or barely there) attire

Designers Karl Lagerfeld and Paloma Picasso enjoy a star-studded party thrown by the former during the heyday of Studio 54

One name included among on that list was future US President Donald Trump, who later rather crassly summarized his experiences at Studio.

‘I would watch supermodels getting screwed, well-known supermodels getting screwed, on a bench in the middle of the room,’ he said. ‘There were seven of them and each one was getting screwed by a different guy.’

Studio was huge, filled with nooks and crannies, smaller rooms and even offices that VIP patrons were allowed to use for their pleasure. Staff were tasked with keeping the most coveted partygoers happy, attending to their every desire. The guest list consistently read like a who’s who from politics, art, literature, film and music: Andy Warhol, Margaret Trudeau, Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger, Diane von Furstenberg, Liza Minelli, Truman Capote, Salvador Dali.

The frenetic atmosphere, however, could only last so long – and it was extinguished by the missteps of the club owners themselves, which they readily acknowledged. In December 1979, the IRS raided Studio and found bags full of money stashed throughout the building. Schrager and Rubell – who had bragged that ‘only the mafia made more money’ than Studio – were indicted on federal income-tax charges involving more than $2.5million. They pleaded guilty to evading corporate and personal taxes and each served 13 months in prison – but not before, in true Studio fashion, the nightclub hosted a massive going-away-to-jail party.

The bash took place in February 1980, where long-time patron Diana Ross performed and other attendees included Richard Gere, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone and Gia Carangi.

Following their release from prison, the pair sold the building to Mark Fleischman, who re-opened Studio 54 in 1981 and operated the nightclub under the same name until 1986. Its name was later changed to The Ritz and the space was then converted to a Broadway theater, which it remains to this day; it has been home to productions such as Cabaret, a Streetcar Named Desire and Waiting for Godot, while Sweat is currently playing.

Steve Rubell died of hepatitis and septic shock in 1989. Ian Schrager went into the boutique hotel business and sold his company, Morgans Hotel Group, the most famous hotel group in the world at the time, for a reputed $400 million in 2005. He is scheduled to release a book later this featuring stories and photographs from Studio’s heyday.

Comedians Gilda Radner and Bill Murray wear overalls and heart-shaped sunglasses, respectively, as they enjoy a dance during a Valentine Ball at Studio 54

Celebrities were frequently pictured socializing together at Studio 54, such as (from left to right) Elton John, Alana Hamilton and singer Rod Stewart

Initially opened as an opera house and theater, Studio 54 during the 1970s became infamous for wild antics, open drug use (with drugs often passed to patrons by club staff) and sexual trysts within the building's nooks and crannies

New York has not seen a nightclub like Studio 54 before or since; the club and its 'Man in the Moon' and 'Silver Spoon' (right), coupled with the disco era and the celebrities who dominated it, have become a part of pop culture lore

Steve Rubell was notoriously particular about who should be let in to Studio 54 - though there was no question about (from left to right) Liza Minnelli, Bianca Jagger and Andy Warhol