Schrager was both astonished and impressed by what he saw at the more popular clubs of the time. The two became friends and eventually began exploring the nightworld of NYC together. Steve Rubell, left, and Ian Schrager, right. Ian Schrager, left, and Steve Rubell, right. It was Schrager's job to organize a rapidly swelling chain of Rubell's Steve Rubell approached him and signed him up It was the early 1970s, and what attracted him to the restaurant business was what attracts many amateurs to running restaurants or bars - the idea that you spend your time not with numbers, but with people.įellow Brooklynite Ian Schrager (born 1946) had begun to practice His first ventures were a place in Bayside, Queens and a fancier place in New Haven, CT called the Tivoli. In a strange way, that was very therapeutic," says Nile Rogers, who became a disco star with Chic and later produced albums for both Madonna and Bowie.īrooklynite Steve Rubell (born 1943) was a young man pursuing a career in restaurant ownership. It wasn't about save the world! It was about get yourself a mate, have fun, and forget about the rest of the world. " was the exact antithesis of hippie music that had proceeded it. Then you'd see little toes twinkling behind their ears." "You would look around," says David Hamilton, photographer, "and you'd see somebody's back. The bleachers were a place for privacy, or as much privacy as one could expect from Studio 54. Above were the bleachers, the circle when the place had been a theater, now upholstered (as the joke went) with material that could be hosed down daily.
Ignored by most was a discreet door in the wall that opened onto the stairs that led to the VIP room in the basement. Privacy was still respected by the paparazzi, and people would let loose with wild abandon knowing that what happened at Studio 54, stayed at Studio 54.īefore reality TV allowed everyone and anyone to have their fifteen minutes of fame, revelers would pack Studio, celebrating their place as a Special Attraction by arriving in the buff, or painted silver, or in over-the-top drag. The world of the "wardrobe malfunction" had yet to become a tired headline. These were the days before the tabloid celebrity culture of today, before the predatorial reign of the paparazzi. While the ball lasted, there was no more thrilling nightlife than the Spectacle so preternaturally pleasurable that it had to fall apart. Ropes, before anyone had ever heard of “club drugs” like XTC, 2CB, and Special K - Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager let there be light and speed and On Ap- a long time before superstar D.J.’s, before velvet
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