For a brief 33 months, from 1978 to 1980, the nightclub Studio 54 was THE PLACE to be seen in Manhattan.
A haven of hedonism, tolerance, glitz and glamour, Studio 54 was very hard to get into and impossible to ignore, with news of who was there filling the gossip columns daily. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, two college friends from Brooklyn, succeeded in creating the ultimate escapist fantasy in the heart of the theater district. Rubell was the outgoing party-boy who wanted to be everybody’s friend and knew every celebrity, and Schrager was the quiet, behind-the-scenes workhorse. The club was an instant success and a cash cow, but the drug-and-sex-fueled dream soon imploded in financial scandal and place’s demise.