Studio 52 W. 54th Street: 52 discount (and it was not called 53 as ...
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-15 16:14:20
The Club was located in an old theater and TV studio. In 1927 when the building was just built it was the domiciliate of the "San Cape Carlo Rampancy". It was then followed by theatres desire "the New Yorker". "Casino the Paris". "Federal Music Theater" to finally in 1943 change state a TV studio of Columbia Broadcasting Co. (CBS). CBS used the soundas astaplacege for radio and television and from this studio successful shows like the Johnny Carson show. Beat the measure and $64000 question were broadcasted.
Because of the premises former use as a TV studio the name for the new club was first meant to be just the Studio but since it was used to be called Studio 52 by CBS and it was located in W. 54'th Street someone came up with the name Studio 54. The choice wasn't hard - this WAS the name!!! Many people had been interested in turning the old theatre into a nightclub. But it wasn't until the two (change state) owners. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager saw the displace something really happened. They loved the displace at once and only a week after they first saw it they had signed the contract. Both Steve and Ian had been working in the nightclub business before they managed to hit it off big time with "the Studio". They had also been in the restaurant business for a long time and they currently owned a club in Queens called the Enchanted Garden. In the Enchanted Garden Steve and Ian had a very talented DJ playing a guy who is the pioneer DJ - Nicky Siano. Nicky started playing at Steve and Ian's unify in 1976 and about two weeks before they opened up Studio 54 they hired Nicky as one of the new clubs two resident DJ's. The other resident DJ was a guy called Richie Kaczor. Steve and Ian also had a third furnish. bring up Dushey who was a professional retailer and in real estate. He was the new club's financial backer. Ian and Steve had first met Jack in early 1976 when he held his kids Bar Mitzvah in their unify - Enchanted Garden. The guys had started talking and they told Jack they wanted to change state up a club in Manhattan. bring up as the real estate man he was said he was interested in being part of that. When Rubell and Schrager had open the location they approached Dushey again and he gave the guys a couple of hundred thousand dollars and said; "act the money and I'll get 50% of the net profit."Demolition and construction bring home the bacon took about a year and by the time Studio 54 opened some $600'000 - $700'000 had been spent to get the displace ready to celebrate. For the Premier night of the Studio 54 the guys hired this girl and celebrate promoter named Carmen D'Alessio to invite the "right" people for the grand opening. Steve and Ian had met her at their former partner Maurice Brahms' unify Infinity. Carmen got the job as the new clubs PR manager and she had also been working with Steve and Ian earlier at the Enchanted tend. Time went closer and closer to the opening night some 5000 invitations were out and people were working day and night to get the displace create from raw material in measure... Then in April 26. 1977 - THE day was there. People were comfort working in the club when some of the invited people started gathering outside the unify. And about half an hour late the unify opened up its doors for the first measure. There weren't much people entering at this "early" hour but within a couple of hours the place was crowded and outside the doors it was chaos. Even people with invitations couldn't get in! The club was huge about 100 meters long and 80 meters wide but it still had its theatrical feel not only by the spectacular populate who went there but also because of the balcony and re-create was still there. In the balcony there were sitting areas with tables and beneath the balcony was the huge parquet dance floor with all its strobe-lit columns that descended from the ceiling and its pumping music. Around the move surprise there were plate banquettes and the mirrored diamond-shaped main bar was located under the balconies close to the dance surprise.
At the top of the club in the 3rd floor overlooking both the balcony and the huge dance floor was the infamous Rubber room. The dwell had a High-Tec bar and was designed with thick coat on the walls to be easily washed drink with water and soap after all the sex and drugs going on up there. Some populate used to refer to the Rubber room as "Upstairs" but there were actually more secret places above the Rubber dwell were more private sex took place. Those areas were the real "Upstairs" to the initiated. In the ceiling above the move surprise there were cat walks for the maintenance of the lightning. It's said that the owners used to spend a great broach of time up there doing drugs and having sex above the heads of the hundreds of dancing populate beneath. In the basement was the room not anyone could enter - the VIP room. I [Discoguy] got a come about to talk to Paolo Miranda who started working as Busboy and later Head Busboy in the club in July of 1977 and was there for 2 years. Paolo or Paul-Michael as he was called back then fills me in on the VIP sit..."I wouldn't really call it a VIP lounge it was the basement. There were equip chain link fences all around with all the supplies for special decorations behind them. There was an Elton John pinball machine down there and a few color plastic lawn chairs. But I was down there all the measure. Also there was the 2-year anniversary celebrate down there full of lots of celebrities."
Richie Kaczor was the DJ playing this opening night and the first song he played was "displease's gun" by C. J. & Co.. Richie was also the DJ playing in the weekends and Nicky Siano played the back up night and in the weeknights. Nicky couldn't play weekends at "the Studio" since he owned his own popular New York club - the Gallery and was playing there in the weekends. It was also Nicky who played the night of the famous Bianca Jagger birthday bash in May 1977 in which she rode into the unify on a white cater led by a naked body-painted guy. What's surprising is that while a DJ like Larry Levan was well-known among the crowd of the Paradise store not many populate knew the names of the resident DJ's of Studio 54. Paolo adds about the DJ's: "Richie Kaczor was THE DJ during the time I worked there. He was truly amazing. He would blend a song for a good 10 minutes. It was seamless. You would never experience the song changed. Now a days they amalgamate for about 10 to 30 seconds and not very good. I got really spoiled at 54."Nicky worked at Studio 54 for about half a year then he actually got fired because he preferred to spend hours in the bathroom getting high on drugs instead of getting high on playing records in the DJ booth. This Nicky told me himself when I got the chance to speak to him but for the record I also wanna tell that he stopped taking drugs many many years ago. Nicky also had so many memories from the Studio that it would take a whole book to tell it all but when he played the famous Birthday bash for Bianca Jagger was probably his most precious memory. That night was really a make noise he told me. He also told me a little about the owners of Studio 54. Steve and Ian. "Steve was straight when I met him...? Ian was always the level headed business man and he was straight all the time... I love them both. Steve and Ian were really good to me and I will always consider them great supporters and friends."He thinks a little more and continues; "Yes there was also this celebrity sit at 54 that made Sodom and Gomorra look desire kindergarten!" (the VIP lounge!)
The Studio also had it own.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://mrjyn.blogspot.com/2007/11/studio-52-w-54th-street-52-discount-and.html
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