How do Brits feel about King Charles? Chuck Garelick was head of security, a serious job when a mob of wannabe cool people were constantly clamoring to be let in, sometimes resorting to threats of violence. I definitely did. It was as important to be onPage Six as it is today. The Supreme Court Pauses Abortion-Pill Restrictions. He worked on Wall Street and he used to dress up in this semi-drag outfit. In the three short years of Studio 54s heyday, Marc Benecke was who you had to get past to enjoy the hedonistic other side. You met amazing people you knew that you were at the epicenter of something really remarkable. The lyrics also refer to the B-52's, so this would have had to at least been 1979/80. And we all made really good money. You got up and you danced, and you might end up dancing with Catherine Deneuve or anybody, but there was a sense that different rules applied. I do! It caught the eye of FX guy Ryan Murphy, who plans to spotlight its demise in the next season of American Crime Story. According to a prosecutor (via MarketWatch), the owners were skimming up to 80% of the club's revenue. We were all really serious about creating a great show.". Mifepristone will remain widely available through April 19, the deadline for the Court to decide whether to let stand an order rolling back access. Though the door was notoriously challenging due to the sheer number of people lined up each night, inside there was no hierarchy. Nile Rodgers on Writing 'Le Freak,' Grace Jones, and the Disco Backlash. According to his website, for over two years he "did everything from bussing tables to running the front desk, to counting cash (lots of cash), to managing the third shift during Studio 54's first renovation, to creating and running 'auditions' for new staff, to initiating and designing special decor for the basement VIP area.". When people got to know me, they realized I wasnt like that. Horowitz's whole gig was getting famous people to come to the club and booking movie premieres there. But Pittman also nodded to florist Renny Reynolds and event planner Robert Isabell, the latter of whom once dumped four tons of glitter on the dance floor when the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve. He used to hide his costumes in different nooks and crannies in the city because there was no way he could changeespecially in those daysfrom his job on Wall Street. Spanish police are hunting a British man after a doorman was killed while trying to break up a fight at former TOWIE star Elliot Wright's restaurant.. Father-of-two Jose Rafael Pisano Pardo died . While there's no way of knowing if Studio 54 contributed to the AIDS epidemic in any real way, many regular clubgoers and employees would succumb to the disease. Self. This crowd is made up of well-known, successful individuals: Fashion designer Halston and actress Bianca Jagger are on the left, followed by film director Jack Haley Jr. and actress Liza Minnelli in the back right. But they did it so professionally, and to the nines. Surrounded by those he loved, he swallowed five barbiturate pills intending to overdose. Each celebrity "get" was worth a certain amount of money, depending on star power. To an extent. There he met one of Warhol's inner circle of "superstars," the actress known as Ingrid Superstar, and she took him downtown to the Factory to meet the famed Pop artist. It just wasnt gonna work. Steve and Ian, the owners of Studio 54, came in looking for another doorman, a preppy doorman, to help out Marc. You never asked anybody to dance, that was rule number one. Like Studio 54 itself, Tyrnauer's doc thrives on access. Opened by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager in 1977the same year Saturday Night Fever came outtheres never been a club like it since, with celebrities, socialites and scene- makers clamoring for a ticket in. As Netflixs Halston reminds us, Studio 54 was a fever dream of excess. But most celebrities knew there would be paparazzi there, and they could be on Page Six the next day. The dancing and fun continued until the early hours, the atmosphere heavy with the stench of poppers and Elizabeth bebopping with a bevvy of gay porn stars, until Warner put his foot down and said that they were leaving., Andy Warhol also wrote a less-than-flattering recap of the shindig in his journal. Whats the orb for? Who do you particularly remember? Nearly 35 years after her underappreciated romantic comedys release, the Oscar nominee returns to the Lower East Side. People were really tired of war and people just wanted to have a good time, and we did. After it all came crashing down and the club closed, Benecke took a much-needed West Coast hiatus. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. If Benecke granted you entry, you were whisked through the Corridor of Joy, a long hallway echoing screams of happiness before partygoers melted into the eye of the disco storm, Studio 54s dance floor. ), Hey, he said after my stunned pause, you asked., Nothing could shock me anymore, added Gaines, whose book Simply Halston is the basis for Netflixs limited series starring Ewan McGregor as the late fashion designer. Rubell wasalso rumored to pressure the young men he employed to sleep with him if they wanted to keep their jobs. It was of the times, of that moment. Halston, Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, Mick Jagger, Cher, David Geffen, Jack Nicholson, and Michael Jackson regularly packed the banquettes. It still is," Schrager told "CBS This Morning: Saturday" co-host Anthony Mason. Now Pittman, along with many other creative talents in photography, fashion, make-up and design, is featured in the Brooklyn Museum's ode to the midtown hotspot. He was all of 19-years-old. Scott Bitterman, a former busboy and assistant manager,wrote on his blog that notorious attorney Roy Cohn and fashion designer Halston died from AIDS complications, as did the club's host Joe Renny, and even owner Steve Rubell, in 1989. This included the employees. The former editor of Interview, Bob Colacello, said of Studio 54, "Even if you weren't having sex with someone every night, you felt like you could.". If he was never going to let you in, he'd ignore you, or worse, mess with you. There was a fair amount of nudity. There were people like Carmen D'Alessio, who claims almost all the credit for making the club a hit but didn't hang out with the other employees, saying that, "Studio didn't impress [her]." So people felt that that life could be happiness. Written by Jacqui Palumbo, CNNNew York. What was your approach to turning someone away? By the next night, he was put behind the bar when another guy called in sick. Now 39 years sober, Sheridan is in private practice as a psychotherapist in Providence, Rhode Island; he is also the father of one of my best friends, which is how I know about his past life as a disco lounge lizard, as he put it in our recent interview. Since then, the photographer said, there's never been another club like it, though many have tried to recapture the spirit (including Rubell and Schrager, who opened the nightclub Palladium after their stints in jail). According to New York Magazine, Lenny Miestorm was a teenaged art student who grew up on a farm and one of the original hires at Studio 54. He basically taught me everything: what to look for, what not to look for. The doomsday mom, who wanted to rid the world of zombies, is accused of murdering two of her children. It was a festival of light and music, and the effects were incredible. Theyd get in. He was standing by the bar, and Steve said, Andy, this is Bobby Sheridan, hes our new doorman. I said, How do you do? I shook his hand, and he just wouldnt let it go. Still, the impact of Gagas sequined going-out top endures, a little disco lure to reel butts into seats. How did you get involved at such a young age? He could also be a jerk though. Studio 54 defined clubbing, disco, and celebrity in the late 1970s. If Pittman was taking a portrait, he liked to make it more collaborative, capturing the whole of their personality in a single shot. Jim McMullen, hed come down three or four nights a week with about 20 people from the restaurant. You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. But, like so many creatives, he found such a traditional job confining and decided he had a better idea, which he presented to the club's owner after less than one shift. He had every single song in his car., Ross prodded an even more trashed Rubell into singing himself. Paolo M. Miranda - busboy. He started dancing, and the whole floor cleared out, and he danced to a couple of songs from that album. 2016 The Incomparable Rose Hartman (Documentary) (as Mark Benecke) 2015 ON the ROOF (TV Series) Self (2016) (as Mark Benecke) 2012 The Secret Disco Revolution (Documentary) Self (as Mark Benecke) 2008 70's Fever (TV Movie documentary) Self - Studio 54 Doorman (as Mark Benecke) I had been going there a lot, I wasnt getting any work acting and I was getting a little tired of tending bar, and this seemed like a very exciting thing to do. Back then it was kind of normal for people to be excessive. Pittman took a similar approach at Studio 54. I met a quarterback. Show Schedule. Cocaine was the marijuana of the disco era. His position as the gatekeeper made him socially the most powerful man in the city, according to no less an authority than The New York Times. Here, Vogue presents the best looks from Studio 54. How exactly the music at a disco could interfere when it's literally called "disco" is unclear. I think the Village Voice put it best when they said you cant reheat souffl, and thats basically what the story was at 54. Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission. Beyond being just the bouncer, he was also the gatekeeper for the "look" of the club, and anyone who didn't fit his definition of what that look was would find themselves at the end of the line. And its very interesting, I mean, it was fascinating. The outside was really a show in itself. According to The Guardian, the balcony, with its slightly secluded nature, was covered in easy to wipe down materials for any body fluids that got spilled up there. ]I kept Barry Gibb waiting for half an hour. Oh no, hes the Bee Gee! But back in the day, she would dance nonstopfrom midnight to 5:00 a.m. many nights a week, taking only bathroom and cocaine breaks., As New York magazine reported at the time, A tiny, 77-year-old lawyer named Sally Lippman was mourning the death of her husband when she happened upon the disco scene and changed her life. Halloween was always the biggest night of the year, drawing crowds of over 2,500, recalled Fleischman. And the people who worked there. A lot of stuff was going on in New York City that you just couldnt believe. New York was very, very loose at the time. "It was the whole mix of the people: people from all around the world, all income levels, all professions mixing together and absolutely getting along (and) enjoying themselves," Pittman said. Ahead, five outrageous anecdotes that paint a picture of Studio 54 in all of its gratuitous glory. Perhaps it was the blank slate Benecke offered that Rubell liked. He was like a fairy godmother. How much cocaine are we talking?Cocaine was ubiquitous. They were very into social issues and I grew up being politically aware at a very early age. One Studio 54 bartender went onto much bigger things. Chuck Garelick - head of security. Not that Studio wasnt adult. Was it as extreme as its been written about? One bartender stood out for being a bit different. He launched into an enthusiastic rendition of I Did It My Way. A bit too enthusiastic, in fact. Rubell was the exact opposite. Not at all. We became very good friends. His position as the gatekeeper made him socially the most powerful man in the city, according to no less an authority than The New York Times. At 19 you were one of the youngest on staff at Studio 54. Everyone wanted to get in, from ex-first ladies to drag queens. Hed have dinner in fairly large groups and you could get a sentence out here and there, but in general, he was more of an observer than a participant unless he knew you really, really well. Once he told a guy to go to Bloomingdale's and buy the same blazer Benecke was wearing. That remains in my mind as a real crystalline memory of that time. A double dose of Rachel Weisz is just what the doctor ordered. There was an army of people working behind the velvet rope, behind the bar, and behind the scenes to make sure Studio 54's patrons had the times of their lives once they were inside. For a nightclub that only lasted a few years and closed more than four decades ago, the strength of Studio 54's sustained cultural influence astonishes me. "When you walked in the front door, not only did you get the sound of the disco music, the smell of sex and taste the sweat, but you got the smell of all those live gardinias. He could have killed himself.. But before you went in there, you had to check your coat. The next day, a picture of Cher leaving the club covered the New York Post. The city had moved on. "It's always in the air. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 2hrs. 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