M&M Presents Home

New York after dark 1977

The Original Studio 54

New York, late. The pavement is heaving, the cameras are flashing and the bass is coming through the walls. All that stands between you and the best night in town is a bit of velvet rope.

A crowd fills the pavement beneath the illuminated Studio 54 marquee
West 54th Street, all trying to get through the same door. Images/REX/Shutterstock

01 The door

Good luck getting in

Steve Rubell picked the crowd like he was casting a show. One night an outrageous outfit could get you further than a famous name. On New Year’s Eve 1977, Grace Jones invited Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, and they still got turned away. They went home and started writing what became Chic’s “Le Freak”. As ways to get your own back go, that’s hard to beat.

02 Inside

The whole room was the show

Past the rope, the place was packed. Queer New York had already made disco its own, and at 54 the dancers, drag queens, models and movie stars all shared the same floor. Silver streamers dropped from the ceiling and people pulled them down to wear as scarves. Somewhere in the middle of it all, someone was up on somebody’s shoulders.

A woman in a striped outfit is lifted above a packed dance floor beneath mirrored lights
A full dance floor under the mirror lights.

For her birthday, Bianca Jagger climbed onto a white horse inside the club. Diana Ross once took over the top of the DJ booth, microphone in hand. At 54, the moment you’d be telling people about for years could happen halfway through a record.

Bianca Jagger in a burgundy dress sitting on a white horse inside the club
Bianca Jagger on her birthday, 1977.
Diana Ross singing from the DJ booth with turntables and a crowd around her
Diana Ross on top of the DJ booth, 1980.

03 After hours

Upstairs was another story

It was a disco with a filthy reputation, and it earned it. People who were there remember sex in the balcony, cocaine downstairs and a giant moon with a spoon hanging above the dance floor. Subtlety had apparently been turned away at the door.

The thrill was in the mix. You could dress up, flirt, dance with whoever caught your eye and be a bit bolder than you were on the pavement outside. Then you’d go home with a story that sounded made up.

Partygoers hold sparklers above a crowd in feathers and sequins
Sparklers, feathers and a room at full tilt.

04 Studio 54 Reimagined

Why we picked Studio 54

We wanted a night that feels glamorous, sexy and a little ridiculous in the best way. At V2V, that means modern disco and vocal house, dressing up because it’s fun, and enough mischief that you might stay out longer than you meant to. The bit we loved about Studio 54 was the feeling that the night could go anywhere. That’s the bit we’re bringing to Nuneaton.

What to Expect on the Night
Photo credits & sources

Photography

  • Street crowd: Images/REX/Shutterstock, as credited on the photograph.
  • Additional images are supplied colour versions of archival photographs.

Further reading

  • PBS American Experience, A Glimpse into the Glamorous World of Studio 54
  • Art Gallery of Ontario, Studio 54: Night Magic
  • Library of Congress, National Recording Registry essay on Chic’s Le Freak
  • Vanity Fair, Anything Went and Classic Photos from Studio 54
  • Bianca Jagger’s 2015 letter to the Financial Times about the horse photograph