Join the Washington DC Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Oct 28th at 5:30 for Studio 54 at the Landmark E Street Cinema. Look for Eric wearing a gray shirt and blue jeans in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.
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. Studio 54 was an instant success and a cash cow, but the drug-and-sex-fueled dream soon imploded in financial scandal and the club’s demise. Now for the first time Schrager tells the inside story with unprecedented candor. Director Matt Tyrnauer (Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, Valentino: The Last Emperor) constructs a vivid, glorious portrait of a disco-era phenomenon, and tells the story of two friends who stuck together through an incredible series of highs and lows to create the greatest club of all time.