Studio 54 is the one nightclub from the ’70s everyone remembers. For most of his life, though, co-founder Ian Schrager has wanted to forget it. “I don’t have only good memories. I have bittersweet memories. It was an embarrassment to me. It still is,” Schrager told “CBS This Morning: Saturday” co-host Anthony Mason. Studio 54 was the hottest party spot in the world, defining the disco era in all its ecstasy and excess. But eventually the club was raided and its owners went to jail. Schrager is now opening up about those years for a new documentary about the legendary night spot. “Well, after 40 years … I wanted to really set the record straight for my kids. … I saw a quote. Berry Gordy said in the book, ‘If the hunter doesn’t tell the story, the lion will,'” Schrager said. Schrager and his college buddy, Steve Rubell, were the hunters. In 1977, they converted a former CBS television studio, adding theatrical lighting and a dance floor. “Studio was more than a discotheque. It was more than a night club. It was a cultural phenomenon,” he said. It started at the door, where crowds were kept behind a velvet rope and doormen lifted it only for the famous, the outrageous, the beautiful and the unusual. Who they let in at the door was what created the magic and the freedom on the floor. Everyone wanted in. Suddenly two college buddies from Syracuse University became the kings… [Read full story]
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