WEBVTT - The Filthy Magic of Studio 54 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:10.320 Welcome to stuff you should know a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:14.360 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm boogie down Josh, 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:18.120 and there's Disco Stu Chuck and it's just the two 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:22.520 of us because Diana Ross Jerry is not here right now. 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.360 Yeah, this is what I'm surprised we didn't tackle shortly 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:28.760 after our disco episode as like a two parter. 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:31.880 It is a little surprising, isn't it. But I hadn't 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.199 heard of Studio fifty four until you pick this, so 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:35.400 I don't know how that would have been. 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:37.400 That's funny. 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.319 I'm just kidding. I've heard of it. I'm cool, man, 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:44.480 I'm hip, even though I guess I was one year 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:48.800 old to three years old when it was open, so 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:50.960 as it was going on, I wasn't aware of it. 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.000 But later in life I kind of developed an awareness 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:55.400 of it. What do you think about all that? 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:58.800 I mean, I would have been six years old to nine, 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.120 so I probably could have gotten into Studio four. 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:05.039 I was gonna say the same thing. There's some shocking 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.920 revelations about this stuff that anybody who knows about Studio 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:11.360 fifty four is probably like, yeah, and that's just how 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:13.880 it was. And on the outside, it's it's just nuts. 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.720 It was just such a they called it like the 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:21.400 disco sodom and Gomorrah. It was just a complete bach 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.319 and all of like just drugs and sex and like 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:28.160 in the club, and it was just absolutely nuts. But 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.759 as you read about it, it's it's just the same 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.000 themes over and over again. People had sex in the club, 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.120 everybody was doing coke in the club, everybody was on quayludes, 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:42.160 and Mick Jagger's wife Bianca was on a horse once 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.720 and it just kept getting like it all was just 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.160 kind of melded together, and I kind of felt like 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.680 by the time I was done researching this, I get 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:52.880 Studio fifty four. 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:58.880 Yeah, there's a documentary on Netflix that's okay called Studio 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:05.040 fifty four. Yes, from filmmaker Matt I guess tiern Hour. 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:10.040 There was a very bad movie about Studio fifty four, 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:14.000 like a movie movie with Mike Myers in playing Steve Rebel. 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:16.799 I thought that was the documentary. I was gonna say, 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.800 Steve Rubell is like the spinning image of Mike Myers. 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:22.120 But now I got youa no, Mike, it turns out 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.959 Mike Rebell or I'm sorry Steve Rebell, Mike Myers, Young Billy, Joel, 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:28.520 and Alex Edelman all sort of are the same person. 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:30.639 Oh that's interesting. 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:32.880 They all look alike. But it's interesting. When I was 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.359 watching the documentary, Emily was floating through the room here 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.400 and there, and people were just like, oh my god, 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.160 and we would just do this and this and this 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.760 and this, and she finally wandered through and just went 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:44.200 these people sound like idiots. 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.320 Yeah it is. It's just basically another example of an apologies, 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.960 like this is a pretty blanket statement, but the boomer 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.240 generation being like, we did this and had so much 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.440 fun and it's the coolest thing that could ever possibly happen. 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.400 Yeah. Think, And it's sort of like it reeked of 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.800 a documentary on like the you know, the what was 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:13.200 that ill fated Doomed Island Music Festival fire Festival. Yeah, 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:14.640 it was kind of like that where she was just like, 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:16.720 these people are idiots, Like how long can you just 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.839 sit around and talk about doing cocaine every night and 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:21.720 dancing until the sun came up? 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.400 Yeah? But the thing is, and Olivia helps us with this, 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:28.720 and I think she kind of captured it. The reason 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.640 it seems like that studio fifty four is still just 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:38.920 so prominent in just the general cultural consciousness, especially in America. 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.800 Is because it was short lived. It ended at its peak, 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:45.680 so it didn't stick around long enough to like really 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:50.840 like become passe. And in the very short, like bursting 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.080 lifespan that it had less than three years, like thirty 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.600 three months, I think it was just it was the 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.880 coolest of the cool And when you all that together, 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:05.800 that's how fifty years later, people like us are doing 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:07.800 a podcast on it still. You know what I mean 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.280 about a club a club. That's why we're doing a 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:14.760 podcast one of eight thousand disco clubs that were open 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.040 between nineteen seventy four and nineteen seventy six alone. That's 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:20.320 how important this club was to that scene. 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.279 Yeah, I mean, it's on one hand, there's a couple 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:24.839 of ways to look at it. It was it was 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:28.599 a symbol of something more than probably anything. Was the 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:32.320 symbol of that era, of that excess and decadence and everything. 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.160 And on one hand, like my brain goes, yeah, but 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.160 you know what, this is great because it was these 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:45.479 nightclubs were havens for minorities and for gay people, for 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:47.920 that community to get together in a safe place where 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:51.400 they could be themselves, because like you literally, like the 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.360 documentary even says like, if you were a transgender person, 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:56.160 you were taking your life in your hands walking down 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.880 the street. Some nights, you know, you get just assaulted. 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:03.719 You can still get assaulted for that, but especially back then. 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:06.200 So part of my brain goes there, and part of it, 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.760 of it goes to like kind of what Emily said, 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:17.000 just like what a vapid material, just sort of scene 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.160 based on how you looked and who you knew, and 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:22.599 part of it part of it was like, oh wow, 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.960 what a cool time, and then part of me was like, geez, 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.600 what an awful group of people. 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.280 Yeah, yeah, okay, good. I'm glad that we pretty much 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.640 arrived at the same place. And also I find it 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:37.080 comforting that I'm following the long standing trend of agreeing 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:37.640 with Emily. 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:40.760 Yeah. Well, as we get older, I think I tend 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:43.919 to look at things a little more with like and 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.120 I like that, rather than just like, yeah, man, what 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:47.200 a cool party that was? 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.040 Exactly for sure, but let's talk about what a cool 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:51.719 party that was. 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:54.880 Yeah. I guess we should get to the building first, 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:59.839 because it was a historied building. It was located at 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:04.040 two fifty four West fifty fourth Street. It was originally 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.760 an opera house in the nineteen twenties and then in 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:11.520 the nineteen forties, kind of through the fifties and into 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:15.040 the sixties and seventies, it was a CBS studio. They 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:19.360 had a sixty four thousand dollars Question and Captain Kangaroo 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:23.520 and What's My Line? And it was called Studio fifty two. 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:28.040 Weirdly at the time, it's so square. But they all 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:31.360 eventually moved their operations to Los Angeles with the CBS 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:35.200 studios there in Central Hollywood, and it sat there empty 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.560 in nineteen seventy seven. So the guys that noticed that 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:41.840 studio was sitting empty or this large theater, I guess 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.440 were two guys named Steve Rebell and Ian Schrager, who 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:50.000 were Brooklyn guys from sort of working class to middle 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:55.320 class Jewish families who met each other at college at Syracuse. 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:59.000 Yeah, apparently they became like friends for life. Ian Trigger 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:01.919 said that after they met and became friends, he thinks 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.400 that he and Steve Rubell spoke every day for the 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:09.760 rest of Steve Rubell's life. And Ian Schrager also put 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.520 it that because they were from Brooklyn. They had something 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:16.640 to prove, especially you know, going to Syracuse with probably 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.560 some wealthier kids and then coming from working class families. 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:22.920 I'm not gonna say they had a chip on their shoulder, 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.960 but they were like, they were hustlers, they were ambitious. 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.520 They were going to make a life for themselves rather 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:30.880 than you know, just end up joining their dad's firms 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.200 because their dads didn't have a firm. One was a 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:35.840 postman and the other one was named Max the Jew 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:40.960 who ran illegal gambling operations. So that kind of drive, 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.920 and then also just the creativity that those two guys 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.120 had together, and then also like just the connection that 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:52.360 they had, Like this was a genuine partnership that came 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:57.400 that this came out of it was it just kind 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:00.960 of I think inserted a little electricity that otherwise wouldn't 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:02.400 have been there. Yeah. 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:06.560 So after they graduated, Ian Schrager went to law school 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.560 at Saint John's and started practicing. Along the early seventies, 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:17.080 Rebel got into the steakhouse business and was apparently opening 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:22.200 steakhouses a little too quickly because he overextended himself. Did 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:25.120 you see the one ad for one of his restaurants. 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.040 No, they were called steak lofts, right, Like. 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:31.760 Well, this one was at least steak loft make love 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.080 to your stomach. And in the subheading it said all 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.720 entrees include soup, salad, bar, baked potato, and shrimp. 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:40.199 Wow. 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:41.520 Not a bad deal. 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:43.600 Yeah, no, that is a pretty good deal. I'm kind 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:44.480 of hungry for it now. 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.240 But he had these steakhouses. He got into a little 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.199 financial trouble and his old palse stepped in to help 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.760 keep creditors at bay as his attorney. And then by 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.000 this point though in the early seventies, they were already 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:02.439 sort of co owners and two different discos, one in 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:03.760 Queen's and one in Boston. 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.240 Yeah, the one in Queen's is the more important one. 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.040 They actually gave up their share in the one in 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.199 Boston so that they could get full ownership of the 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:15.680 Queen's one called in Chana Garden. And it was kind 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:18.720 of like the original template for what would become Studio 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.000 fifty four. They would throw like theme parties where everybody 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.280 would dress up and they would decorate it along with 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.520 the theme. Like it was way more than just some club. 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:29.200 And it's like, look at the mirrors on the wall 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:31.800 in the disco, ball up there like this was. There 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:36.040 was theatrics to it too. And so the other big 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.480 thing that happened at in Channa Garden is that they 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.600 met a man named Jack Douchey or Dushy. Let's go 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:43.160 with Dushy. 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:45.600 Oh, I thought it was dhe is it? 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:50.200 Oh? Do you s a g y do? Shee? Is 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:54.119 definitely a pronunciation of that. So you say douche Huh? 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.080 I thought it was, but I actually can't remember now 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.200 from the documentary that I watched three hours ago. 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:03.400 Well, let's agree it's definitely not Douchey. Okay. His name 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.600 was Jack d and he owned a store in Brooklyn, 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.120 I think a discount store, and was fairly wealthy. And 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:11.880 he threw either depending on who you ask, his daughter's 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.400 bot mitzvah or his son's bar mitzvah at in Channa 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:18.000 Garden and I guess like the cut of Steve and 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.959 Ian's jib, and went into business with them as a 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.840 silent partner, and he gave them the influx of cash 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.360 that they needed to start Studio fifty four. 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.480 Yeah, it was about a half a million bucks. It 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:31.199 was kind of a crazy idea at the time, even 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:35.320 though disco techs were big. West fifty fourth Street at 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.640 this time was really I guess the best way to 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:40.280 say it is sleazy. 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:41.520 Is it in your town square. 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.200 Yeah, I mean that's all sort of in that theater district. 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.720 But at the time it was just it was dirty, 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.319 it was dangerous. People thought like, if you're trying to 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.200 open a high end disco tech like, this is not 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.079 the part of town where you want to be doing that. 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:57.760 They did it anyway. 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:02.440 Wow. Yeah. They formed a company called Broadway Catering Corporation, 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.400 which will make a little more sense in a little while, 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.360 and they leased that building at two fifty four West 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:14.520 fifty fourth Street and they got to work on turning 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.840 it into a club. They did it in six weeks. 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:22.079 They went from nothing to ready for people to come 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:26.200 in six weeks without a construction license, I. 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:30.560 Think, yeah, And they just kind of got to work. 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:32.280 It was, you know, sort of a time where you 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.400 could just get away with stuff until you didn't kind 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.360 of under the table style, and that's what they did. 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.680 You said they started with nothing, but not quite because 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.120 the theater was it was an old theater, so they 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.800 had a stage and they had a perscenium arch, and 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.960 they had a lighting rigging system. Yeah, that was there 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:54.000 from the TV days and because they sort of got 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:58.040 not blocked, but their rivals in the other discotheques were 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:01.000 basically saying like, hey, don't go work for the guys. Yeah, 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:04.920 if you're a designer or you know someone who would 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.640 help them open it. And so they went very smartly 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:10.439 to Broadway and got people who worked in the theater 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:12.839 to come in and they were like, this place has 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.040 got all the bones and this lighting rig's already set up, 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:16.720 Like this is not going to be too hard. 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.480 No, they had a lot to work with, in other words, 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.760 so they hired one guy, a guy named Richard Long, 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.120 who actually was the sole veteran of the club scene 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:29.640 of like like setting up clubs. He had set up 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.560 the sound systems for most of the gay discos in 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.400 New York, so he knew what he was doing, and 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.480 that certainly came in handy because, I mean, one of 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:41.160 the main things of Studio fifty four was the music, 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.080 right like in the dancing to the music. So to 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:46.760 have a pro creating the sound system was a big one. 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.640 And then you also cannot overlook the role that Carmen 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:55.360 Delecio did. She was a pr sorceress. I saw her 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:59.520 described as and her role essentially was to basically go 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:03.920 around to New York's glitterati and talk about how awesome 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:07.280 this club is going to be. And it worked very well. 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.680 Yeah, for sure. There were other PR people that worked 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:16.680 with them that literally got paid for placing story, placing 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:19.640 stories in the newspaper, Like you get five hundred dollars 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:23.679 if there's a picture of Liza Benelli and Truman Capoti 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.760 going into Studio fifty four in the New York Post, 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:28.880 and you get this much if it's in this magazine. 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:31.440 And that was, you know, it was a pretty smart 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.959 way to do it. It was incentivizing these PR people 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.560 to get the you know, the biggest stars of the 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.280 time very publicly through usually the front door, but sometimes 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:42.800 they would slip in through the stage door. 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.679 Right. There was also just a little bit more about 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:50.520 the club, right, I see that it had eighty five 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:53.880 foot ceilings. Is that right? 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:56.560 Oh? Yeah, it was super super tall. 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:02.000 That's like a nine story building inside. Yeah, okay, well 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.440 I just want to make sure because my brain starts 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:06.079 to boggle, like thirty feet up. 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.920 Well, I mean those big the old theaters in New 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:14.000 York were huge and vast yeah, and still are okay, 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.040 So like, that's what you got to remember is this 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.600 was a performance theater turned into a nightclub. 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:21.480 Right, I got that. I still don't think I've ever 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.880 been in a theater that was eighty five feet up 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:24.640 to the ceiling. 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:27.640 Maybe you should go to Carnegie Hall, my friend. 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.040 I'm a bad judge of height and distance and all 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.240 that too, But so I guess it makes sense then 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.520 that it could hold a capacity of two thousand people 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:37.520 because when they ran out of room on the floor, 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.240 they just start stacking them on top of one another. 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:46.360 On that eleven thousand square foot dance floor. And you know, 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:49.520 while there was a scene happening anyway, a lot of 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.600 it was really about the dancing. There. There was a 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.240 mezzanine lounge on the second story, a second story bar, 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.240 and a balcony that kind of looked down upon the 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.920 whole thing where you could go up and drink and 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.080 do mountains of cocaine and have public sex. 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:07.760 What how cool? Are you serious? 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:11.000 It all sounds gross to me. 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.800 I mean it was gross. At one point they retrofitted 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:19.920 the second floor balcony, like the I guess, the whole 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:26.480 area around it with like wash off rubber coating. Gross. 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:30.480 It is gross. The whole thing's gross. Yes, and it 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:32.680 was fairly gross. But I saw it. I saw it 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.440 described as this. These people were living in the age 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:40.640 after the invention of the pill, before the onset of aids, 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:45.360 so they could just have public sex and do mounds 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:49.400 of cocaine and take tons of kuludes with virtually no 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.360 consequences whatsoever, the. 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:54.640 Good old days, I guess. 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:56.840 So you want to take a break. 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:57.680 Should we take a break? 0:15:57.720 --> 0:15:57.800 Oh? 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.000 Look at us. Yeah, let's do that, and we'll talk 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:09.280 about opening night right after this. 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.760 Okay, chuck. So it's opening night six weeks after they 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:40.560 started construction on Tuesday, April twenty sixth, nineteen seventy seven, 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.479 aka the most important date in the history of humanity. 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.960 According to some of the people who were there, that 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.320 hype that Carmen Delecio had been building up was really 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:55.240 paying off. Apparently there was an hour's long wait already, 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:57.920 and it was so long that Frank Sinatra and Warren 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:01.280 Batty were like, this is taking too long. I'm out 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.480 of here. That's how long the wait was, Warren Baby. 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:11.000 Yeah, they I mean the pre hype was there in 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.480 full because well because of the pr push for one, 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.080 but also because they were selling memberships before it opened. 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:24.440 They had eighteen thousand people apply to get a membership card. 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:26.920 So here's how it worked. If you just showed up 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:30.360 and you were lucky enough to get in and had 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.080 to pay the cover I think they landed on like 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.120 ten bucks, even though I saw everything from seven to fourteen. 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:39.280 Ten bucks is around close to fifty bucks a day, 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:41.400 So it wasn't cheap to get in for a cover charge. 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.919 But if you bought a membership card for between seventy 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.199 five and one hundred and fifty, you were guaranteed. And 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:51.199 that's in scare quotes, because nothing was really guaranteed as 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.760 far as entry goes there, but you were supposedly guaranteed entry, 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.400 but you had to pay with a three dollars reduction 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:00.600 in charge. Eighteen thousand people apply for that card and 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:02.480 only three thousand got it pre opening. 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:04.240 Wow. Pretty nuts. 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:05.879 Yeah. 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:10.200 So this one of the other legends or stories about 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:12.760 opening night is that wait was so long that they 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.000 just basically broke out into a party on the sidewalk 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.560 outside of the club, thanks in large part to a 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:21.920 doctor who came by with a bunch of quay ludes. 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.360 Apparently coayludes went for like ten cents a pop and 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.280 everybody had them at all times. And I was looking 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.320 up what it was like to take ludes, as they 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.679 were called, and apparently there's not really any drug you 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.880 can compare it to today. They were their own thing, 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.040 and they were a sedative, but they also had all 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.560 sorts of other weird effects. Like I saw it described 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:46.280 like you'd sit on a couch and you weren't sitting 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:48.320 on the couch. You were melting into the couch. But 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:51.040 then at the same time you were also super randy 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.160 and it made sex amazing, and you were just relaxed 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.160 and like ready to go along with whatever. And everybody 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:01.119 loved ludes and they were super plentiful. So when this 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:05.760 doctor came along and handed out ludes, the pre party 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:07.440 broke out. 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:11.040 Yeah, the quaalan thing is weird because there were people 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:13.800 in the documentary saying like nobody was ever on a 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:16.199 downer in that place and it was all uppers, and 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.040 so I don't know, it's just very strange. Maybe it 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:20.800 went well with cocaine and alcohol. 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:22.639 I get that impression for sure. 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:27.240 All Right, So people are showing up. You mentioned you 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:30.840 mentioned Brookshields, right, No, okay, Well Brookshields was there. She 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:35.080 was eleven years old. That's my opening joke there. And 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.480 she was taken there by Robin Leach, who would later 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:40.880 go on to host Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.720 I used to do a great Robin Leach, let's hear it. No, 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:47.199 in retrospect it wasn't great at all, but at the 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.720 time I thought it was pretty great. I also did 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:53.360 a good Bartles and James impression. And then my other 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:57.080 one was Larry of Larry, Daryl and Darryl from Newhart. 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:00.879 You did a bart You did it impression of a 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:02.480 bottled drink of the. 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.080 Remember the two guys who were like the spokesmen who 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.000 were supposedly Bartles and James. 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:07.600 And you did both. 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:10.639 No, one of them didn't speak. The other one, okay, 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:14.399 the shorter, more roton one with classes he spoke. I 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.159 have no recollection of what he sounded like, but I 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:18.680 would do those impressions. 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:21.280 I love it. So you did what was the first one, 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:27.119 Robin Leech, Robin Leech. The last one, uh, Larry of, Larry, 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.720 Caryl and Darryl from Newhart. And then the actor who 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.120 played a commercial spokesperson. 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:35.879 For Bartle's and James for bartle Wine Coolers. 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:36.920 That's pretty good. 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:39.679 Yeah, it was a of a of a moment, a 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:41.320 specific moment in history. 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:44.760 Yeah. I mean I was doing Life, Wolfman, Jack and 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:47.160 John Travolta back then, so I was also at the time. 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.520 I got a John Travolta, I've heard your Travolta. 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:51.119 Let's hear it? 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:54.119 Why you so wee it? Yeah, there you go, And 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.520 it's not actually John Travolta. I'm doing Dana Carrey doing 0:20:57.600 --> 0:20:58.440 John Travolta. 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:03.560 Dana Carvey day in a Carvey Okay, that's Ordrew Garrett show. 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:09.920 All right. So we mentioned that they were called the 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:13.199 Broadway Catering Corporation and that would make sense later and 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:16.480 that moment comes right now everybody. Because they didn't have 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:20.800 a liquor license, permanent liquor license that is, so every day, 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:23.240 if you're like a catering company in New York or 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:25.160 I guess a lot of other towns, you can get 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:29.000 a temporary, like one day liquor permit to do your 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:31.480 catered event. And they did that every single day for 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:31.880 a year. 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.960 Yeah, I guess pretty smart. Based on the name of 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:38.560 Broadway Catering Corporation. They'd be like, oh, okay, here's your 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.679 catering license to go cater this party at two fifty 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:45.439 four West fifty fourth Street. Yeah. And the fact that 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:47.480 they did it every day. Whose job was it to 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:52.160