WEBVTT - Studio 54 & Disco's Impact on Queerness 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.920 But We Loved is a production of iHeart Podcasts and 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:06.040 the Outspoken podcast Network. 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:10.119 Because most people were not out at work or to 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:14.880 their families, whatever, nightlife was where you sort of became yourself. 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:17.880 Oddly enough, when it came to nightlife, being gay was 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:22.599 really cool. Okay, we controlled clothing, we controlled fashion. Most 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.959 of the DJs were gay, so records would break in 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.520 gay clubs. The whole idea of going to these clubs 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:32.559 was to celebrate. It was to celebrate your liberation, was 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.560 to celebrate your sexuality. Was to celebrate your desire to 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:38.920 sort of express yourself and dance and to listen to 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:40.960 music that made you really happy. 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:51.720 As a gay kid, growing up religious and in the South, 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:54.880 I thought being gay was the worst thing I could 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:58.640 ever be. Now, as a journalist, I'm trying to unlearn 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:02.240 that by seeking out our history, and what I've found 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:08.000 are people and stories full of courage, perseverance, and love. 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:12.800 In this episode, we'll meet how Rubinstein, a fashion legend 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:16.760 and a regular at the iconic disco club Studio fifty four. 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.720 We'll learn how Studio and the disco era broadly was 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:25.520 deeply influential in shaping queer culture for decades to come 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.280 from My Heart podcast. I'm Jordan and Solve and this 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:56.560 is what We Loved. I was nine when I first 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:02.240 heard Donna Summer. I was online Mark trying to download 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:06.880 the song Naughty Girl by Beyonce, and instead I accidentally 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:10.440 downloaded the song she sampled, I Love to Love You Baby. 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.920 I clicked play, and what came out of my computer 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:20.919 speakers was magical. It was funky and groovy with all 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:26.000 these violins and pianos. I didn't understand the sounds that 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:31.240 she was making, but I didn't care. I was entranced. 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.720 As a little gay, Catholic kid living in the South, 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.440 listening to that song gave me the feeling that I 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.680 could be whoever I wanted to be. Little did I 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:46.200 know that the freedom I felt listening to that disco 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:50.320 song was the same freedom that many gays before me 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:54.640 felt too. Disco music and the disco era the nineteen 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:58.800 seventies to find a vital time in queer history. It 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.880 was right after Stonewall, but right before AIDS. It was 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:07.160 a time when gay people felt liberated to celebrate their sexuality, 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:12.680 and disco music was their soundtrack. Arguably, the symbol of 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.760 that era was a nightclub called Studio fifty four. As 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.520 soon as it opened it became wildly famous. But it 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.640 was a gay club. It was where gay culture went 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.720 from underground to mainstream. Queer people could meet each other 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:32.800 there without consequence and form bonds of friendship, love and 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.640 other things too. My next guess, Hal Rubinstein was a 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.880 regular there. He's a style icon now at seventy four 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.000 years old, having been one of the founding editors of 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.520 in Style magazine. But when Studio fifty four was at 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:51.000 its height, he was my age twenty eight. When did 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:51.920 you know you were gay? 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:55.960 When I was ten, I just got the sense there 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.440 was something. I just I had a best friend at school, 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.880 Stephen Chase, and he found a copy of a magazine 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.880 called Junior, and it was a magazine and if you 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.240 hire guys in posing straps. I didn't have full nudity 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:09.680 back then. 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.160 What is a posing strap. 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:12.880 It's almost like a jock but smaller. 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.640 Oh you know, basically you know, so basically your junk 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:18.440 goes in, it goes into the piece of fabric and 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:20.400 the rest is best held in by a string. 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:27.000 And that was like the first at a gate porn. 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:31.159 Anyway, Stephen found it and basically was charging everybody fifty 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.720 cents to look at it. And I remember he showed 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:37.599 it to me because we're friends, and I was surprisingly 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:41.880 and inordinately interested, and I just was. I was kind 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.760 of shocked that it was turning me on. Not that 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:48.000 I didn't do anything then. Like I said, I was ten, 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:50.960 so but I realized there was something up. 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:55.839 So when did you act on it for the first time. 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.440 It was nineteen sixty seven. I was seventeen years old. 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.600 I was a freshman at Stony Brook. Uh. I wanted 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:06.960 to work in the reference library, and there was a 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.000 really good looking a guy named Ralf Fusler who was 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:13.120 the editor in chief of the school newspaper. 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:13.880 And we got along very well. 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:18.799 What I didn't know is that the bathroom down the 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.920 main floor bathroom in this in the school library was notorious. 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:24.880 So I'm in the I was in the bathroom stall, 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:27.520 and all of a sudden, I see a hand come under, 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:30.760 you know, but the part I see the hand come 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.960 under the partition. I didn't know what that was. So 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:38.120 I handed the guy in another rollertorle pit and he 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:42.320 threw it and I went wow. And then all of 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.800 a sudden I see a foot, and I'm looking at 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.600 the foot, going, what the hell is that? Like, I 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:50.720 just didn't understand what the hell was coming on, And 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:52.880 all of a sudden, this voice goes, what's wrong with you? 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:55.960 And I said, I don't know what you're doing. 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.520 And with that, I go to I got to walk 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:03.400 out of the stall because I just got cranky. Uh, 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.040 and the stall with that, and of course the dwell. Basically, 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.440 he realized that I was kind of green about this, 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.480 so he asked me basically to come to his room 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:14.719 that night. I wanted to come by his room that 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:16.720 night and talk about the school paper or whatever it was. 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.479 And he was the first person I ever slept with. 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.800 Wow. Yeah, and that was your introduction. 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:25.680 Yeah, it was terrible sex. 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:29.679 It was actually I realized that was however, so began 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.840 my career in journalism. I was actually the art set 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.279 of the school paper for my sophomore year. 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.560 How was it coming out to your dad and your mom? 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.800 I don't have the stories that other people have of 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:46.960 that era, where so many of my friends were either 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:52.320 ostracized by their family or nobody handled it well. When 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:54.440 I told my parents I was gay, my father asked 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:56.840 me if I was happy, that was the first thing 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:58.480 out of his mouth, and I said, Dad, I'm trying, 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.400 and that was it. My mom was a little bit 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.719 more difficult, I think, only because she had she had plans. 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.040 You know, my mom had plans. You know, she wanted 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:09.800 to be agree, you know, she wanted me to get married. 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:11.840 She wanted kids, you know, grandkids and all that kind 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.840 of stuff. So it was also I think she worried. 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.320 My mom was was really smart and basically my best teacher, 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:21.760 and I think she she she worried for me that 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:24.120 that it would that life would be harder, which of 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:24.680 course it is. 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:31.560 So now after you graduate college, you're proudly out what 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.640 was New York City nightlife in the seventies, Like once 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:36.200 you turned. 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:36.800 It was thrilling. 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:39.880 Remember you had you had the Stonewall, you had you know, 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:43.200 you had the Stonewall riots. And I think what what 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:46.320 what happened with Stonewall is that it changed the profile, 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:51.640 It changed the profile of gay people or so from 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.600 what to what, Well, you gave you number one, gave 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.120 you a voice, gave you a presence. You know, it 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:58.880 made you realize that you weren't the only one out 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.800 there doing you know, basically who was gay. 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:02.200 There was an. 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:07.360 Enormous community and because most people were not out at 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.120 work or to their families, whatever, night life was where 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:14.960 you sort of became yourself. The city was dirty, it 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:19.840 was scary, it was dangerous, it was really dirty. New 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.880 York was raunchy back then. But it all kind of fit. 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:26.800 But if you were young in New York in the 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:29.640 seventies and you had an outgoing personality and you had 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.480 to dance and you had friends, Basically we went out five, six, 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:34.880 seven nights a week. We went out almost every night. 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:39.920 There was a different club. You went to Hippopotamus on Monday, 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:41.680 you went to Hurrah on Tuesday, you went to La 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:42.840 Jardan on Wednesday. 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:44.480 Studio was much later. 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.040 There was the Flamingo, there was the Loft, there was 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.520 the Tenth Floor. The number of clubs that were out 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:54.640 there prior to Studio it's kind of staggering. But we 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:56.280 went out every single night. 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:59.880 And tell me what that era was sort of like, 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.720 who were the top artists, and what was the fashion like? 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.200 And was what did the music sound like? 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:11.480 Maybe the greatest dance song ever written, ever created, and 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:15.560 it's an instrumental It's by a group called War and 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.920 it was called City, Country City, and it's an eleven 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.480 minute song and it will make you to this day 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:23.920 if you play it will make people delirious. 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.199 Wow, you remember dancing to it? 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.440 Yes, absolutely, of course. Like I said, I love dancing. 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:34.480 We rehearsed during the weeks. Dancing was very serious back then. 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:39.240 Basically you watched Soul Train on Saturday morning, and you watched, 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.080 and you rehearsed, and you met with your friends and 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.640 you worked out routines. I remember when we went my 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.560 favorite after hours club of all time was called The Loft, 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.960 and it was strict membership. I think I was the 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:55.480 second white person excepted in the club. I don't think 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.560 the place was more than six seven hundred square feet, 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.000 the original Loft, and yet it just it had the 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:06.120 most devoted crowd. Went on Saturday night. You walked in 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:10.680 about two thirty in the morning, and basically when the 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.600 teutest man never walked the earth, the guy named Bryce 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.920 took your coat, took your coat, and he would give 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:18.560 you your coat, he would give you a number, and 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.360 he would give you whatever drug we were all doing 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.600 for that week, whether it was window pane or blottery, 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:25.040 acid or whatever. 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:25.440 It was. 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.280 And so the incredible thing was we all showed up 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.120 at the same time and everybody basically took the exact 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:31.679 same drug. 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:34.360 What did you wear out on a typical night. Oh 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.200 my gosh, you had to have outfits back then. You 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:42.720 dressed up to go out. You wore Gaberdine pants, You 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:44.960 wore silk shirts and. 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:46.960 You destroyed them. Wow. 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.760 Well you danced seven eight hours in these clothes. I mean, 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:51.880 silk only lasts so long. 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:54.680 Oh, so you would go out at midnight, say out 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:56.360 till eight in the morning. 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:58.079 Probably went out later the midnight. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:01.720 So yeah, what were you wearing on a on a 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:02.320 typical night. 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:06.160 Well, the thing is, you went shopping. They sold shirts 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.360 made not a sort of banl on Niesta and back 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:10.800 and they were thirty five dollars, which was a fortune 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.160 back then for a shirt, and they were body hugging, 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.520 they were tight. You wore these little these sexy little 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:18.640 tops you wore. You wore, like I said, you wore 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:20.760 Gavitine pants. And I remember this is around the same 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:22.720 time I first got a hold of a credit card, 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:25.040 you know, because like I said, I was a kid. 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.080 I was, I was, I was. I was working at 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:31.280 the United nations I was doing. I was editing speeches 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.599 before they went into into print. I wasn't making a 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:36.240 lot of money. So I had a credit card. But 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:37.640 you had to have you had to have a look. 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:39.120 You couldn't wear the same thing out of it all 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:43.520 the time. So by the end of the first year 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:45.280 of having a credit card, I was four thousand dollars 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:47.400 in debt, which back then was a lot of money 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:49.520 to be in debt, and that had to work three 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:50.760 waiters job to pay it off. 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:52.679 But you had the cutest clothes. 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:55.240 Oh my god, of course you had to. I know. 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:57.680 The idea was, you went out there address as sexy 0:11:57.720 --> 0:11:59.920 as you possibly could. It was all about a track, 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.079 It was all about flirting, it was all about attraction. 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:04.000 You went out to dance and you went out to 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:04.440 get laid. 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:11.400 Just in the sixties and seventies, America was changing rapidly. 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.560 The Civil Rights Act had been passed in sixty four, 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:19.320 Stonewall happened in sixty nine, and Roe v. Wade legalized 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:24.800 abortion nationwide in seventy three. Many Americans felt free to 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.960 explore all facets of their life for the first time, 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:32.679 and disco music had become widely popular. Because for many 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:37.760 it represented that sense of freedom that, along with wider 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:42.520 access to oral contraception or the pill, shaped a new 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:47.559 attitude towards sex for straight and gay people alike, sex 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:52.800 without consequences. In fact, the disco song Ymca by the 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:56.280 Village People is actually said to be about gay people 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:59.360 hooking up, and one of the best places to find 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.880 hookups was on the dance floor at disco clubs. 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:05.480 You know we call them, you call them hookups now. 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:07.959 But basically, you went to a club, you went home 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:10.120 with somebody. Basically you went back into the club after 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:12.920 that and kept on dancing. Because of the sexual revolution, 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:15.520 it wasn't like you had the option to go home 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:16.240 with all these people. 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.640 You actually had the responsibility. I'm not joking. 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.920 You had the responsibility to go home with as many 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:26.440 people as you could because you were just spreading the love. 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:27.200 Literally. 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:27.880 Wow. 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.800 The whole idea of going to these clubs was to celebrate. 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:35.280 It was to celebrate your liberation, was to celebrate your sexuality, 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.800 was to celebrate your desire to sort of express yourself 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.480 and dance and to listen to music that made you 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:42.280 really happy. 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:44.920 It seems like it was a flirty sign. 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:45.680 Oh, my god. 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.720 Yes, theme of flirting is it's an unbelievable skill. The 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.559 ability to flirt is such an incredible gift in the 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:55.120 sense that it can get you virtually anything. It can 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:56.800 get you, It can get you laid, It can get 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:58.400 you a cheaper price and a mattress, it can get 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.560 you a job. It just but flirting is such an 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.240 incredible scale. I feel like I should go, like, go 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.360 to the new school and teach it because because young 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:08.680 people don't know how to flirt. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:10.559 And back then it was all about flirting. 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.079 It was absolutely all about flirting, and that's what made 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:17.319 it so much fun. And remember too, it's I mean 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.960 withou getting ahead of ourselves. It was it was sex 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:20.920 with that consequence. 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:22.280 What do you mean. 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.960 We didn't know bad aids. We didn't know that there 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.640 would be a downside to promiscuity. 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:33.760 As disco and the sexual revolution began to crescendo louder 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:37.200 and louder, a new club opened in New York that 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:40.520 became the talk of the town. It was called Studio 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:44.360 fifty four. It was an old opera house with massive 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:48.600 sets and bright lights. Every night felt like a theater production, 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:52.280 and as though you were partying on stage, and if 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.120 you wanted to have sex, there was always the balcony. 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:59.280 Words spread fast that Studio fifty four was the place 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.360 to be. Celebrities like Michael Jackson and Cher would show 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.120 up frequently. A giant line would form outside the club, 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.000 with thousands of people trying to get in every night. 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.760 Most were rejected, but it didn't matter how much money 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.560 you had, or if you were as famous as regular 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:21.440 as like Andy Warhol or Diana Ross. The only criteria 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.480 was that you had to be beautiful, and if you 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:28.840 got in, you were transported to a different world. The music, 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:33.479 the drinks, the drugs, and the sexual energy was intoxicating 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:38.560 for the patrons and for the queers it felt like home. Well, 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:41.600 now tell me about Studio fifty four. How did you 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:43.560 first hear about Studio fifty four. 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:45.640 If you went out, you knew, I mean, if you 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:47.680 went out, you knew people were building this club. 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:49.200 It used to be a theater. 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:51.560 You know, you walk through an entrance way, you walk 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.280 through a lobby, so you know, you would see all 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:56.400 these pictures of people waiting to get in a studio. Wait, 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.360 you know, go hey, wait, screaming please get me. If 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:01.760 you were if if you were gay, You were well dressed, 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.360 and you were i'll use the word cute. You didn't 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:07.600 wait more than twenty seconds to get in. I never 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:08.840 waited to get into the club. 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:10.800 Way way, way. I have a question. Do you think 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:11.440 I would get in? 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:12.120 Yes? 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:13.720 Yes, no. 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:17.320 Look, it's just they wanted they wanted the nice looking 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.920 gay boys in the club. It's that simple. You were 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:23.040 you were the attraction. The front of the club. The 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.200 first thing you hit was the bar. It was a 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:28.760 circular bar, oval shaped bar that faced one side to 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:30.800 the dance floor and one side not to the dance floor, 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.560 and then and then to the to the left, to 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.600 the left was this big open was this big open space. 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.720 It's you know, because it used to it was a stage, 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:42.800 so it was two stories two stories high. 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:43.640 You know. 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:45.760 The lights would come down to these great and these bars, 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:48.800 and there were like four bars, four or six bars 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.520 of lights that would come down. The funny thing was, though, 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:57.400 unlike now, the clubs weren't dark. You actually could see people. 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.200 That was it. You wanted to see other people. You 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:01.920 want to see other people dancing. You want to see 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:03.240 what they were doing, You want to see what other 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:07.120 people were wearing. The celebrities all sat in a certain place. Honestly, 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:09.240 most of us could have given a shit about them. 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.359 Nobody cared, you know, because it wasn't about them. It 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.200 was never about them. For all the way you look 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.320 at it and you read, you know, Liza City and 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:21.080 there in Holston being there, nobody cared about them. For 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.680 all the celebrities and Liza and Peter Allen and Mick 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:25.720 Jagger and Bianca and all those people who shut up, 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:30.680 they were all there for one reason. Studio fifty four 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.280 was a gay club when you came out to watch 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:37.320 the gay boys dance. Oddly enough, when it came to 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.760 night life, being gay was really cool. 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:40.760 Okay. 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.320 We controlled clothing, we controlled fashion. Most of the DJs 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:49.040 were gay, so records would break in gay clubs. Remember 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.240 R and B has its has its origins and gospel, 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:58.200 you know, so everything was elevated. Everything was everything was 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:01.440 was designed to be celebratory. You wanted to be ecstatic 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:03.760 that you went out, you know, I mean, and and 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:06.840 you were devoted. I remember we were there on I 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:08.920 remember going to on New Year's Eve one year that 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.000 was probably seventy nine or something like that. And they 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:14.800 must have had no less than six to seven inches 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:18.280 of silver glitter on the floor. Wow, I couldn't get 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.440 I didn't get those that glitter off my body or 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.480 out of my shoes. For about five months, I would 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:26.760 find glitter all over the place in my apartment. 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:29.400 It just went ever, it just went everywhere. 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.600 I mean, it was just it was one glorious song 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:33.760 after the next. 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:35.520 And what was it like being gay? 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:35.800 There? 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.119 The idea when you were there, you were safe within 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:44.000 that within that hole, within that hall, regarded which one 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:46.200 you were safe that. When you get out in the 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:50.040 real world, it's it's it could be other things. You 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.359 don't feel that kind of safety at work. You don't 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.080 necessarily feel that kind of safety at school. 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:54.879 You know. 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:59.560 All it sounds like this era was just fabulous, but 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:05.440 obviously we know that it ended. But I'm wondering for you, 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:10.600 what was the marker of this amazing era coming to 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:11.520 an end. 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:16.080 There was this weird disease that was killing gay men 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:19.560 beginning of aides, and also a different attitude towards gay people. 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:22.840 Suddenly we weren't cool anymore. We were at the place 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.600 where music dropped, We were at the place that controlled 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.320 that controlled fashion. Most people in fashion are gay actually 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.120 passed away from AIDS, go right through the list, but. 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.280 You weren't. Because of AIDS. 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:41.200 You were no longer cool, You were no longer people 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.960 didn't want to hang out with you. People shut the 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:48.359 doors on you because they were afraid of you. Nineteen 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:56.280 eighty one was the start of GRID gay related immune deficiency. 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:13.440 It's nineteen seventy nine. Studio fifty four and Disco were 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:17.440 at the height of their popularity when suddenly the owners 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:22.040 were charged with evading hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:26.920 The famous nightclub shut down the very next year. An 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:30.320 era was ending, but not just for Studio fifty four, 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:36.080 the era of Disco two and everything it represented the 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:39.919 freedom of queer people, of black people, and of women. 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:43.520 The same year that Studio fifty four's owners were caught 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:47.359 and convicted, an event was held at a Chicago White 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:51.800 Sox game in nineteen seventy nine. It became known as 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:57.440 Disco Demolition. Night Fans were encouraged to bring disco records 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:01.080 that would be collected and blown up in protests of disco. 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:06.480 Twenty thousand fans were expected, but fifty thousand showed up. 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:12.280 The massive crowd chanted disco sucks. As the records were 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:16.520 blown up to smithereens with explosives. There was so much 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:20.760 anger that once the explosion took place, thousands of patrons 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:25.879 rushed the field and what became a riot. Disco was dead. 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.439 But there was something else that also marked the end 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:32.760 of this era for gay people, this period of being 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:35.800 so carefree. It was AIDS. 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:41.080 Unfortunately, I knew people at the beginning it was called GRID. Well, 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:45.000 later it was called AIDS, and I knew people who 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:47.840 passed away very early on, by eighty two eighty three. 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:51.120 I mean, because there was so much misinformation or lack 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:55.080 of information about how it was contracted and how it 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.320