Studio 54 is easily of the most famous nightclubs ever to exist. Co-owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager were at the helm from 1977-1981 when they both spent time in prison for tax evasion. In 1981 Mark Fleischman bought the club and it continued to be known as New York City's hot spot for debauchery and crazy drug use. The stories have been epic for decades and Fleischman is currently working on a book that will take readers' inside the club that for years was completely off limits to anyone that didn't have connections to get them through the front doors.
Schrager is also working on a coffee table book about Studio 54 but Fleischman has said that visual recollection seems to be "sanitized" and not a true representation of what really went on. Fleischman refers to the sex scene as a (then) modern day Sodom and Gomorrah that was so hot busboys like Alec Baldwin ultimately quit because they couldn't handle what they saw night after night. Fleischman also describes a long desk with 30 or 40 lines of coke at any given time to accommodate the VIP patrons that made it upstairs into his office.
Schrager has left the club scene in his distant past and is now a formidable hotelier. Do you think that perhaps he is putting out an 'R' rated book based on Studio 54 because he wants it to be coffee-table appropriate? If he told the real story in photos it might not sell quite as well and it would also probably open Schrager up to potential lawsuits.
Are you curious about Fleischman's book that is being touted as the real story of Studio 54? Who better to tell it than the guy who bought the club smack in the middle of its hey day, right?
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