Paper Magazine, Mars 1, 1997

Burn, baby, burn! A massive disco meteor is slamming into New York this month. Studio 54, the legendary adults-only amusement park of decadence, is exploding into media overdrive to celebrate its would-be 20th anniversary on April 26.

 

First off is Anthony Haden-Guest's behind-the-velvet-ropes nightclub exposé, The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco and the Culture of the Night (William Morrow). "I've been gathering material and taking notes on New York's night world ever since I came to the city at the end of 1976," Guest told me. The book is an encyclopedia of sex, drugs and disco over the decades. We see the American jet set vamping at La Dolce Vita–style discotheques in Rome; Andy, Halston and Liza boogieing with the cocaine-Hoovering beautiful people at Studio 54; and finally, read about Mayor Giuliani's current agenda to "improve the quality of life" and its effects on clubland, like Peter Gatien's now-toppled disco empire and "Club Kid Killer" Michael Alig and his crew of Ecstasy-eating ravers and wacko drag queens. "Nightlife effected the social order by breaking down barriers between classes, sexes and races," Guest said. "At Studio, you could see the kids and also see Ahmet Ertegun. It was a huge, depraved, dysfunctional family."

 

The Last Party is also the title of a new compilation from Island Records that includes classics like the Village People's "Go West" and Donna Summer's "Last Dance." And there's more: Art dealer Serge Sorokko will open his new SoHo gallery on April 2 with a photography show called "The Last Party: Nightworld in Photographs," boasting a century of post-p.m. party treats. "It's a combination of three different levels of photography: high art, documentary and paparazzi," Sorokko explained in his Russian accent. Expect images from an impressive cast of sharpshooters, including Brassai, Helmut Newton, Elliott Erwitt, Garry Winogrand, Weegee, Roxanne Lowit and Patrick McMullan. And this month's hot invite is Glenn Bernbaum's Studio 54 birthday dinner at Mortimer's, complete with disco tunes and former 54 addicts like Kenneth Jay Lane and Fran Lebowitz.

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