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Carmen D'Alessio and Studio 54

Carmen D'Alessio was hired by Studio 54 owners Steve Rubell and Ian Shrager to promote the club.

Carmen D'Alessio on Studio 54:

"It's in the old CBS studio where The $64,000 Question used to take place. Before that it was an opera house. You walk in under this big marquee. Then you walk into this enormous room where there are like eighty-five-foot ceilings - it's like five stories. The dance floor is 11,000 square feet. Then upstairs is a balcony with a seating arrangement like a theater. I would say the opening night will be more like going to a premiere than going to a discotheque. I'm very excited about it because I think it could help change a little bit the lifestyle of New York." (BC349)

Bob Colacello on Steve Rubell:

"I liked Steve. We hit it off immediately on the tour he gave me a few weeks before the West 54th Street Club opened. He told me that he had started out with a steak restaurant in Rockville Centre, where my parents lived. From there, he and Ian Shrager, his roommate at Syracuse University, built a chain of twelve Steak Lofts in New York, Connecticut, and Florida. Then came a partnership with John Addison, the man behind Le Jardin, in a Boston disco, 15 Landsdowne Street. In 1975, Steve and Ian opened the Enchanted Garden in an abandoned country club on a city golf course in Queens. It became so popular that the traffic jams led local residents to get the city to close it down." (BC350)

back to APRIL 26, 1977: STUDIO 54 OPENS