In 1977, Steve Rubell was a kid from Brooklyn who studied finance at Syracuse and managed a few restaurants. Then he and his college pal Ian Schrager opened a club on West 54th Street, and Rubell’s life took a drastic turn.
Soon, the spot, dubbed Studio 54, was a sensation, and for the next few years Rubell was host of the era’s most white-hot party. The club’s A-list throngs, coke-fueled nightly bacchanalia and relentless disco beats, defined late ’70s Manhattan.
By 1981, Rubell and Schrager had been imprisoned for tax evasion, and Rubell died in 1989. But he left behind a cache of photos and other memorabilia that will be auctioned Saturday by Palm Beach Modern Auctions of Florida.
The collection is a time capsule offering a window into that heady time and place. Read on for a sampling, and the memories of those who were there.
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PARTY PHOTO: A key part of the Steve Rubell collection are the dozens of shots documenting the endless celebrity parade. “The photos just have this energy that captures the mood, this thing that was happening,” says Rico Baca, co-owner of the auction house. Here, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner and Cher are each wrapped up in a private conversation. Stewart stopped by whenever he was in town; then-doorman Marc Benecke recalls the night “he was leaving, and he lifted up the rope and said, ‘Why don’t you let all these nice people in?’ I didn’t want to, but Steve was shaking his head, like, ‘Let Rod do it.’ Luckily it was very late at night and there were only 20 people there instead of 220.”
Estimated Value: $300 to $600 (lot of six)
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VIP PASS: There was no shortage of celebs who nabbed one. Says former Rubell assistant Myra Scheer: “My first week there, Steve gave me the call list, and the names on there were just scary: Mick Jagger, Richard Gere, Liza, Halston. It was overwhelming, and it was magic.”
Estimated Value: $300 to $600 (lot of two)
STEVE RUBELL PRINT: For all his power, Rubell was “a mensch,” says his former assistant Myra Scheer, who, with former club doorman Marc Benecke, now talks about Studio 54 weekly on the “Marc and Myra Show” on SiriusXM. “He just found what he did best, and what he did best was host people. Studio was his living room, and he just happened to have an amazing living room.”
Estimated value: $300 to $600
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PHOTO OF DIANA ROSS AND RICHARD GERE: Ross “was a regular when she was in town, and she had incredible charisma — she could walk through the crowd and just part the seas,” says Steve Rubell’s former assistant Myra Scheer. Ex-doorman Marc Benecke recalls that Ross “loved to go in the DJ booth and sit up there; sometimes Steve would give her the mike and she’d belt out a couple bars of a tune.”
While actors and musicians were a big part of the club’s mix, “it was not just the entertainment world,” says Scheer. “It was the Prince of Saudi Arabia’s brother, it was Vladimir Horowitz. Harry King, the hair stylist, said the shot that captured Studio for him was Moshe Dayan with Valerie Perrine.”
Estimated value: $300 to $600 paired with two other shots
UPI
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Diana Ross is one of the stars in Rubell’s address book up for auction.
Estimated value: $1,000 to $1,500
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VALENTINE’S PARTY INVITE: While every night was an event, New Year’s Eve, Halloween and Valentine’s Day were Rubell and Schrager’s “signature parties,” says former Rubell assistant Scheer. “The way they decorated each party was magic. It was like everything that you ever had in a party as a kid magnified,” says Scheer, who recalls one Valentine’s party where entering guests passed a row of “beautiful women playing harps.”
Estimated value: $300 to $600 for invite plus drink ticket
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RESERVATION BOOK: For the first year of the club, Rubell and partner Ian Schrager wrote in this ledger a daily list of who was coming that night and who was entitled to VIP treatment. “I’d get a typed copy to use outside, but basically that book was the guest list in its raw form,” says ex-doorman Benecke. “When somebody called up it would get written down in there — how many people, whether the admission would be comped, if people were supposed to get tables.” Despite the prevalence of boldface names streaming through the door, “most paid,” he says.
Estimated value: $2,000 to $3,000
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MAGAZINE COVER AND RUBELL POLAROID: The photo was snapped by Andy Warhol, a constant presence at the club who often had a camera in tow. “Andy and Halston, they would come easily four nights a week,” says Benecke. “He’d take shots and put them in his pocket, and the next day he’d bring them to the Factory and look through them. He was kind of doing his own archive of Studio 54.” A number of other Warhol polaroids are included in the auction.
Estimated value: $4,000 to $6,000 for photo and Interview cover signed by Warhol
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PHOTO OF STERLING ST. JACQUES HOLDING CAROLINE KENNEDY: Both Caroline and brother John-John made the scene: Scheer recalls the pair as “really cool kids” who always insisted on paying. “The first time I saw John Kennedy Jr. I didn’t know who he was, but he stood out to me because he was just stunning,” she says.
Inside Studio 54, “you just saw everyone,” recalls designer Michael Vollbracht. “You’d see Diana Ross one moment, Betty Ford the next.” But what stands out in Vollbracht’s memory is the multitude of hopefuls who never made it past the velvet rope. “I think of those sad people waiting for blocks and blocks — thousands of faces of people thinking they were going to make it inside, and you knew none of them had a cold chance in hell of getting in.”
Estimated value: $300 to $600 for two photos
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MICHAEL JACKSON AND LIZA MINNELLI PRINT: Jackson didn’t show up often, but when he did he knew how to make a splash, recalls Benecke: “He’d actually drive his limo in through the backstage doors and onto the dance floor. It was quite an entrance.”
Estimated value: $300 to $600 for group of five photos
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PAINTING: This 8-foot painting by illustrator and clothing designer Michael Vollbracht was commissioned for Rubell’s 35th birthday. “He was a very small man physically, so that’s why he’s surrounded by all these big names,” says Vollbracht, who speaks of the club reverently. “It was quite something,” he says. “It was only in existence for four years, and it defined my generation.”
Estimated value: $10,000 to $20,000
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MEMBERSHIP CARD: In theory, such cards entitled holders to “special courtesies, substantially reduced entrance fees and private entertainment divertissements.” In reality, says doorman Benecke, they were an experiment that was abandoned when holders couldn’t resist letting unauthorized friends borrow them.
Estimated value: $300 to $600 for a lot that includes some letters, invitations and other items
