What I’m watching: a documentary about a legendary NYC discoDate: 3/5/2019 What I’m watching: a documentary on Netflix about a near forgotten chapter in the disco era of the 1970s.
Streaming: Studio 54
In 1977 when the infamous and/or legendary disco club Studio 54 opened I was a year or so out of college. I distinctively remember how it quickly gained media coverage and it was the type of story that depicted something so far out of touch with the average person.
As this new documentary explores the club was indeed out of touch for the overwhelming majority of people who wanted to go there. The former theater and television studio quickly attracted a curated audience: only those who fit a certain demographic were allowed to come in.
It was a haven for people who wanted a degree of privacy and exclusivity that other dance clubs didn’t offer: A List celebrities, gay men, drag queens, people who lived their social life with a theatrical personas and people who just wanted the freedom to be themselves.
The nature of the building itself with a balcony and a basement afforded the kind of activity that typified the sexual revolution.
The result was a New York City-based club that received national media attention.
Studio 54 had a near mythic reputation. If you were allowed in you could see Liza Minnelli sitting with Andy Warhol, while Truman Capote and Bianca Jagger danced.
The unreality of the club is very well conveyed in this excellent documentary by director Matt Tyrnauer, who assembled a great set of new interviews as well as archival footage and stills to tell the club’s story.
At the center of it were the club’s two public owners – there was a silent owner as well – Steven Rubell and Ian Schrager. Rubell died from AIDS, and Schrager has not spoken on camera about the club and its demise.
Rubell and Schrager were two middle class kids who were literally swept away by the money the club quickly created. It’s a classic American business story of too much, too soon for two young people who weren’t prepared for their success.
Schrager speaks plainly about the rise and fall of the club and its owners, not asking for sympathy but explaining his story.
It’s very compelling as he explains how the IRS raided the club and discovered a skimming operation as well as evidence of drugs on premise – the club’s safe has 300 Valiums in it when the agents ordered it being opened.
The owners went to prison and were essentially forced to be informers on other clubs. After prison, it took years for them to regain their careers.
The film is remarkable in depicting part of an era in one American city that is unlikely ever to be repeated.
A special screening
The Amherst Cinema will be presenting the excellent documentary about Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr with a special screening on March 26 at 7 p.m.
Physicist Katherine Aidala of Mount Holyoke College will speak on “Beauty and Brains: Women in Science.” Lamarr may have been well known as a contract player at MGM and often described as the most beautiful woman on the screen during the 1950s but she was also an inventor who perfected a secure radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes during WWII. Her concepts were the basis of cell phone and Bluetooth technology.
Aidala will introduce the film, addressing questions such as, “Is it true that a woman is taken less seriously as a scientist if she’s beautiful? Who do you picture when you think of a scientist? Why is it that we often picture a guy with crazy hair? What are the current barriers for women in science?”
The evening is part of the National Week of Science on Screen, an initiative sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Amherst Cinema is one of 26 theaters featured nationwide as part of this event, which aims to highlight the rich and varied connections between science and film.
The documentary is excellent and this should be a very interesting evening.
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