Hannah Maguire

People still tried.

People just like shoving cocaine in his pocket.

But he's like, he's the king of the door.

And if you made it past him, his name's Steve Benecke, I think, the last days of Rome were waiting for you on the inside.

Steve Rubell would walk through his club wearing a massive coat filled with cash and drugs that he would hand out to anyone he liked the look on.

The basement was full of mattresses populated by anonymous sex and competitions in which a trip to St Bart's was awarded to the patron who could do the most disgusting thing for the longest or farthest.

We also have to remember this is the age of the Quaalude.

But I think if you even managed to make it through a night at Studio 54 ingesting no drugs, it would be quite difficult for you to tell the difference because it is so mad.

I read that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, they were allowed in.

The rest of the Rolling Stones had to pay.

For the 33 months that it was open, Studio 54 was the cutting edge of cool at the dawn of the age of celebrity.

Michael Jackson was a big fan, famously saying that Studio 54 was where you come when you want to escape.

When you dance here, you're just free.

In the 70s, people were famous for having achieved something.

It wasn't like it is now where you're famous for being famous.

You were famous because you were good at something.

And Studio 54 gave those elites a place to party in peace whilst letting a few shit munchers in to keep it dirty.

It's a balance that no one had really done that before.

Of course, there's always been members clubs and there's always been places where people who think they're better than everyone else can go and have a martini.

But this was the first time the normal people who were allowed in had to be interesting in some way.