Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio Zaren Elizabeth Zarn. I'm so glad that you decided to grace this with your presence.
Thanks Claude.
I've had to do the last four shows all by myself.
I know, I saw the sock It's kind of cool, though. You must have done a good job. Was about sending me emails with photos of the sockbuck the show?
It was cool. It was really cool. Dirty socks. But that's okay. Listen, buddy, you know it's ridiculous.
Oh my god. I do you know when you know that you would be friends with the celebrity?
Yeah?
Right here had that feeling. There are two that I know what I would be friends with. They're both gone, so I can't be friends with them. But yeah, most of the celebrities I think I could be, like have an affinity for a friendship with are all gone. I'm like, why is that? What does that say? Do I not fit in these times? Anyway? Both of them loved each other, but the funny thing is is neither one of them could understand each other. They're two of my favorite people ever.
Lee Marvin and Toshiro Maffuni. Wait, so this story. Yeah, the actor Marvin, right, yeah, and the actor to Shiro Maffuoni. They were like best friends. But this is a story we have from Betty Marvin, obviously Lee Marvin's wife. She says the story and I quote Lee and I always from the beginning would see Japanese films. He'd love to Shiro Maffuoni so much. He used to call him on the phone. Couldn't understand a word of Japanese BUFFOONI spoke no English. They'd have these long conversations.
About what wait, isn't that the best?
Just sitting there drunk on the phone because they were both big drinkers, right, so I'd be billing about his nighttime phone calls they're for at least one of them, probably a morning phone call for the other because the time difference. But they're drunk sitting there on the phone.
Oh man.
Because I was saying that to John borhim the other.
Day, love me, what are you doing? We was just talking?
So how great is that two people have a conversation with another person who doesn't speak their language or my people? That is.
It's ridiculous too, right, But you know what else is ridiculus? No keeping perfect criming records.
Oh that's so you.
I know, this is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It is always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
I know you heard that.
Nightclubs zaren, Yes, one of my favorite places. Do you like to go to night clubs?
I used to? Yeah, I mean I did. I like really more like jazz clubs. Nightclubs are going to have like a comic. I don't want, like a burlesque.
Show people snap and appreciation of things.
No, but like the old school and nightclubs like we're like a Dean Martin where you're going to see a show. I don't want to go to, like you know, see someone like you know, reading their death comedy stuff.
And then I like a nightclub, like to go dancing, Oh like that.
Cat of nightclub, like a dance club, a dance area. Yeah, in this dancery like dancer dancery. So that's what we're talking about. Yeah, I love dancery. You do all freak of freaka floor I do not really you don't like dancing.
I like dancing. It's not like like nightclub dance.
But do you like go with your friends and just like dance with your friends, you don't have to dance with strangers.
You're a long time ago. Sarah TACIONI a goddess among humans.
Great great persons.
She and I used to go to two different like dance nights in the city. One was at the cat club called sixteen on Sunday night. Sure I never went, but I know it was like all rock and roll whatever. And then there was like sort of a similar one. I remember the old Covered Wagon. Oh yeah, Bordello Night was amazing music, and so we would go to that and kind of google walk around and you know, talk
to people and get down. But like that, like I don't know, I don't think of myself as a nightclub disco person.
I can see how you might not see that because it you also like to go to bed early.
I got it.
So there's that.
Every day it gets earlier than earlier, and I love it. The big dog, let's talk about nightclubs. Let's get back on it. Back on the big dog of all nightclubs has to be Studio fifty four in New York City.
Oh my god. The legendary Kramela Crown, the top.
Of the Mountain City, the Big Potato. Yes, Studio fifty four relatively short lived.
I understand.
Yeah, like the first I never got to go. Yeah, the First Iteration opened in nineteen seventy seven. I was forty eight years old and I was the deputy mayor of New York City. Huh No, it was I'm just kiddings.
Are now You're still in Minieapolis at that point.
So that First Iteration, right, thirteen seventy seven, that closed in nineteen eighty.
Okay, so that's like the disco era, wor Yeah.
It burned out, it did not fade away. Yeah, so let's set the stage for you. Nineteen seventy seven. Yes, you told us recently you're punk broke. That was how That was the year that punk ro was sex pistoles, you know, a very avant garde music scene. So was disco, totally dance music. It was played in disco texts. It was. That was a French phenomenon. Yeah, I love a good
disco tech. The backstory on that, when my brother opened his bar, we were at a family function and we saw our like second cousin, like our dad's cousin, who's this crazy like New York socialite, eccentric. Yes, and she was an older, older gap woman of a certain age, very certainly like getting up there and my brothers, I'm opening this bar. And she turns to him with her like her vivid red lipstick and dark black hair, says, I love a good disco tech. So that's what we call.
And this is like clearly not the seventies or the eighties when this is oh no, this was not.
At all so but she loved a good disco tech. The French love a good disco tech. That phenomenon of the disco tech came from France to the States in nineteen sixty and it was placed in New York called.
La Club Club that sounds like a place.
You go Manhattan. Of course, Studio fifty four, like I said, was the big dog when it came to disco nightclubs. Lots of drugs and hedonism and like just letting go into the buget all my favorite things, oh totally lights, loud music, DJs, and dance. Expressing yourself through dance, telling stories, standing in your truth through dance.
Speaking through the language of your body.
Physical communications through dance. That was the point. So people they showed off their moves, which tended to be like really smooth and saucy, a little six sexy, very sexy, very seat. And there was the fashion. It was a huge part of it. There's like polyester for days.
I've seen Saturday Night few.
So glamorous, spend a lot of time on my hand, like flowy yet like skimpy dresses made to show off the moves, shiny suits, Saturday Night fever with like tight flared pin open collars. Yeah, his in hers high heels, oh.
My god, yes, right, chunky high.
Heels, yes, so much glitter, gold, lemm a cost satins, yeah, gold, jewelry, body paint, dress, body paint, gold body paints. Oh yeah, but like that became huge. It was and peak hockey and outlandish and early punk guards totally art scene type.
Thing and going against the mood of the time or the mainstream, like what was going on at the time in terms.
Of esthetic, right. And then there were drugs of course, yes, always the drugs avant garde. Yeah, so that was right up there in importance with the music. In the clothes.
Well, yeah, it's like a kind of a mix. There are three angles of the triangle.
There were three main drugs common in disco text like adare council, Yes you do. So there's the cocaine. Yes, cocaine. You know what that is. You know it speeds. Yeah, it makes you think you're also makes you feel you well, it makes you think that your hair brained ideas are really clever, brilliant.
Yes.
Poppers, Yes, so you inhale the vapors of break it open and go, Yeah, exactly like h of the seventies, very dangerous and popular drug gives you a very short lived for it totally. And then quailudes the down lids. Yeah, those discos because they got you all loose and wobbly.
Oh, I figured they're taking them afterwards.
They called them disco biscuits.
Biscuits, and they.
Made sure they made your legs wobbly, and you just felt jubbly and it felt amazing interesting, gets you right in the Joe blues. So all of the aforementioned elements were present at Studio fifty four better believe. So let's start with the opening of the club. It actually starts in nineteen seventy six. There's this German by centennial picture of the world. Every one of their stars and Stripes
tall ships in the New York. Then a German male model named Uva Harden, Uva Harden, Uva Harden Wow, which like right, how.
Would you like your eggs?
Harden surrounded by like Uncle Sam the Stars and Stripes Centennial. Un Hey, he wanted to open a nightclub in New York called Studio just play a studio like the club. So he and this Israeli dude, Joram Polani, they signed on to take over the old CBS Studio fifty two, Okay, And since that was on the recording space, yeah, like a big auditorium.
The radio place that they would do shows and stuff.
And have like audiences and orchestras. And since it was on fifty fourth Street, they decided to call it Studio fifty four. And so Harden and Polani they formed a corporation for ownership of the place. But for whatever reason,
they couldn't get a liquor license. They needed more cash too, so they sold almost all of their corporate stock to the operators of the Marlborough Gallery, which was just like yeah, So with that cash on hand, Harden then he meets with these two entrepreneurs, Steve Rubel and Ian Schrager, I know those names, you know those names. They agreed to operate the club for them and then delays though continued to mount Harden and Polani they left their own project.
They're like, I guess this isn't going to work. Schreger and Rubel they took over and they're like the publicity guys, right, they know how to work things. So November of nineteen seventy six, Billboard magazine said that they were the ones who planned to open the nightclub called Studio fifty four. They spent four hundred thousand dollars to get the place disco ready. So they were going from this old studio to a nightclub.
This is a great expression being disco ready.
Some disco ready. And so they had to build a dance floor, a balcony, a disco booth like, putting in mirrors, light bars, floating vinyl platforms.
Right.
The lighting system required three people to run it. Oh it was that, yeah, because.
You're running like track. The lights were going, they're sweeping up and down the music.
They could fill the place with fog, dump a bunch of confetti. Whoa tailor it all over the Yeah, there was seating for two hundred and fifty people in the orchestra area, and the balcony held five hundred seats. And also the balcony was covered in rubber so that it could be hosed down at the end of the night. Make of that which you build, So either way the
place was bathhouse. Yeah, pretty much. There was a thirty by forty foot cyclorama on the ceiling, the project images of galaxy volcanoes, sunrise, sunset, and then they had this like sort of logo, this like icon for the nightclub that was a giant moon with a spoon.
Yes, and so for on supporting cocaine. But I like the branding, the aesthetic.
For the opening, the guys sent out eight thousand invitations. Now the occupant has eight thousand friends. I guess the occupancy was twenty five hundred. And they also crafted a kind of like an a list, and these were people who got specially tailored phone calls and on opening night, four thousand people share that.
Wow.
Yeah, half of the thousand people. And you know how nightclub culture puts the emphasis on like night right.
Oh yeah, that's right there in the neck.
You don't get there early.
Yeah, I tried starting a day club. It did not go.
Well, you imagine it's so bright here, like you don't you don't show up right when it opens late. But you know who was first in line at that opening night? He got there bright and early.
Dum. What's the guy uh in the the Police Academy movie, Steve what's his name?
Steve Gutenberg Guenberg? Steve Gutenberg, very very close. It's your boy, Donald Trump and his first wife Ivanna get out?
Are you for real?
They weren't invited, They just tag They tagged along with some friends who were. They were like at dinner with the socialite. She's like, are you going to Studio fifty four? He's like what's that?
Oh?
Come, you know, just come with and so they're like, well, it says ten o'clock is when it opens. So they knock on the doorlock only people outside. No one answers, and they stood there for fifteen minutes waiting, no one in line, just them, and then they're just about to leave and the door opens. The staff is like completely confused as to why anyone would be there that early, and like, yeah, it technically opens at ten, but like,
no one there. So they go in and they wander around the place is empty, and they're just so clueless. And it wasn't until about midnight that the crowd starts to form outside. I know if Trump was still up in there by the time the crowd showed up. A bus boy named Richie no Tar told the BBC years later, quote, no one remembered him being there the first night. He was a non entity. He was never on the dance floor.
Well, I can't imagine him dancing. I mean, I know he's known for dancing now, but I couldn't imagine it.
Then he did eventually become a regular and trying to insert himself, like into any semblance of any kind of New York society established or friend. It makes sense he's in there.
He's been shhorn for a while, right, And.
Then there's a later connection you'll see anyway, the opening, so traffic stopped on fifty fourth Street. Really so many people were lined up to get in. One of the people who were stuck in traffic trying to get to the club and just couldn't get there, Frank Sinatra sor.
My man Blue Eyes himself.
He's like Warren Batty.
That makes sense.
But here's the thing. Warren Batty and actually Henry Winkler. They both got to the door, but they didn't get in. What they could they didn't get in. Warren Batty didn't get in, and the Fonds.
I get that he's like a Yale actor when he's not wearing the jacket, but I mean, Warren Baty's Warren Baty out all the time.
He let Warren Bady in, Margot Hemingway and.
Share, Okay, that makes sense.
Loving designers, I'm guessing yes, Dolly Parton, Andy Warhol, Robin Leach Kissinger, I figured inside. Robin Leach, later host of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. He was a correspondent for CNN, and he brought a date. Date was Brookshields, who happened to be eleven years old at the time.
I was really hoping, you're gonna say, like Grace Jones, like I was waiting for like a fun well.
A couple of weeks after the opening, Halston calls the club and like, things have been kind of slow after it opened, but he wanted to have Bianca Jagger's birthday parties.
Oh yeah, on.
A Monday night, and they're like, that's not really a big club night. Like these are the coolest people wanting to have a super cool party, so they jump into action and it was it was exclusive. It was not the four thousand like.
The opening Jagger's birthday.
Only one hundred and fifty people were invited or allowed in, and the place was filled with white balloons. They went out and they got like as many white balloons as they could, And as Ian Schrager told Vanity Fair decades later, quote, Halston only had about one hundred and fifty people, the best people from Barishtakov to Jacqueline Bissett. Like it's just petty late seventies of that.
Also, I like how when he goes to pick two people they have the same letter their last name, from Barishakov to Basset.
Everyone his last name started with b Zarin. Were you there?
No, I was actually an Angola.
I see that makes sense. The prison, according to Rolling Stone, quote one of the bartenders donned a diaper and popped out of a cake. But the highlight of the evening occurred around midnight, when a white steed was let out from behind a stage curtain by a nude couple slathered in shimmering paint and sparkles. The birthday girl took the place of honor astride the horse, which trotted across the
dance floor while the camera's greedily snapped seriously. So that became this iconic moment of glamour and excess for the club and the disco. Grazia magazine described the club as such, quote Studio fifty four was a phantasmagorical dreamscape, teetering always
between a dream come true and a nightmare. Throughout the course of any given evening, A giant anthropomorphized crescent moon with a coke spoon pressed to its nose and eyes flashing red, hovered over the room like a Peruvian flake dayusic Machinah wow, it's like an elevated Stefan sketch.
Yes, exactly.
So getting in wasn't easy, as I've said, apparently just getting in at all was a status symbol. It usually was like seven or eight bucks to get in. But you can pay for this annual membership and exchange for discounted tickets. Tickets will cost more on the weekends and then like even more on nights when there were performances.
Were they like picking do you know if they were picking people like by your fashion, like they're standing.
Yeah, that's what I'm gonna get to so. Andy Warhol famously said, quote, the key of the success of Studio fifty four is that it's a dictatorship at the door and a democracy on the dance floor. So see Rubelle, he's the dictator. He would like pull this step stool outside and you'd stand on it and you'd pick people out of the crowd. Totally subjective, like you know if if you had the vibe, you go in and otherwise you're on the sidewalk.
Sorry mister.
Yeah, And so like this doorman Mark Bennechy told the Entertainment quote, we had the kid who worked at McDonald's next to some movie star or some superstar model, whether they were dressed in a festive way, or they were interesting, high energy, danced well or socialite, celebrity model. You had to bring something to the table interesting.
So I imagine there's actually a lot of good dancing.
Oh, amazing dancing. Amazing dance. Now let's think about that dancing. Take a break, listen to some have some disco biscuits, and when we get back, we're gonna go right back into the club. Zara, I'm telling you, why slow you down? The disco biscuits. You'll sound like me. What did I take? You took the old?
Is something under the sink?
I thought, that's our keeper's friend. Okay, So we're talking about how hard it is to get into the club. Some people they didn't give up easily, like they would try new outfits, switch up their hairstyle, and go back. Actress Jade Barrymore, mother of Drew, who first went to the club at age four, but she was at the later iteration of the club when she was eleven and
a coke user. She was a regular at that club. Huh, said Jade, the mom said of the crazy desire to get in quote people were waiting in lines with the most fantastic costumes on, each one trying to outdo the other one so they could be pointed to and get in. So yeah, meanwhile, you got your kid there, Okay, I.
Would have fun getting dressed for one year.
At Halloween, two women they were inspired by the Bianca Jagger things sitting on a horse. They rented a horse and they rode up to the doors in it. They were nude. Yeah, the doorman let the horse in but made them stay outside. A lot of their hitters didn't get it. Aside from Henry Winkler, there are two good examples.
One time the President of Cyprus was turned He was turned away because the doorman misunderstood him and thought he was the President of Cypress Hills Cemetery presidents brothers, so there's a big difference. Another time, one of Saudi, the King Khalid, one of his sons, was turned away, and so the Saudi embassy in the US wrote a letter to the club and said, please do not reject the prince again.
You're hurting his feelings. I have ah, we're gonna have to buy the colr.
So some people got mad and actually like shot at the club from outside. Yeah, but and when they didn't get entry. Yeah. But others they bangers. Really do you know that band's chic with mel Rogers. So he and his bandmate Bernard Edwards, they're trying to get into Studio fifty four one night and not just like they weren't just looking to dance.
Right.
It was New Year's Eve nineteen seventy seven. Nile Rogers told sound on sound quote, we were invited to meet with Grace Jones at studio. She's coming. She wanted to interview us about recording her next album. At that time, our music was fairly popular. Dance Dance Dance was a big hit, but Grace Jones didn't leave our name at the door, and the doorman wouldn't let us in. We stood there as long as we could take it until our feet were finally just way too cold. We were
really totally dejected. We felt horrible. So they go back to Nile's apartment. Quote We grabbed a couple of bottles of champagne from the corner liquor store, and then we went back to my place, plugged in our instruments and started jamming. We were just yelling obscenities. Studio fifty four, come go off, those scumbags them, and we were laughing. We were entertaining the hell out of ourselves. We had a blast, and finally it hit Bernard. He said, hey, no,
what you're playing sounds really good. They had this amazing song that they'd written called GoF, but that wouldn't get them on the radio, so they changed the title and lyrics to Freak Off and then to the better sounding freak Out a freak Out, so they released as freak in September of nineteen seventy eight. It was their first
number one, biggest hit gone. And so you have like all these people, these celebrities we've talked about, but there are regular people there too, and they just wanted to dance, Saren. They had to be interesting or beautiful to get in.
Sure.
The club was known mostly though for celebrities, so you had like the regular folks, but it was just everything was about the celebs. Among those who went, John Belushi, David Bowie, Elton, John, Jackie Kennedy, On Nasais, Wow, earth a kid of course, Leonard Bernstein, Yes, party Share, Salmond or Dolly of course, Jackson, you're Pal, Rick James, Robin Williams, Liz Taylor, I.
Like all these kids, Bella a, whoa, that's just progressive.
Wow, Okay, Sylvester Stillo, Tina Turner, Rick Flair, whoa, Roy Cohen, Alvin Klein, oh Wowler, John Lennon, Truman, Capoti, al Pacino, Tom Ford and even Betty Ford.
Betty and Wow.
And then there was Truman being like kind of bitchy sitting there studio amazing. There's also disco Sally She was a seventy seven year old widow who was a regular dancer there. She's a great dancer and everyone loved her. Was like, oh yeah, Alec Baldwin was there, but it was because he worked as a waiter. Really yeah, yeah.
Did you ever wear the diaper?
He always just wore he wore a diaper. He's still to this day. Where's a diaper? The antics were insane. So one New Year's Even, event planner for the club brought in four tons of glitter. Oh no, for the guests to dance on.
Oh god, are they still getting the glitter out of people's outfit?
Ian Schrager said, quote, you felt like you were standing on stardust. People got the glitter in their hair and their socks. You would see it in people's homes six months later and you knew they'd been at Studio fifty four on New Year's Is.
There glitter in this cocaine? Were you a Studio fifty four on New Year's Well?
And again, okay, so the cocaine, Like you can imagine when you get drugs and glamour and late nights in the hospitality industry, there's hanky business. Yeahan think So remember how the initial opening of the club that was delayed due to no liquor license huh, Well, they didn't get it.
They never got it.
No, every day they kept applying for a caterers permit, like a one day caterers every single day, every single day, obviously exploiting the law.
And they just kept Yeah, they sent a guy down the office nine in the morning and they're.
Like, this isn't really like a wedding reception or like, you know, a family reunion. That you're like, fine. They also they didn't have a certificate of occupancy and they also didn't have a public assembly license.
Oh so wow.
Yeah, so since they turned a lot of people away and bruised a lot of egos, it comes as no surprise that someone tipped off the authorities about their lack of paperwork.
The fire codes are being violated.
So nineteen seventy seven, the New York State Liquor Authority rated the club for selling liquor without a license. No worries. The club still open that night and they just serve fruit, juice and soda instead of liquor.
Give it time, it'll turn into rugs.
They're like, we've got a bag of kludes here.
No one really wants maybe some champagne.
I guess they kept serving non alcoholic drinks until the New York Supreme Court ordered the Liquor Authority to grant them a liquor license, and the authorities chairman complied but objected to it and said that the judge was swayed by this Studio fifty four's fancy clientele. So Schrager he also applied for a cabaret license from the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs.
I think Jackie Oo got on the phone and she's like, look, I.
Have to be there, and I need a good gin gimblet if I'm going to be sitting there. So the cabaret license that allows you to run an establishment with booze and with entertainment, and so they tried to get one and it was stalled out for like a year. And New York has really weird cabaret license.
They're an arcane and they actually kind of powerful, and they.
Were used for a very long time to manipulate and like redline and that kind of stuff.
Don't try to be a jazz musician in the sixties in New York.
So they stalled it out, went on for more than of the year. But part of it wasn't really intentional because the city at the time only had three cabaret inspectors, so there's this huge existing log jam. They can't be everywhere, and people generally didn't get too worked up about it because, like the fine was like twenty bucks, so they're like,
find me, who cares. When they asked about it, though, like the press asked, the Department of Consumer Affairs said that the application wasn't approved because of fire code violations. Of course, so then you know, reporters go to the fire department, which once they're like, I can't talk about it, okay, whatever. So it wasn't just the city and State of New York on their case. August seventy eight, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ascat OH sued Rubel and Schrager.
They said that the guys hadn't paid licensing fees for six performances that ASKAP had staged at Studio fifty four earlier in the year. The club went ahead, They're like, fine, we'll get our askab license and they took care of that. But then the National Labor Relations Board came calling some workers said that they were unfair labor practices. Basically, the club was high profile, irritated a lot of people, so they became a target. But then the real trouble began.
What's the real Steve Rubell, he was profiled in New York Magazine in nineteen seventy seven the writer Dan Dorfman. He estimated in the article that the club was bringing in about three point eight million dollars by the end of nineteen seventy eight.
I know his work from later on. We did his videos on golf Dorfund Dolph on Golf.
That is a foundational film.
I mean, it's really incredible stuff. I can't believe he jumped from He was actually, you know, like a major player in you know, just not just New York Magazine, but later on in sports. I mean, the guy he can do anything. This Dorphann, I'm.
Telling ehs cases.
Oh wait, I'm being told that was a different Doorphan.
No, It's okay, keep going. So the please note though, that if he's saying they make three point eight million a year in nineteen seventy seven, they only paid eight thousand in taxes, which is kind of how it works now for corporations anyway. But Ubelle said the article quote, this is rebel. The owner the profits are astronomical. Only the mafia does better. And then he also said it's a cash business, and you have to worry about the I R S. I don't want them to know everything.
So the I R S is like, we'd like to know everything, please, we have a new magazine subscription. Luckily, a disgruntled ex employee named Donald Moon had plenty to say. So some say that Moon had tax problems and he reported Studio fifty four to the I R S in exchange for leniency. Others were like, no, he was just angry because they didn't give him a promotion. They didn't give them a raise.
I doubt the IRS gives you leniency. Have like gish.
So he got in touch with the I R S and he told him that Rebel and Trader were reporting only some of their revenue to the I R S is taxable income, keeping the rest without paying taxes on it. They were also storing coke in the basement. The I R S is, it's like, that's our business. Tell me more, zaren close your eye. Oh, I want you to picture it. Yeah, it's December fourteenth, nineteen seventy eight, and you are an
IRS investigator. Oh no, you and thirty other agents have been assigned to raid the business at two two four West fifty fourth Street. Everyone knows this as Studio fifty four. Your sister tried to go dancing there once. She told you about how she and her friends got all dawled up and waited in line, only to be completely ignored by the guy at the door. You aren't a disco guy, You're more in a chamber music. You're excited to be there, though for a few reasons. This is a major bust.
To be sure, all eyes on you, guys. Everyone's keyed up. This is a notorious place with tons of celebrities coming and going, and you can't wait to tell your sister what it's like inside. Even with the lights on the bubble machines off, the whole crew has been joking about the club and what they might find inside. You also get to sport your new IRS windbreaker today. It's so official and you feel so good and confident when you wear it. The clothes make the man, they say so
the lead investigators. They've already made entrance, showing the search warrant to the club owner's lawyer, Roy Kohane. You take a look at the guy and he gives you the major creeps. Your blood runs cold. It's also cold outside. Maybe that's it. So you and other agents you're standing out on West fifty fourth waiting for the signal to enter and begin the search. You rub your hands together for warmth and watch your breath condense and dance on
the sharp winter air. The windbreaker looks super cool, but it doesn't keep you warm. Your boss gives you the wave of the hand and you make your way inside this cavernous building. It looks so strange to be in a nightclub during the day. Your uncle owned a bar out on Long Island, and you remember as a team going to help him clean up a couple of times. Seeing a dive in the light is like catching your elderly neighbor in the news. It's intrusive for you both.
It's unsettling, maybe a little haunting, but it's real life. So you're direct did toward the club's office and you begin your search. Other agents swarmed the desks, opening drawers and going through paper and office of themera. One of the owners of the club, Ian Schrager. He walks in carrying a briefcase. Your coworker tells him put it on the ground. He does, and you go over and pick it up. Inside are some random documents, as well as
an envelope containing five one ounce packets of cocaine. You lift it up and show everyone in the room. Laughter rings out as you nod to the New York Police officers standing at each side of the door. They cuffed the dude and haul them away. More laughter. As papers shuffle and boxes get moved about, you find yourself standing in the middle of the room, watching the commotion. You look up at the ceiling, taking it all in. Is that glitter? Then you spot something. The ceiling tile seems
a bit of skew. You follow your instinct and drag a small step stool over. It's metal lakes screeping against the tile floor. You climb the steps and reach up to the ceiling tile in question. You lift it slightly and move it gently to the side. There's a little resistance. What could be up there? You wonder, maybe a small person, a panda. This place is unpredictable. You give the title a little more of a shove, and then something tumbles out and kitchen in the head, then another, then another.
Garbage bags You poke it one with your shoe. It feels like paper in there. You bend down and open up one of the bags. It's cash, all cash, same with the other one. There's also a ledger book and a bag of coeludes. You open the ledger and leave through the pages. You start to laugh and everyone looks over at you. Right there in the ledger book there's a column. The title of that column is skim. They kept meticulous records of their crimes, and now you've got them dead to rights.
They kept a skim column.
A skim column. There was more than two and a half million dollars in the ceiling of the office. Cool. Yeah, and that's basically sixty percent of their receipts for the past two years. So another half.
Million there in the bags.
Well, I had another half mill spread around, part of it in the safety deposit box, and then they had like personal safes. But yeah, that's the bank and the ceiling. The ledger had, as I said, explicit evidence of doctored records and unreported cash transactions. They may have well put
like crimes on the outside of the lawn below. So Schrager's lawyer did try to get some of the charges lesson by telling the Feds that Hamilton Jordan, chief of staff for President Jimmy Carter, had used cocaine in the club's basement. And the Feds were like, whatever, snitch, we don't care. That means nothing to do es. So then June of nineteen seventy nine, Rebell and Schreeger they're charged
with tax evasion, obstruction of justice, conspiracy. Prosecutors said that by failing to report over two point five million in income, they defrauded the federal government of hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. So let's take a break. When we come back, we'll find out how the trial went for these two. Okay, So the raid of Studio fifty four, that was December nineteen seventy eight. A few months before that, in August of nineteen seventy eight, the club hosted Andy
Warhol's fiftieth birthday wow. Rubel gave Andy Warhol a roll of five thousand free drink tickets to hand out to his pals. Five thousand.
I don't know how you do that.
And then he also gave him a silver garbage can, and in that can were one thousand brand new dollar bills.
Oh, not what I thought it was going to be.
In the tarms can. I'll have to admit it was may or may not be a live turtle. So Warhol he's thrilled. He's just like, I love this, he told the screends. He's like, this is the best present I've ever been given, like he says, in all sincerity to all these people, and everyone's just like partying and celebrating. And some of his pals lifted the can over his head like a full cooler a gatorade and dumped it
over him and cheers, whoops, go up. He freaks out and just like scrambles around to gather up all the money. He didn't want anyone taking it. Yeah, Andy Warh.
They dumped the money, and then all of a sudden, he's the first one on the ground scooping it up like a honey badger.
Yeah, don't touch it. That's my birthday present. I tell you all this because when the Feds raided the office, they found all sorts of, like I said, the ledgers with all the details. And one of the ledgers was a list of gifts given to celebrity friends and clients. And so New York Magazine got a hold of the list in November of seventy nine, and they published it.
And that's when Andy Warhol learned that his garbage can of cash only had eight hundred dollars in ones in it, not a thousand, and his associate Bob Colacello wrote in his memoir quote, Andy's first reaction was, you mean they told me there was one thousand dollars in there and it was only eight hundred dollars. I knew I should have counted it. Wow with that, Yeah, So in light of all the like detailed evidence, why.
Would he why would it matter? Why would he need that extra two hundred dollars? Why?
I guess they my money is like messing with my mind by emotions. So in light of all the like evidence that they have laid out and like left this incriminating evidence on a platter, they pleaded guilty. Yeah. They wanted to avoid a trial, that.
Yeah.
So January of nineteen eighty they were each sentenced to four years in federal prison on two counts of income tax evasion. They got charged with skimming two and a half million, defrauding the government of like four hundred thousand. During their sentencing, the judge chastise them for flouting the law and being so completely motivated by greed, Like, duh,
that's why people wind up in court anyway. February nineteen eighty, just before they're set to go serve their time, Rubel and Schrager, they threw one last epic party at Studio fifty four. Oh wow, and they called it the end of modern day gomorrah.
I bet they were not wrong.
Well, this was smaller than most nights. There are almost two thousand people there.
But it's very much the end of an era.
Oh completely. They had the regulars, the classics, Richard gear Halston, Reggie Jackson, Yes, mister October, Mister October represent Andy Warhol. Of course, he's like he wants his money's worth. Florida Loft, Sylvester Saloon, Diana Ross, she does set. Liza Minelli was there.
Oh, of course, I think he lived there on the floor. Just wake up in the learning, asked for orange juice.
She performed New York, New York.
Is that not a peak of I'm a big Liz fan.
Yeah? But Liza Minelli performing New York, New York in Studio fifty.
Night.
Yeah. Seen, but not to be outdone, Steve Rebel. He puts on a fedora and he belts out a rousing rendition of Sinatra's My Way. I don't know, I didn't know. They played that song on the sound system like a bunch of different times. It would come on like every fifth song or whatever. The other one that they played over and over is Gloria Gators, I will survive, Okay, hell yeah, great song Disco Nirvana where they are so
Steve Rebel. He gives this like serious, tear filled speech to the crowd while standing on this platform that's like rotating slow. It was like hanging above the dance floor, this elevated platform, and he's apparently just like coked to the gills, which isn't really surprising. Somehow he eats. Someone who was there told report quote Bianca Jagger was hugging him and he was saying, I love you people. I don't know what I'm gonna do without studio, and everyone
was crying and weeping. New York Post columnist Jack Martin wrote of Rubel quote, he was sort of spaced out. He had accepted it. It was a sad going away party, but we were laughing and trying to have fun. We were with him literally until he took a car to go home and meet the authorities.
Oh so that's the way to go out though a big, big party with your friends, and in the morning you get turned over.
To the exactly and head off to a federal presents frush fish. So that they were sent to three and a half years, but each of them only did thirteen months before getting paroled. Okay, so while Rubel and Schrager were in the can the world whole world changed everything. Well, they tried to keep the club running, but like Steake, get faded and they got eleven year old Drew Barrymore
to coke off the tables come on. So the pair had intended to convert the club to like more rock music friendly, as disco was starting to become a little passe Regan's America, but they never got the chance, and the club eventually shuddered in nineteen eighty six. Like for good, Like I said, Rebel and Schrager, they did their time. They got out and got back into business, the hotel
business this time. Oh so they bought this rundown place on West forty sixth Street at eighth Avenue called the Paramount, and they totally refurbished. It made it super super hit, and then they had a hit on their hands. They just you know, it was amazing. They basically created the modern boutique hotel.
Oh interesting.
So it's a Shei hotel that's not just small and unchained, like but fashionable. Is like a strong aesthetic.
Oh, it's like the places you stay versus where I still I don't like.
I don't.
Don't you like nice hotels?
I don't. I like nice hotels, but it like you don't like these boutique kinds, boutique coachels. Oh I feel I feel like I'm not cool enough to be in there. Like I walk in to check in and they kind of like look me up and down.
They're like, oh jeez, okay, you're you're wearing Adidas. Yeah, I don't know, I'm just being out.
They're like, your your whole You're aesthetic is what is what? Disheveled? Man?
You're wearing track pants?
Like, just I get uncomfortable. I like, you know, I like nice things, but I'm not.
But you don't want to be around the people who only.
Like that's not cool enough for some of these things.
Oh interesting, I'll argue with those people on your behalf.
You are cool, thank you so much. They're wrong, Elizabeth does this TV get law and Order? They're like, you need to leave.
Do you have the Law and Order channel?
They just look at me and they go to where's where's the ritz? So uh Rubelle. He passed away from complications of AIDS in nineteen eighty nine, which, like, you know, that's that was the time. Oh yeah, very much of the era for the When I was reading about it, yeah, like he tried to kind of pass like staying in the closet.
Yeah, coming out of the disco seventies. I mean this took out a lot.
Of God do you think of Yeah, that this absolute destruction. And I don't know, when I was just reading about it, it really hit me, like you know, the law and also how far we've come in terms of people like science wise, like oh my god, like you know, live saved, but also just like people being able to be themselves.
I don't know, it was all having him.
Like hearing about him like living in secret and not being able to tell anybody being so sick made me sad. Anyway. Schreeger he kept on chegging. He developed top of the line hotels like the Royalton, the Madrian, Grammercy Park. Yeah, he currently heads up the very Fashionable Public Hotels brand. In twenty seventeen, he reached out to the guy who locked him up in the first place, Southern District of New York's assistant US Attorney, Peter so Sudler.
Okay, he's like, beep Peter.
So he called Sudler because he wanted a pardon. Really, he wanted to clear his name and not have a legacy as a felon. Don't commit a crime, my guy, and then you will be a felon. Well Sudler was like, you know what, you deserve a pardon because you've done your time, you've paid your fine, and you make a lot of money. You're very successful. It pays to have money. So it was in twenty seventeen that President Barack Obama pardon Shreger is like all presidents love celebrities.
Right, yes, and money freeze.
They love them. And you know so Ian Schrager gets to reinvent himself. So here we have this intersection between talent and fame, crime accountability. Like a chic, fashionable, exclusive atmosphere inspires something in people, whether it's like a desire to be part of it or a need to bring it down good point, you know what I mean? Oh yeah, so thank you.
It's so triggering this club.
I just want to go stand in my truth in the middle of it. So the Feds they used Studio fifty four is a cautionary tale to like celebrity nightclubs that thought they could be in the spotlight but like skirt the law because of it. And for most of us though, the place just lives on is the epitome of seventies New York disco excess, totally dazzling parties, huge cultural impact.
Yeah, definitely, definitely disco decadence.
And so much glitters there.
I think I got some in my outfit.
Just tearing the story about it. Yeah, I can feel what I would love to hear your takeaway on this.
What's rather ridiculous? Are you ready?
Yeah?
I think it would have been fun to actually hang out with these people, even though almost everything you describe sounds obnoxious when you start hearing it, like, Okay, you got Robin Williams on cocaine with like, you know, you pick another three celebrities or coin on cocaine and they're all like having a dance off around a bunch of people who are trying to be impressive. I'm like, okay, and Andy Warhol's on the ground grabbing it many Yeah, okay,
that'd probably be no fun. But yet I would love to.
Love the idea of I love hearing the stories of it.
Yeah, it was a different America, so decadent, weird.
If you yourself in it, yes, i'd be like I need to go home. No, exactly, you can't with these.
People, Like I gotta get a headache just hearing about it.
But I love the stories.
Yeah, and somehow I'm still drawn to it, like I want to be somewhere where, like let's be a jacker, you.
Know what I mean. I want to hear have those moments because that picture of her on the horse is that's incredible.
Yeah, you know what would and the people by the way, the people being turned away and the horse coming in.
How so you got two nicked ladies standing there all covered in glittery? Can we talk to about Like I don't know if there was a saddle on the horse.
I'm figuring it was unsaddled.
Yeah, so you're saddled with glitter, But its hair is done.
It's main is looking good.
The hygiene issues alone do not.
Do you how much cocaine a horse can do with those nostrils.
Calling peta, So I think what I need is aside from a disco. Now is a talk back day?
Hell yeah, god, oh god, he went ge.
Say Ridiculous Crime. My name is Amanda and I'm calling out on behalf of my client and dog Sherlock Bones. He seeks an opportunity to be your next intern. This rude, dude, caper loving canine has solved many notable cases including why is dinner two minutes late? Where did that squirrel go? Who at this party? Is most likely to give me treat? He's ready to sniff out the truth or bury the latest mashup. Thanks for the show, keep up the great work.
Thank you.
Sherlock Bones is a little overqualified for our interns.
Made rosy nervous. Our new intern just ran out of the room.
Yeah, oh boy. We may have to come up with a position for sure.
Like.
May leader and you want this kind of intern?
Oh, thank you for that. This that's it for today. You can find us online at Ridiculous Crime dot com, which is probably one of the Internet's most secure websites. Interesting, Yeah, that's what I read.
Yeah on as a Polka dot hacker, I can say I agree.
I was reading secure website weekly and every day we're on page two most Secure. I'm like, did it again? Good job. We're also on Instagram and blue Sky and you can email us at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. And then, of course, as I always say, the most important thing is to leave a top back on the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by inventor of
the quelud Dave Kusten, starring Annals Rutger as Chooting. Research is by Glittery Disco Angel Marissa Brown and Devilish dance Floor Lothario Alex French. The theme song is by Studio fifty four house band members Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair
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