Studio 54

The story

Before the velvet rope and the disco ball, this address housed a bankrupt opera house, a Depression-era nightclub called Casino de Paree, a federal music project, and a CBS television studio. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager opened Studio 54 on April 26, 1977, keeping the old theatrical and broadcasting fixtures in place while filling the room with celebrity guest lists, quixotic entry policies, and rampant drug use. Roundabout Theatre Company turned it into a Broadway house in 1998. The bones of every era it has survived are still inside the walls.