There has been much said about the iconic NYC nightclub Studio 54. From celebrity shenanigans to resident denizen debauchery, the famed club has been an endless source of fascination, with tall tales woven like tapestry throughout the annals of the club’s history.
Such hot gossip has been exhausted and entertained for decades at this point. Instead, today, we’ll examine the history of the legendary building itself, which over the many decades, has worn many masks.
Before it was ever called Studio 54, the building served as everything from an opera house to a movie theater and even a soundstage for CBS. It changed with the times, serving in whatever capacity it was called on for. Throughout it all was a common thread: an intense love for the arts.
Early Beginnings: Not Another Opera House
The story of Studio 54 traces back to 1927 with the construction of the Gallo Opera House at 254 West 54th Street in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.
Around 200 opera houses and theaters already dotted NYC when Italian born opera impressario, Fortune Gallo leased the site and commissioned his own 1,400 seat theater for the hefty sum of $2 million. Gallo, who owned the San Carlo Grand Opera Company, planned to use the space to host his company’s performances and rent it out to other productions as well.
Even then in its infancy, the future site of Studio 54 was a hole of wonderful creative excess. Plans called for lounges and promenades across all three stories, as well as an opera museum below the primary floors. The space hosted ballets, musicals and of course, opera.
Government Intervention and the Great Depression
The opera house foreclosed following the stock market crash of 1929 and in 1930 the theater was renamed the New Yorker Theater and continued to offer similar fare in the way of dance retails and theater productions. However, the rising Great Depression meant ticket sales were low and the theater changed hands many times.
It was bought by Bowery Savings Bank and was leased to Continental Music Halls who envisioned a nightclub called Casino de Paree. The company spent $200,000 in renovations. This was one of an increasing handful of theaters that transitioned to nightclubs during these changing times.
The lower price of entry (just $1 or $2) provided an accessible alternative to higher priced Broadway musicals. Variety wrote in an article the nightclub “just about satisfies the gastronomic, bibulous, and entertainment needs of any mortal.”
The Casino closed suddenly in 1935, eventually leading to the Federal government stepping in with the Work Project Administration’s (WPA) Federal Music Project. The WPA was a New Deal era agency meant to provide jobs and carry out public works projects which also included the arts and opera.
The Federal Music Project in particular sought to provide low cost entertainment to the public and also employed around 16,000 musicians around the country by 1936.They renewed the lease for a handful of years up until the 1940s.
Setting up the Silver Screen and Soundstages
The 1940s saw RCA and NBC installing huge theater screens and projectors at 254 West 54th Street. This paved the way for CBS who acquired the property a year later to use as a radio soundstage.
By 1949, the building was converted for television and became CBS-TV Studio 52. The studio was one of seven that CBS operated in NYC. At the time, several Broadway theaters had actually been converted to TV studios due to a lack of studio space in the city.
Studio 52 was the set for a number of well known TV shows including Password, What’s My Line?, The $64,000 Question, I’ve Got a Secret, and Captain Kangaroo among others. The public could also purchase tickets to attend live tapings of their favorite shows. After a good 20-year run, CBS moved its broadcast operations in 1976 and placed the theater for sale ushering in the era of the nightclubs.
Nightclubs: It’s Now or Never
In 1976, German model Uva Harden wanted to open an NYC nightclub and eyed the CBS spot. He initially envisioned it being called “The Studio,” which was later amended to Studio 54, due to the building location on 54th street.
Continued delays forced Harden out of the picture leaving other partners and entrepreneurs Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager in charge. They spent around $400,000 to convert the theater into a nightclub hiring numerous lighting and interior designers. The renovation involved the construction of a dance floor, a balcony, and a disco booth, as well as the addition of mirrors, light bars, and floating vinyl platforms.
Studio 54 officially opened on April 26, 1977. While it could fit around 2,500 people, over 4,000 people showed up resulting in many – including a few celebrities – getting turned away at the door, marking the beginning of Studio 54 as an elite status symbol with a storied history. The club was frequently laden with celebrities of all sorts including Andy Warhol, Cher, and Mick Jagger.
After a massively successful first year of opening, the club closed for repairs as the owners spent an additional $500,000 on renovation. Further renovations continued to add to the club mystic. In 1978, there was a private dance floor as well as a VIP room in the basement, which could only be accessed by a hidden stairway.
Studio 54: the Sequel
The club took a drastic turn for the worse when Rubell and Schrager were arrested for tax evasion and plead guilty to the charges. The club remained open but was at risk of losing its liquor license.
Rubell and Schrager were each sentenced to three and a half years in prison in January 1980. With their last bit of freedom, The two men attended a final party on the night of February 2, 1980. The club closed down a month later after officially losing its liquor license as Rubell looked for buyers.
Restaurateur Mark Fleischman bought the place for $5 million and reopened it in 1981. Legendary NYC club owners Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper briefly were hired as Studio 54’s new managers before moving onto Danceteria just a few months later. Perhaps a sign of the time, Studio 54 began losing ground against a handful of newer disquoteques on the scene.
A Change of Face
By the end of the ’80s, paint was peeling and the club was in bad shape, literally and figuratively. Neil Cohen and John Scher, owners of the popular Ritz nightclub moved locations, bought Studio 54 and spent $2 million revamping the place adding fixed seating at orchestra level increasing capacity to 3,0000. This was a fairly successful endeavor as a rock club as the Ritz settled into its new location at Studio 54, hosting about 150 shows annually.
In July 1993, the Ritz announced it would close down and reopen as a topless bar and new partners CAT Entertainment spent $3 million renovating the theater operating as “Cabaret Royale” at Studio 54.
A Permanent Home
After a few more failed business endeavors, the nonprofit Roundabout Theatre Company began operating Studio 54 as a Broadway theater in 1998, officially branded as Roundabout Theatre at Studio 54.
The theater was sold for around $25 million and when first purchased, Roundabout spent over $1 million converting the former nightclub into a 950-seat theater, hosting the broadway musical Cabaret.
The sacred spot of Studio 54 has remained in the Roundabout Theatre’s hands to this day. For the 2025–2026 season, Studio 54 is to host the play Oedipus, then the musical The Rocky Horror Show.
While most of NYC famed music venues and nightclubs have unfortunately become bland apartments or nondescript buildings, Studio 54 is one of the special few that keeps on surviving through it all, like a sprout growing out of the crack of a concrete sidewalk.
Throughout its dozens of diverse and chaotic ventures, there was always a connective thread: a love and appreciation for arts, creativity and living life to the fullest.
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