The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night [Paperback]

This book is an excellent in-depth analysis of the New York City Nightworld from the disco-elite 1970s into the Club-Kids of the 1990s. The title might mislead readers into thinking this is "The Studio 54 story." This book does not focus solely on the rise and fall of Studio 54. Anthony Haden-Guest focuses on the rise and fall of the entire NYC nightclub scene, with Studio 54's Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager taking center stage.

If you are looking for a book that mainly emphasizes the celebrities, the glitz, and wild parties in Studio 54, this book may not be your cup of tea. These topics are covered, but the book emphasizes the chaotic, competitive ---and often cutthroat--- business nature of nightclubs. In doing so, Haden-Guest does a great and even job of illustrating Nightworld's sharp businessmen, the starry-eyed dreamers, the junkies, the megalomaniacs, the doormen, and the party-goers. You read the frightening ups & downs of the business players, and their mad scrambles to try and duplicate the success of Studio 54. And often, some of these key players are all the abovementioned items rolled up into one.

I was surprised to read just how unstable the nightclub business was during this "Boom" period. There was no club that matched Studio 54's once-in-a-century money making machine. But even its best competitors found numerous obstacles in running a successful night-scene, and very few lasted more than two years. You will read about the fickle Nightworld party-goers, how they tired quickly of even the hottest parties, eventually abandoning the hot club in hopes of a newer, hotter nightspot.

It is equally astounding to see how many would be entrepreneurs sought funding to duplicate Studio 54's achievements; some well equipped, others incompetent. There are the brief triumphs of Maurice Brahms, the drive of Arthur Weinstein, the mixed success of Scotty Taylor, and the sad story of Uva Hardin, the volatile dreamer that never even got a club off the ground.

You do meet the charismatic characters that inhabited Studio 54 and the surrounding clubs, including Bianca Jagger, drug runner Tom Sullivan, Mark Benecke (probably the only guy who became famous for being a club doorman), club goer Tinkerbelle, Carmen D'Alessio, legendary attorney Roy Cohn, Rudolf and His Club Kids, and Halston. The author does not merely tell you the cool stories about their doings, he illustrates how they shaped Nightworld and/or how Nightworld shaped (and sometime damaged) them.

Haden-Guest paces the story of Rubell and Schrager's unexpected success very well. Their financial boom was so intense and happened so fast that both men failed to see the potential fallout. Like many club owners, they skimmed money, only Rubell and Schrager skimmed mountains more than the average club owner, and practically egged on the IRS to investigate them. The out of control egos, the delusion of being untouchable, is all too evident in this tale. The author also illustrates the irony in Studio 54's downfall, how if Rubell and Schrager reeled in their egos just a little bit, there is a chance the Saga of Studio 54 would be an ongoing success story today.

If I could point to the one thing that I enjoyed most about The Last Party, it would be the treatment of Steve Rubell. I have seen numerous articles and documentaries of the nightclub phenomenon that paints Rubell as an eccentric visionary, a maverick, a madman? and not much else. Haden-Guest does show us the manic & drugging Rubell, but we get a keen look at the soul behind the "human perpetual-motion machine." Especially moving was that after numerous whirlwind career ups-&-downs and "Hello & G'bye" sexual encounters, Rubell, in the last years of his life, found love with Bill Hamilton.

If you are looking for a book on the glitz of Studio 54, a good source is the VH1 Behind the Music documentary aired around 1996-97. If you want an insightful look into the complex and unpredictable nature of the Nightworld phenomenon, this is the book for you.

To disagree with some of the other readers' commments, I found the politics of the nightclub owners to be more interesting than reading about the gossip of any celebrity that passed through (Studio 54, Xenon, Palladium, The World, Area, Limelight, etc.). Mr. Haden-Guest does a good job of creating the atmosphere of how a club functions, wins and loses.

But one must know that this book revolves around the Manhattan club scene from the 1970s to the 1990s. And, while half of the book is about Studio 54, the other is taken up by the stories of those owners and clubs that followed. I found it interesting, but I can understand it if another may not.

My only complaints are: I bought this book last June (1998), just after it was published; it was the first printing and it contained a number of copy editing errors. More pictures of Studio 54 should have been included too.

In sum, I do not think there is a more detailed account of Studio 54 in print anywhere -- and that is where the value of this book comes in.

I was completely mesmerized as I read Guest's book on the Studio 54 scene. As a 24 year old graduate student and clubber familiar only to the Hollywood scene of the last 6 years, I am keenly aware that a lot went on before my time that was thrilling and cutting edge. As I read about all of the pretension and attitude of the many clubgoers and promoters, I laughed, recognizing with familiarity, the highs from wearing outrageous and eye-catching clothes, dancing deliriously into the early hours of the morning, the status of guest-lists and drink tickets, and finally the feelings of being transfixed to a dream world where consequences and sanity don't exist. The book provided me with insight into a time when AIDS wasn't heard of and drugs were taken liberally without abandon. The climate of today's club scene has its occassional magic, but for the most part, it is watered down and drab. I have been able to enjoy the dark theatrics of the gothic scene and the reckless glitter rock scene at Cherry in West Hollywood on Friday nights. Reading about Studio 54 brought back the feelings of delight and awe that I experienced when I attended my first gothic club at the age of 18. It's something new and involves uncharted territory for those of us that weren't old enough to experience disco as it was happening. Having interviewed over 100 clubbers for a book I am currently trying to publish, I appreciated the insights into the minds of personalities of the scene 20 years ago. While responsibility and ugly reality is a more common denominator today, the thing that never seems to change is the tenacity and commitment of the night people to pursue glitter dreams and thrive on those highs that nightclubs can deliver. The vignette's and quotes are so interesting that I could envision myself actually reading the book a second time.